Katy Perry's 'Thinking of You' is a narrative based music video, presenting the lyrics within the video. The lyrics talk about a couple torn apart by war and the female lead trying to move on but not quite feeling right with her new partner. The video features a past and present insight into the woman's life, showing her new failed attempt at a relationship and the funeral of her ex boyfriend the soldier, this is coupled with flashbacks of the couple before the war, including them going on dates such as dancing and picnics.
The visuals do an excellent job of illustrating and at the same time amplifying the lyrics. For example, at one point the video cuts to a panning shot of the female's new lover as the line 'I guess second best is all I will know' is sung, this clearly reflects the woman's feelings about her new relationship and that she has to settle for someone who will never truly replace her first love. Similar to this, when Katy sings 'I am thinking of you' the video cuts to a flashback clip of her and the soldier having fun, symbolising exactly who she is thinking of. The line 'and bust in the door' is sung as the female protagonist closes the door, this creates a direct link between the lyrics and the visuals. It also amplifies the tragic nature of the video as she is wishing for the soldier to return home, we re actually seeing her close the door to attend the same soldier's funeral.
There is a strong connection between the music and the visuals shown through the order and timing of the cuts, that work perfectly in time with the beat of the track. The cuts are smooth and run evenly, without becoming jumpy or unnatural in the slightest because they are guided by the beat of the song. There are a range of close-ups of Katy perry singing the song, this helps establish Katy as both the artist but as the female lead, separated from her lover by the war. This promotes Katy as a singer but also an actress, and fans love it when their favourite musician isn't just as musician. The close-ups also bring the audience closer to the artist, they also enable us to see the raw emotion in this song, which gives the music and visuals an even more coherent link.
Within the music video, the male gaze of the new lover is used a fair few times, this is to encourage the audience to indulge in similar behaviour. the character looks at Katy in a very sensual and predatory manner, this results in the sexualisation of the artist and makes her more appealing to the audience. The mise-en-scene, regarding clothes, backs this up in that it is very scant, aside form her funeral outfit, Katy is seen in either her underwear or very little clothes, this has probably been done to portray Katy as sexually desirable, which would promote her as an artist, especially to male viewers, but it also makes her seem a little elegant as although she is dressed scantily clad, she is still presented as a classy woman. Although, she is presented in very little clothes and the camera does take on a voyeuristic approach, the main focus is on Katy's eyes and lips rather than breasts, legs or bottom. This is probably due to the nature of the music video being very tragic and the over sexualisation of Katy would ruin this, so the filming technique and style creates an impression of elegance and attractiveness but certainly not promiscuity.
There are slight bits of footage featuring Katy and her new lover having sex, but they are short and modest, so as not to make it a highlight of the video, but rather presenting it as sad and emotive, particularly as it is evident that Katy is not truly interested. 'Thinking Of You' is primarily narrative based because the footage does follow a storyline; a soldier and his girlfriend torn apart by war, her attempt at replacing him but failing and also the revelation of his death in her preparing for his funeral, coupled with shots of their time together pre-war. However, the music is also partly performance based because it features Katy singing snippets of the song in character whilst also acting as the female lead in the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment