Have you ever wondered why film directors chose certain angles, colors, and symbols when creating a music video? It is all done in a certain way to show us the exact perspective that that the creators want us to visualize. A director or creator has an idea in their head that they want to target to us so we see exactly what they see or at least get something to appeal to the audience. Also in videos, the creators have a specific message they want to get across and they do so by using visual techniques. In the music video Closer by Chainsmokers, the director uses color, shadows and perspective to depict the message and create an incredible video.

In this music video the creator uses color as a visual aid. Throughout the entire video the colors are very bright and vivid, there is never a time in the video when there is a dark color or gloomy look to it. The ocean is crystal clear and blue, the clear white sand and even the mountains are covered in green plants and trees. When the video moves to the scene inside the house and everything inside of the house is bright and clean, the house also has a lot of windows that let in the sun and makes it appear even brighter. Going along with the sun, the director makes sure it is in every scene. The sun shines down on the ocean in one scene, on the couple in another and on the road when the cars are passing by in a scene. The cars also add another element of color, without the cars there would be no use of red and silver, along with those there is a blue car and a gold car but we already see those colors in previous scenes. The use of shadows in this video has a big impact as well. On the mountain scene you see the shadow of the couple and how close they are together and it looks as if they appear to be happy. Then again on the beach at sunset the couple is walking together holding hands and then embracing showing the passion they have for each other and the love that the director wants the audience to feel.

Another visual effect that director uses is perspective and zoom. In one of the first scenes the couple is sitting on the couch together and looking at polaroid pictures and the camera zooms in on the pictures they have taken of each other and then out to see the couple in real life. The director uses this to show the couple in the past and in the present. Then when the camera changes it moves to the couple taking pictures of each other on the beach. The audience’s perception should be focused on the pictures that the couple in the moment. The photos they are viewing are blurred images looking at the past while the images being taken are memories being added in the present. The use of zoom is making the audience see the bigger picture and how it shows the couple then and now. Also in another scene the zoom is used when the couple is in the car and it zooms into them kissing and them zooms out to show everything around them. This shows that time stops in the moment but the world around you is still moving without them. There is also a dramatic pause at the scene on the beach it moves to the couple being in the car and this scene goes with the lyrics saying “baby pull me closer in the back seat of your rover”, the use of dramatic pause is what really emphasizes the message at that moment. Another use of perspective is when it shows their life before each other and then their life with each other. It shows their life before they were together and then while they are dating. I think this is an important part of the video because it shows the relationship between the two people and how they have grown together and learned from their past. 

Throughout both of these scenes I realized that they can contradict themselves. One of the scenes makes you stop in the moment and be with the one you love while the world around you moves, and the other scene makes you want to appreciate the beauty of the world around you. Both scenes are important to make up this video because it portrays the song lyrics very accurately. The motif also fits the title so well, because it does make us look at things closer even while we look at things from far way. I think the whole closer and farther away camera angle the film creator gives us is amazing and we should always look at things through another perspective. The scenes do give different messages and visually you can understand what the film director wants the audience to see and comprehend. The motifs used contributes to the meaning and understanding of this work. The shadows, colors and perspective used the music video is very informative of the message the audience should comprehend. Throughout the video I felt very relative to the video and I think it hits people close to home because so many people go through this same situation and it’s good to know other people do as well. It is good that the creator shows it this way and relates it to college student’s ad people that have been through college. 
