One Direction‘s “Best Song Ever” video is a feast for the eyes. Between the alter egos, that unforgettable dance sequence and the sheer anarchy, the spectacle of a clip certainly has something for everyone.
MTV News spoke to the director, Ben Winston, who not only broke down the video frame-by-frame, but also revealed some inside information about the making of the video.
Here’s a breakdown of the “Best Song Ever” video, by the numbers:
1 day, 2 hours: That’s the amount of time 1D spent on the Miami set of the video. Shot on June 12 and 13, the guys squeezed in filming in between dates on their Take Me Home tour.
8: That’s the number of hours combined the guys of 1D, specifically Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, spent in hair and makeup to transform into the alter egos.
5: Winston enlisted the help of five pros to make over the fivesome. It took two prosthetic pros, two traditional makeup folks to put the finishing touches on their disguises and one makeup pro to get the fellas ready for their close-ups without disguises.
1: Well, that’s the amount of fake chest prosthetics used. Who rocked it? Zayn, of course, who played the lovely Veronica.
5: The number of new accents. Considering the guys play Hollywood-based characters, they each had to fudge American accents to embody the roles.
1: That’s the number of hotel rooms in Mexico City used for dance rehearsals. The guys locked down a room for three hours. Louis took control of the rehearsals and even helped conceptualize some of the routine.
19,814,926… and counting: Since dropping on Monday, the video has amassed that many views and even managed to break a record. It is the current record-holder for the most number of views watched in the first 24 hours on Vevo. Sorry, Miley Cyrus!
10,900,000: That’s how many views the video reached in its first 24 hours.
16: That’s how many professional dancers the group enlisted for their epic dance sequence, which pays homage to some of the home-spun moves the guys have created over the years.
1… maybe: Perhaps that’s the number of “Tropic Thunder” references in the video. Winston says that the characters were inspired by “stereotypical characters” one might meet in La La Land. But, it’s hard not to look at Louis’ record executive and not think of Tom Cruise’s Les Grossman.
15: Over the course of the video, the fivesome get into a number of acts of destruction, ranging from trashing office spaces, knocking over desks, hitting one another and, yes, even doing some graffiti.
167: That’s how many seconds into the video when Harry gets flirty with Zayn’s Veronica. In fact, the two nearly kiss.
4: Spread out over the course of the video, four is the number of clips, including one lengthier around the globe-type sequence that cut to footage from their August 30 film release, “This Is Us.
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