Great news for John Wittlinger, the Amherst native whose City Under Siege musical project has transformed through various genres, incarnations and lineups over the past several years: the video for the band’s new single, “Believe,” is set to debut on MTVu and FUZE.

Now there’s just one small problem—recording a video.

Wittlinger, however, has enlisted local producer Bobby Gott to help put together an ambitious project that will offer a colorful visual pastiche featuring sexy sorority girls, bare-knuckle fighters, zombies, college kids, a wide assortment of dancers, jugglers, gymnasts and much more. The video will be shot beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17 at the Pierce Arrow Film and Arts Center (1685 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo) and will include costumes, those freaky green body suits and even a Chinese dragon.

Oh, and you. That’s right—Wittlinger and Gott want you to be in the video.

“Our concept came from watching all these YouTube videos that are one continuous take, like OK Go or The Chariot, for example,” Wittlinger explained in an interview via Facebook. “We wanted to do something that was one continuous take and yet was visually interesting enough to keep everyone engaged and—at the same time—show our fun, carefree side to our band. We wanted to do the video in Buffalo and have all our fans and friends and even people we don’t know in it to kind of give everyone a vested interest in it, to let our fans be a part of something, and also to use a Buffalo landmark like the Pierce Arrow building. (That) makes it even more special—it’s a great building with a lot of history and a lot of potential. They are working on restoring it and turning it into a venue and a visual arts center, and we want to be on the forefront of that movement!”

So here’s the deal—if you have a special talent or think that you can fit into one of four specific categories (sexy sorority girl, Fight Club member, walking dead or partying college student) or you have some kind of special talent like dancing, juggling, dressing up like a unicorn, anything—you are welcome at the video shoot. In fact, even if you are lacking in specific talents or role-playing ability (we weren’t all born to play zombies, sadly), you are welcome at the video shoot. Wittlinger and Gott was the video to be as wild as possible, so come on down and bring your friends.

“The video is a concept where the band is walking, around inviting people to a show in a bunch of different scenarios, (and) at the end all the people you meet in the video show up at the show and it’s an epic ending,” Wittlinger noted. “It’s kind of correlating to the meaning of the song, about how there is reconciliation and togetherness.”

Wittlinger and drummer Ryan Wiesner are currently recording the new City Under Siege album in Atlanta with producer Matt Malpass, known for his work with other pop-punk / post-hardcore outfits like Cartel, Relient K and Rookie of the Year. The record is slated for a late spring release but City Under Siege will take the new material on the road in just over a week, joining the Bedroom to Stage acoustic tour with Sparks The Rescue, Rookie of the Year, Jimmy Deeghan and Tidewater, and will perform on Thursday, Feb. 28 at The Forvm (4224 Maple Road, Amherst).

For more information about the video shoot, check out the Facebook event page or email Bobby Gott at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Photo from Facebook.