
The music video “L$D”, or Love $ex Dreams, by A$AP Rocky is of the rapper singing along to his song with various backdrops. These settings throughout the film, for the most part, have a disorienting filter, such as a kaleidoscope or blurred effect, or would be filled with an abundance of colors. The camera work and editing seemed to also focus around the theme of putting the viewer into a haze. This, along with other forms of illusion, show that the director of the video had developed a focus of alluding to or implying the use of drugs and alcohol to the viewer in order to create a relaxing tone to the video.

In the first thirty seconds, the entire screen is flooded with a reddish orange tinge while the camera rotates around a laying down A$AP Rocky. In this opening scene of the music video, there is an immense amount of warm and dark colors. In fact, the only cold color in the scene is when there is a blue hue at the bottom of a flame, lighting what appears to be a cigarette. These warm colors give a relaxing vibe to the video that really matches the music well. The colors used also seem to be less intense in order to complement the calming scene that had been created. Due to the lack of intensity, created by the smoke, in the red colors the scene is dark and very soothing to watch. The editor of the video also used an analogous color scheme in this scene with colors like red, red-orange, violet, yellow, orange, and yellow-orange. These colors blend well with each other due to an exceedingly high degree of unity and even though this high degree can be thought to decrease interest, it clearly does not apply to this scene. The use of these warm colors simulate a relaxing environment that seizes the audience’s attention right from the start.

The opening scene also provides interesting camera angles and movement. At the start of the video, the frame is very close up on a cigarette that is being lit. This shot sets the tone for the colors of the opening scene with the hot colors of the flame and the embers it creates on the end of the cigarette. After this, the camera begins to pan out to a close up on the rapper’s face while he is lying down. The close up view of the rapper highlights the focus of the scene early on. Once A$AP Rocky’s face is in the entire screen, the camera begins to rotate around the artist while simultaneously continuing to pan out. This allows the light of a lava lamp on the ground to radiate, continuing with the theme of warm colors. The spinning of the camera disorients the viewer and, based on the title, is eluding to the side effects of drug use. This is a common technique that the cameraman uses throughout the video. 

Towards the middle of the video, at the 3:15 mark, the song actually changes to another track that was on the same album as “L$D” called “Excuse Me.” Coupled with this change of song came a change in color themes. In this scene, the colors change from dark and transitioning between warm and cold to very bright and focusing on the colors white and gold. These colors give off an essence of wealth and happiness. Even with this intense change of color themes, the camera work appears to stay true to the beginning of the video. This is proven by the new song being introduced with the camera showing an upside down view of A$AP. As the song develops the camera moves down showing more and more of the rapper until showing a circular mirror table top that flips the field of view. Once the camera hits the mirror, the artist appears to be right side up. Once again disorienting the viewer with a complete one-hundred-eighty degree turn to turn the field of view upside down. This is when A$AP starts to rap the new song while looking into a mirror. The mirror is yet another example of the camera dazing the viewer. 

Throughout the video, A$AP Rocky is seen in what appears to be Times Square in New York City, and when he is, the lights from all of the billboards and advertising screens are highlighted and blurred. This combination of highlighting the bright and vibrant colors of advertisements and then blurring them together really catches the eye of the viewer. This affect is accompanied by the camera revolving around the rapper as he gazes at the advertisements all around him. Once again creating a affect that alludes to the disorientation one would experience while on drugs.

All of the background effects and camera angles pair extremely well with the calming melody of the song. The editor of this video catered to his audience very well by using capturing colors and effects. This video is riddled with effects that allude to drug use and this is because the title is abbreviated to be a hallucinogen. These various scenes highlighted the use of camera angles and color schemes to convey a common theme throughout the film. 
