Director Ben Winston has revealed that every shot of One Direction's 'Story of My Life' video is genuine.

The lads recently released the song as the lead single from their upcoming album 'Midnight Memories' and its reflective video has generated a lot of interest.

The quintet can be seen performing whilst surrounded by hundreds of childhood photos - and Winston told MTV that no digital trickery was involved at all. He said:

"Absolutely everything you see in the video is real; there was no green screening at all. All that big, wide area was true. Every single photo in the back of those shots is real, legitimate, of the boys when they were younger. If you want to zoom into any single photo, you'll be able to find a frozen moment in time of the story of their lives."

The video also zooms into old photos of the boyband members before fast-forwarding to the present day, and speaking about Harry Styles' shot, which includes his mother, Winston said:

"Harry [Styles] has a hugely close relationship with his mum and she's a big [part of] his life. And it was important for me to try and find a photo of those two together because I think that's a relationship that's very lovely."

Talking about Louis Tomlinson's shot, Winston added: "I thought it was a gorgeous photo and then I phoned Louis' mum... and she said 'Well, it will be difficult because his great grandma and his great grandpa, who are in that photo, unfortunately are no longer alive'. It gave me the idea that actually that is part of life. That's part of the circle of life. [It's a] sweet, moving moment."

Despite the video's popularity, 'Story of My Life' failed to beat Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball' 24 hours VEVO views record.