West reportedly provided the French director $500,000 towards the production budget for his version of the video. Gondry, who has said that he prefers "to be more in the physical world," created the charmingly handmade video with minimal sophisticated technology by stylistically molding objects. He filmed the video frame-by-frame, and he shot it by recranking the camera and re-exposing the film several times. Utilizing his signature special effects, Gondry created a "Mary Poppins"-inspired fantasy world situated inside a department store, where inanimate objects and appliances come to life. There were multiple logistics involved in the live-action video production, with indoor lights to check, mall security personnel to brief and an abundance of plastic mannequins to oversee. Despite this, the filming went off without a hitch with few technical issues. The only exception was one scene where the children were literally flying through the carpet department off the ground(, and they looked a little weird?). Gondry stated that he doesn't do fanciful high-budget conceptual music videos very often, claiming that he regularly does videos with "zero budget" moreso than those with an average or good budget. Working with a large budget, his visually elaborate music video was given a slick, colorful treatment. Michel Gondry's expensive, high-concept for the video was in fact a complete alteration his original idea. He claims that his concept for the music video of "Heard 'Em Say" was initially more "hardcore." Gondry wanted to fill a department store with homeless people, but West desired something "more family-oriented, something sweet." The end result was Kanye West and some young fictional children having a good time inside a deserted Macy's store, with Adam Levine transformed into a security guard who unlocks the doors for them. West found the video's original concept too hardcore for his tastes and was concerned it may "alienate his audience" during the Christmas season. (The video eventually aired on the week of December 19, 2005.?)