This music video launched rapper AntsLive’s single ‘Cutlery’. With no budget to spend, meaning no crew and no cameras, we had to use what exists for free: The thousands of CCTV cameras that are live-streamed on the internet, available to anyone.

We flipped the creepy world of our over-surveillance for our own benefit. What we created was more than a music video but an interactive site antslivecams.com, pulling all the open cams we used and over one thousand more, becoming an ongoing resource for any other artist to use to make their own free music video.

It’s harder than ever to break through in an increasingly fragmented music industry. Added to that, the serious lack of budget behind any creative projects like music video-making.

But artists still need to engage audiences across all digital platforms with work that is fresh and shareable.

Finding an idea like this, that would cost nothing, was answered by the eerie fact that UK CCTV cameras are streamed live on dark, weird corners of the internet. These links are shared in community forums and include links to watch live streams of our streets, pubs, businesses, gardens and more. These can be watched anytime, by anyone.

British people might be apathetic to the fact they’re being watched by cameras, with over 7.3 million CCTV cameras, we’re the most watched country in Europe. But being streamed on the internet without consent is a whole other level and something the majority of people have no idea about. This was worth talking about and our hook.

Lastly, those coming up through underground rap still face negative prejudice and discrimination from the police - with London’s Met Police classed as ‘institutionally racist’ by the groundbreaking Casey report. They are more likely to be watched, surveilled in this medium. What we loved about this idea was our opportunity to flip a traditionally negative image on its head into one of creative empowerment for the underground rap community.

The brief was to launch AntsLive’s new single Cutlery with a film made using zero money.

He needed to stand out in a fiercely competitive and difficult to breakthrough underground rap scene. With no money for crew or cameras we looked to existing infrastructure that we could use for free, CCTV cameras. The ones live streamed on dark, strange corners of the internet that can be watched by anyone, any time.

We had a number of goals. To break the traditional music video format. To get talked about by existing fans. To get talked about by a new audience. To create a resource that would enable other up and coming musicians, who face similar challenges, to do the same as us.

The strategy was simple: Get as much fame as possible for AntsLive’s new single Cutlery (with zero money).

Audiences are so used to the easy consumption of free music and music videos, they’ve seen it all. We knew we needed an idea that would go beyond just a film to get people talking about Ants, engaging with the artist and sharing on.

Two audience insights came together on this: People accept they’re being watched but are oblivious to how deep this surveillance goes; the people who are more likely to be targeted by this over-surveillance are often those leading the underground rap scene.

Our idea was to flip UK’s surveillance culture on its head for our own benefit by making a free music video with the thousands of CCTV cameras that live-streamed online.

We then turned this weird voyeurism into a creative medium any independent artist can use.

Of approx 7.3 million CCTV cameras, thousands are streaming on dark corners of the internet. You can watch them at any time. And use them for anything. We got AntsLive to perform his single in front of these cameras, from traffic cams, tourist spots, CCTV, bird cams, people’s gardens, ring doorbells and more.

We edited it together and then created an interactive site that acts as a resource to anyone who wants to do the same: The site has pulled all the cams we used and over a thousand more.

The project took a lot of planning and plotting. We spent a long time locating the open cams online and working out locations. We then mapped out which ones we could get to in the timeframe AntsLive had available – his label gave us two days to ‘shoot’ it. This timeframe limited us to specific open cams in – and within a safe distance from – London.

We captured 48 hours of Ants performing his single in London’s tourist spots, traffic cams to garden cams, door cams and more. We then created the site antslivecams.com which pulled from over a thousand different UK cameras’ live data and collected it onto one site.

We wanted this to act as a resource, and empower more creators, musicians to make their own.

AntsLiveCams.com could only handle a limit of 50k visits a month, we hit 20k visits in the first 48 hours. Visitors were spending approx.15 minutes on the site, meaning they weren’t just watching the video but exploring the site’s thousands of open cams. This led to TikTok creators using it to create projects like fashion shoots. We received coverage across loads of creative press: It’s Nice That; Clash; NME; The Index; Oculate; Mixtape Madness; Trench and GRM Daily.

We spent zero money and within days this video got over 13k likes, over 100k views, over 550 comments – 99% praising Ants for his ingenuity and creativity: “This Video Might Go Down In The History Books” & “this has got to be one of the best music videos out there”

We had no budget and met our objectives to break the music format, create a resource and get talked about.