Band "shoots" video by sending Data Protection Act requests to CCTVs that caught them performing

WillS sez, "The Get Out Clause, an unsigned Manchester band who could not afford a camera crew for their video, 'performed' in front of a load of CCTV cameras, requested the footage from the camera operators under the ~~Freedom of Information Act~~ Data Protection Act and then stitched the results together for their music video." Link (Thanks, WillS!)

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dustbuster7000

@ csbmonkey – Wow, people have started calling Austrians ‘Aussies’ now, that will get very confusing :)

As for the video, nice idea, not completely original, but then what is these days. Songs not much good though.
loox

probably inspired by the MANIFESTO FOR CCTV FILMMAKERS!
arkizzle

Have they not always been called “Aussies”?

MRXAVIA #19

Of course you can’t just send in a request for “me in london, please”, it was a joke, to highlight the question of “how much is a reasonable request”.

The fact is, that there are various CCTV operators in London, so you would have to know whether the camera you wanted was a city camera or a privately operated one, and then which company operated it.

Also, I wonder, how much footage (time / angles of same area) you could get for your tenner.
MeaningOfLife

I really like the concept of this but yeah, just like some have agreed, the song isn’t really that good. :(
Pipenta

Terribly clever. If the tight budget thing is true or no, better to spring for an editor/director than a camera crew, eh?

I was wondering if it was supplemented with some non-security camera video. Zooms could be added after the fact, but the resolution doesn’t seem to degrade much, so I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t know much about this. I’ve only done in on film, with an optical printer, like a million years ago.

But big points for concept here. The filmmaking kept me engaged and I watched/listened to the whole thing. Couldn’t say if the song was bad or good, because the genre, the sad white boy thing (Emo?), ain’t my cup of tea. The same way I couldn’t tell you if a country western piece was any good. Well, not unless it was Patsy Kline. I think we can all agree that these fellows are not the Patsy Klines of their particular niche.

I think this is a better portfolio piece for the director than the band.
ukcannonfodder

cool video, you sure it was the FOI, and not a subject access request under the data protection act cory?
mlennox

Ireland. Dublin. “The Frames – Revelate” – 1995

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKgopj64BZQ
mattxb

@JSG

“Pardon my stupidity, but is there a freedom of information act in Great Britain?”

Yes.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000036_en_1

(for England and Wales (and Northern Ireland))

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2002/asp_20020013_en_1

(for Scotland)
arkizzle

Wait, we can do that?

Is there a reasonable limit to how much you can ask for? Is it unreasonable to ask for all the footage you appear in? If you lived in london, that could be quite the request, and would keep the camera folks pretty busy for a while.

That’s what we should do. Everybody request ALL the footage, from ALL the city cameras you appear on. Tie that shit up.
Matt Brian

Fantastic idea, they must have had enough money to find a video editor though.
eAi

You mean Data Protection act, not FOI. FOI covers government data held about you. Data Protection covers any data anyone holds about you.
GTMoogle

Careful Arkizzle, you might just succeed in either convincing them to remove those rights if they’re abused, or at the very least clogging the pipes for people who have a good use for the system.
JSG

Pardon my stupidity, but is there a freedom of information act in Great Britain? I’d have to say that 35% of the video was shot using CCTV cams, the rest though looks like a camera crew and an editor had the rest of the video edited to look like CCTV.

It is still an interesting concept though the song is a little emo.
upso

fantastic concept. bummer the song is so horrid :(
Amplifier

Agent 86

Aargh! I can’t believe I missed that vital step:)
error404

ah, now here’s the thing, the footage would be from a fixed perspective, but there are several zooms.

Also there are quite obviously a film crew(however small) takingthe incidental parts.

Doesn’t make it bad, just not quite as lo-fi as it purports.
Doug Orleans

Reminds me of +/-’s video for Steal the Blueprints.
arkizzle

#30

The Frames drummer used to live upstairs from us. He was a bit of a grump, but then, we were a bit overzealous when it came to enjoying ourselves.

He was probably actually a really nice guy. We made him mean :(
Amplifier

Much better idea.

They should have sued the CCTV owners for breach of copyright for making an unauthorised copy of the performance.

I’m sure it’s a valid business model in this day and age.
n0wak

Some CCTV cameras can zoom and pan and have human operators.
Schuyler

Eh, I thought the song was okay.

The “couldn’t afford a camera crew” part is obvious bollocks, however. They can manage to pay for the recording and find the time and money to set up at each location, perform, request all the footage and then have it edited but hiring someone to shoot it would have been prohibitively expensive?
Patrick Austin

Whether or not it was _all_ CCTV video, this is still the most brilliant thing I’ve seen in a while.
elfajio

So if you where in the crowd at a venue with CCTV watching a band play a gig you could request the footage? Bootleg it?

This song is shazbat by the way.
arkizzle

@DusterBuster

Ah ha!

I imagined the “al”, exactly like csbmonkey did.

Well played sir, well played.
Wingo

Cool concept. Those guys need some haircuts, though.
benjymous

The Comedian Mark Thomas did something similar years ago.

Basically, they’re free to charge up to Â£10 as an administration fee when you request the footage, which would stop you flooding somebody with requests. It wouldn’t stop a thousand organised flashmobbers from all requesting footage from the same people, though.
benjymous

More info (pdf – p12)

2. Subject Access Requests
Individuals whose images are recorded have a right of access which usually involves being
provided with a copy of the images. These must be provided within 40 days of receiving a
request. You may charge a fee of up to Â£10. Those who request access must provide you with
details which allow you to identify them as the subject of the images and also to locate the
images on your system.
douqep

Ok, so they “couldn’t afford” a camera crew but they could afford to hire an editor to put this all together?… Just read Schuyler’s post, I’m with him/her. Great idea but the song blows.
Teej

Great idea guys.

Put the man to work for you.
The Unusual Suspect

“Careful Arkizzle, you might just succeed in either convincing them to remove those rights if they’re abused, or at the very least clogging the pipes for people who have a good use for the system.”

Careful, GTMoogle, you might just begin to believe that there is a good use for the system.
Ned613

Gimmick. But a clever gimmick nevertheless.
zikzak

Well, it’s a question of what the target is. Clogging the Data Protection Act bureaucracy is a “direct action”, and the result is you’ll prevent DPA requests from being served. Is that the goal? Are we demanding that CCTV controllers stop providing footage to the public?

I have a better idea for a mass direct action: get a bunch of people to go out, find one public CCTV camera each, and disable or destroy it.
Ari B.

Excellent.
I’ll give it a look when I’m not at work…
csbmonkey

An Aussie filmmaker made an entire movie like this last year (almost last year to the day was the story I found): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6654971.stm

“Called Faceless, the film is the project of London-based Manu Luksch, who is both the star and director and describes it as a “science fiction fairy tale”.”
Agent 86

AMP: quick, patent that idea!
MrXavia

error404 – many CCTV cameras are PTZ and have human operators, I bet there were many bored security guards who zoomed in..

I am sorry to burst the bubble of some people, but the idea you can just request all CCTV footage with you in in london, wont work.. you would need to contact the company that runs the CCTV, and then ask for the exact dates/times you were there…
scottfree

Ive thought very seriously about requesting recordings of my image to document a really good day. Like so as to watch it over and over again.

The stock response when you make a Data Protection request FYI is that other people are in the image, so you don’t have a right to it. Ive always interpreted that to mean they’re pretty lazy down government way.
Baldhead

So…. asking for the video footage can be done, apparently easily. What would have happened if they’d filmed with digital cameras near a mall and got one of the CCTVs in the frame?

just saying, that if they’re worried about surveillance, using the cameras themselves is one way to do it.
Personman

Pretty awesome idea, regardless of actual financial necessity, or slight fudging. The point isn’t how ‘real’ it is, it’s how cool it looks, and it looks _cool_. The bit on the escalator is amazing.