You Have to See How Selena Gomez and Trevor Daniels’ New Video Was Shot

The way that Selena Gomez and Trevor Daniels’ new music video was shot may just be the way of the future. 

“Past Life,” dropped on June 26, but the music video only premiered on July 14. In just a week since it’s release, it has garnered over 8.2 million views on YouTube.

Thanks to the love that fans have shown on the song and video, the pair of musicians posted some behind-the-scenes photos about how the video was shot.

Because of the pandemic, the original plan for the music video had to be scrapped, but the pair came together with their teams to create one of the most interesting videos of the year.

The video starts off with a clip of Gomez and Daniels singing along to their song on a screen recorded Instagram live – still socially distant, but they are both actually in the frame.

What comes next is a digitally generated shot of the former Wizards of Waverly Place star that keeps zooming in closer and closer around her face until it seems like you are deep into her pores. 

It sounds odd, but it looks both futuristic and aesthetically pleasing. Inside her virtual face is a land and people going about their life within beautiful landscapes.

The people, we find out as the camera continues to zoom in, are various shots of a digitized version of Daniels taking selfies.

Fans were mesmerized by the graphics of the video and the realistic attention to detail on both stars’ faces, even though it was brought to life on a computer.

The way it was filmed was through a Scan Truck, which looks like a room filled high and low with cameras that are capturing details and movements of the person within it.

“Sometimes technology and art are the perfect match,” Gomez wrote on Instagram of the experience. They were able to create a video that has never truly been done while still staying safe during the pandemic.

Both Gomez and Daniels posted a behind-the-scenes creation of the “Past Life” video on Instagram, eager to show fans just how the ground-breaking music video for the hit song came to life.

“how @selenagomezand I had the cgi versions of ourselves made!” Daniels wrote to accompany the video he posted of himself within the Scan Truck.

He stands still while someone in the background yells “Three, two, one,” and then a flash of light goes off similar to when taking a photo, but this time there are hundreds of cameras instead of just one.

It’s amazing to see how technology is able to be utilized now more than ever, even within the entertainment industry.

With music videos like this bridging the gap between social distancing and connection, it wouldn’t be surprising if Scan Trucks and CGI-made people become a new normal.