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

Looks like James Corden is prepping for his post-Late Late Show career. The host tried something new on Thursday’s show, directing a low-budget, impromptu music video for pal Harry Styles’ song “Daylight” off his new album, Harry’s House.

With just three hours and $300 to complete the project, Corden and Styles resort to knocking on doors on a New York City street looking for a location. After striking out a few times (and one outright rejection), they happen to stumble on a group of girls who are all too eager to be part of the production. In fact, one room of their apartment is littered with One Direction and Styles memorabilia (Ungenerous to Harry stans, Corden snarks, “We need to hide all of this, because I’m worried you’re a psychopath.”)

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!”