Music Videos on a Budget Thanks to Big Brother

What do you do if you are a British indie band trying to make a music video on a budget? Well, if you are The Get Out Clause, you do this:

The Get Out Clause, an indie band out of England, came up with a ground breaking idea while trying to make a cheap music video. They set up in front of 80-100 close circuit TV cameras (security cameras) throughout Manchester, England and performed their single, “Paper.” After requesting the footage from the companies responsible for the cameras and many hours of editing, the result was what you see above.


There are over 4.2 million colsed circuit TV cameras around the UK and it is required that if there is a camera, it should be clear as to who owns the camera and who you can contact regarding its footage. Under their version of the Freedom of Information Act, you can request footage of yourself taken from any private security camera in the UK and the owner of the camera must provide you with a copy.

With this in mind, the band set up in front of these cameras, ranging from a cross walk, to a bank, to the back of a taxi, without a clue as to how they were framed, and proceeded to play their songs (usually playing at a fast speed and a slow speed at every camera so they had more footage to work with). They then peppered in hand held footage taken from their friends to see audience reaction and give the video a little bit more texture. Aside from their time shooting and editing the video, the cost was less than a couple hundred dollars, and if nothing else has provided them with a huge amount of publicity they would have never had otherwise.