able to begin rehearsing three days before the shoot. The aerialists were brought onboard with only two days before filming. Cantor already knew LaBeouf was aware of the original song because the actor had tweeted the link on Halloween 2013. The songwriter contacted the actor's talent manager and laid out his plan for LaBeouf to be the only audience member for the production; LaBeouf agreed to the proposition in less than two days. Production For the expanded version of the song, Greg Nicolett wrote the symphonic arrangement. He convinced Cantor to reduce a planned 50-piece orchestra to a string quartet not only for reduced costs, but the latter would increase the pretentiousness and therefore the absurdity in comparison to the subject matter. Scott Uhlfelder, a friend of Cantor's, served as the video's director and cinematographer. The Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center was "the nicest theater [Cantor] could afford", and artists began arriving at 6a.m. The entire music video was never shot as one continuous performance, but was instead broken up into segments, the first of which began at 9a.m. for cameras. LaBeouf's cameo was the last part filmed. Cantor's original budget was , provided by Maker Studios. When the production team continued "having more good ideas that we wanted to bring to fruition" like the aerialists and LaBeouf himself, Cantor provided the remaining . References External links 2012 songs cultural depictions of actors cultural depictions of American men songs about actors songs about cannibalism