One Direction dropped their simple, black-and-white video for their Take Me Home single, "Little Things," last Friday. While the heartthrobs could have opted for a video with a story, instead they decided to make the video all about the band, alone in the studio, recording the track for their fans to hear.
Director Vaughan Arnell tells MTV News he didn't want to make it about anything more than that.
"When I first heard the track, the mix on it was so simple and so pure and you could hear all the qualities of the voices on the track, I just wanted to come up with something that when the viewer watched it, it was almost like sitting there listening to the boys sing the track," he shared about the clip, which dropped ahead of the album's November 13 release date.
"And I thought there are so many ways you can shoot a ballad," he continued. "And I thought the most pure way to do it was like if you were going back into the recording studio when they recorded it for the first time, to make it as uncontrived as possible and that you really got the qualities of their voice coming through without any other bullsh-- or effects in the way of it. I wanted to try and create something that was very pure."
While it may seem like a simple concept, the shoot itself was actually more complicated than Arnell or the guys in 1D could have anticipated.
"I think at the time of the idea they were [excited], but then when we came to shoot it I think it was one of the hardest things I've ever done," he shared. "Because we were in the studio for over twelve hours and I think just to sit there and kind of perform it over and over again because I was just trying to get different shots, different angles, different qualities. It was a really tough shoot because they had to keep their energy going and keep the vibe going. I think they liked it, but I think in the end it was a tough one just to sit there and keep interested. It was a simple idea, but a tough shoot."
As for the decision to go black and white, Arnell felt it best captured the essence of the Ed Sheeran-penned ballad.
"I think it was just purely for the quality, the pureness of the track. And I think sometimes when you get color involved, it sometimes taints. It can be too warm or too cold and I think black and white as an image can be pure and you kind of read more into it," he said. "In a way, it was stripping down everything to its bare minimum so you're just looking at the guys. We wanted to create something that gave it a timeless quality as well."
And, if when you're watching the guys sing the ballad, it feels like they are singing it right to you. Well, that was kind of the intention. "I think it's really nice when people read their own story into it. And, when you watch it, it's really like the guys are singing it to the viewer and nobody else," he said. "It's purely about the clarity of it. When you sit there watching it, it's almost like these little bits of eye contact [and] you really feel like the guys are singing it to you."
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