Synopsis

A cash-strapped filmmaker attempts to complete Real Estate's "Crime" video by selling pieces of his creative control to anyone willing to pay. The result lurches between the band performing in a Thai restaurant, undead skateboarders, pottery sales, nostalgic flashbacks, religious protest imagery, and increasingly absurd advertising interruptions. Presented as a deliberately compromised production, the video turns the financial desperation behind its making into the central joke, creating a surreal comedy sketch around the band's laid-back performance.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video premiered through Funny or Die in April 2014, linking Real Estate's indie-pop audience with the comedy site's sketch-driven style.

• Andy Daly plays a fictionalized, broke version of Tom Scharpling, while Nick Kroll is among the comedy performers featured in the cast.

• Its deliberately chaotic structure comes from the central premise that the production is being financed through increasingly strange product-placement deals.

• The video promotes the album "Atlas," released by Domino in 2014. "Crime" appears as one of the album's tracks.

• The clip runs for roughly six minutes, making it substantially longer than a conventional performance-focused music video.

• Scharpling had previously collaborated with Real Estate on the video for "Easy," making "Crime" part of an ongoing connection between the band and the comedy world.