Explaining Lost Love Through Optical Illusions

They have sung their songs dancing on treadmills, while testing elaborate Rube Goldberg contraptions and off-roading in a car. And in their video for the song “The Writing’s on the Wall”, OK Go wants to make you question reality.

Equipped with only a handheld camera, the group, along with 50 video assistants, created 28 different optical illusions on its first video for the group’s EP, Hungry Ghosts. The video appears to be shot in one continuous take and shows illusions that vary from gravity stunts to mirror tricks to having band members oddly mesh into their surroundings.  A behind-the-scenes video that shows how much work went into making the video is almost as entertaining the original.

What we like most about this video is how well it pairs with the song. The song follows a relationship just before it ends and some of the lyrics are heartbreaking in their honesty and simplicity.

The writing’s on the wall

It seems like forever

Since we had a good day

The writing’s on the wall

But I, just want to get you high tonight

I, just want to see some pleasure in your eyes

Some pleasure in your eyes

The Wall Street Journal talked with band member Damian Kulash who also co-directed the video. The newspaper aptly explained how well the song and the video work together: “At the bridge, the words ‘I think I understand you, but I don’t’ appear, painted across small wooden crates. Even as the message of the song becomes clearer, the visual itself becomes more disorienting, as the camera fully rotates in front of the words. ‘That’s where the song comes out emotionally,’ said band member Damian Kulash who also co-directed the video. ‘The meaning emerges in a contained space before the camera, rather than in “this big open space we’ve been running around in.’”

Have you seen the video? What do you think of it?

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