LONDON, April 24 (UPI) -- Australian film and animation company Oh Yeah Wow, which has developed content for artists like Gotye and Ben Folds Five, said Thursday that One Direction's latest music video looks suspiciously similar to the one they produced last year for Melbourne band Clubfeet.
The staff at Oh Yeah Wow took to social media after seeing the freeze-frame special effects for the British boy band's "You and I" video. The company claimed that the effects are too much like the ones they worked on for Clubfeet's award-winning "Everything You Wanted" clip.
"Late Friday night whilst we were busy observing the good traditions of the public holiday, something very suspicious was brought to our attention It seems that the chaps of One Direction have taken it upon themselves to regurgitate our original concept, as seen in our award-winning clip for Clubfeet’s 'Everything You Wanted.' Don’t get us wrong, we here at Oh Yeah Wow are big One Direction fans and are envious of their ability to maintain flawless hairdos," the company wrote.
Oh Yeah Wow is specifically referring to the "freezing" effect at 2:45 in the One Direction video below:
The company said they've experienced plagiarism before.
"The wider problem is, that plagiarism and copycatting is becoming increasingly common and acceptable. ... Considering the sleep deprivation one must endure to create an original piece with practically no budget, you can start to understand the annoyance we might feel when some affluent young bucks and a director devoid of creativity, decide to effectively steal (and subsequently dilute) our idea."
They encouraged supporters to tweet using the hashtag "#nodirection" to draw attention to their complaint.
