The final scene for ‘Our Year’ was shot on a rooftop downtown.
Last week saw the release of a very Vancouver video.
In fact, it was extremely Vancouver. It was so Vancouver that it surpassed alliteration.
Indie pop stars Tegan and Sara (often residents of Vancouver) released their new song “Our Year” (and accompanying music video) featuring longtime Vancouverite Lights and lifelong local Felix Cartal last week.
The video itself, shot in Vancouver, is nearly a tourism ad for the city, featuring sun-soaked shots of parks and beaches along with a couple of unique spots in the city, from the Museum of Vancouver and City Centre Artist Lodge.
To top it off, CanCon indie pop super quad rep local teams, with jerseys for the BC Lions, Vancouver GoldenEyes, Vancouver Canadians and Vancouver Canucks in the final scene.
Police called for rooftop shot
It’s that final scene that got the group a visit from Vancouver police.
Shot on top of the Tate on Howe, a 43-story tower at 1283 Howe St., people in the area spotted the group on the roof. That led to a call to the police, who showed up a short time later. A manager spotted them coming and let the group know officers were on the way for some reason.
“We had just finished the last shot,” says Lights in a video posted by Tegan and Sara. “We turn around and within seconds of her [the manager] saying ‘Vancouver police are here,’ they come out, they’re trying to scare us, like intimidation tactics.”
“‘What are you guys doing? What’s going on here? We got some call that someone’s trying to jump,'” she continues.
“And all of us turned into, like, 15-year-olds, I think,” she adds.
The group apologized for the situation and explained what they were doing and who they were.
One of the officers asked Felix Cartal for a selfie (which is caught on video). Another cop was starstruck by Tegan and Sara.
By the end of the interaction, the police apologized for interrupting the shoot.
“Many sorries were spoken at the end of our video shoot for ‘Our Year,'” reads Tegan and Sara’s post on social media. “A perfectly Canadian end to a Canadian video, full of Canadian artists.”
The group may have had a reason to be concerned about a police presence, as they didn’t get permits for some shots in the music video.
In another video, the group talks about Light’s shoot in front of the museum. While they didn’t have a permit, a security guard didn’t seem concerned about her dancing in front of the giant crab.
The museum has since commented on the video.
“This is so lovely! Thanks for dancing in our empty fountain!” writes the museum’s account on Instagram.