How a band with no budget made the most watched video of the autumn in a single night.
The video is four minutes and eleven seconds long. It follows a singer down one street at night, past a noodle bar, a taxi rank and a karaoke sign, and it does not cut once.
It cost less than a second-hand car to make. It has been watched more than any other music video released this autumn.
The plan
The band had no budget for a studio and no label to ask. What they had was a friend with a camera on a shoulder rig and a street that stays lit until two.
They walked the route nine times in daylight with a stopwatch. Every doorway, puddle and kerb was given a line of the song.
"People think one take means loose," the director said. "It is the opposite. There is nowhere to hide a mistake, so you plan every metre."
The night
Filming started at eleven. The first usable take was the sixth. A delivery scooter ended the eleventh and a rain shower the fourteenth.
- Takes attempted: 19
- Takes completed without a stop: 4
- The one used: the last
- Crew, including the band: 9
The shopkeepers along the street were paid in advance to leave their signs on. Two of them appear in the background and have since been recognised by customers.
Afterwards
The band released the video on a Thursday with no announcement. By the weekend it had been shared by people with far larger followings than their own.
They have since been offered proper budgets by three labels. They say the next video will also be one take, on the grounds that they now know how.
The noodle bar has put a still from it in the window.
