James Corden directs Harry Styles’ "Daylight" music video in three hours and with $300

The apartment’s residents are then put to work, chipping in as production assistants, prop masters, costumers, and even recruiting their friends as extras. (Knowing the shoestring budget, those girls were definitely underpaid!) Meanwhile, Corden begins to bring his vision to life–a vision that involves lots of confetti, a perhaps unnecessary green screen suit, and a Mick Jagger moment that’s a little awkward in light of recent comments.

“Is it too late to just do Carpool Karaoke?” Styles jokes at one point. But although this is Corden’s first time directing a music video (he actually shares a writing credit on the “Best Song Ever” video with Late Late Show producer and frequent 1D director Ben Winston), the end result is unsurprisingly warm, intimate, and fun.

It helps to have Styles’ blinding natural charm to fall back on–and that they accidentally discovered on one of Brooklyn’s loveliest, roomiest apartments. One might suspect the fix is in, but the girls insisted to Variety that the day was a true surprise: “If we knew [they were stopping by] we would’ve at least brushed our hair!”