HK: Nine Inch Nails - Closer

Artist: Nine Inch Nails

Track: Closer
Director: Mark Romanak
Year: 1994
Audience: 15 - 24
Genre: Industrial Metal

The video for this track is a hybrid of performance and concept.

It starts of with an old film style introduction, similar to what would be played before old silent movies.
at 0:09 we see a chair with a heart on, this straight away conveys an element of horror and gore to the video.

The modern, clean chair seen at 0:09 contrasts with the decaying, grotty wall seen behind.

We find out at 0:10 that the heart is is still beating and the close up at 13 really shows this by making the heart the focus of the shot and the heart beating to the beat of the song with steam coming out of it too which makes the heart look like a machine, this could be a reference that the human race is becoming more and more technologically dependant and that we need technology in order to stay alive.

At 0:14 we get a long shot establishing more of the location but the actual location is still pretty ambiguous and we don't have much anchorage of where we actually are but there the location shown is very dusty and looks decayed.

By 0:16 the mise en scene is very bizarre we see leather bound books and a model of an armadillo, this gives us a hint that the location is something to do with animals and research. At 0.17 the dusted telephone and the old fuzzy TV shows the resistance to technology and the fact that the tv has no signal could be linked to the alienation of the location or of the man in the video.

0.19 a close up of a skeleton is a binary opposite to the earlier beating heart.
0.20 We have a first shot, moodily lit,silhouetted shot of the singer gives a sense of mystery to the video as we don't see his face.

There is a juttering and focus/out of focus camera effect at 0.25 adds panic to the video. At 0:28 there are candles, these are add surrealism to the video and give a dark, eerie feel.
There is focus on the bald naked woman at 0.39 the fact that her head is shaved is proving that the woman is not there for male gaze, even though she is displaying her feminine, naked body the intentions of her being naked aren't for her to be seen as a sex symbol but more to show the mixture between her femininity but still being powerful.

We get an idea of who the silhouetted singer is as there is a well lit close up on a man that looks like he could fit the looks of the silhouette.
At 0:52 there is a sign saying COPYRIGHTED this could be a reference to how society is controlled and we are even copyrighted.

There is a close up of a band member at 1:00 and he his wearing a dusted black leather jacket and has dark hair, what particularly stands out is his googles that don't reveal his eyes keeping with the mystery of the video with him not revealing his whole self to the camera.
There is also a smoke machine effect used during this lipsyncing this too also adding mystery around the character.

The goggles worn here are similiar to those that the male guitarist in Hanzel Und Gretyl.

A panning effect is used to the beat when the shot of the monkey on the cross, the monkey on the cross is almost toying with religion and replacing Jesus with a monkey. The longest shot in the video is at 1.25 with Trent Reznor hovering in the air for as the song goes into an instrumental.

Next at 1.43 the shot of the dusted old film tape again shows the resistance to technology. At 3.06 we see a metro dome with an eye on it symbolising that someone is watching at the the fact that the metro dome is to do with time could link to the idea that someone has an EYE on us all the TIME.
4.10 gives us anchorage that someone out there is watching on what looks like through an old surveillance camera/tv.


Nine Inch Nails: Closer (Uncensored) (1994) from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.