From the lesson of learning performance, concept and narrative, I decided to analysis Christina Perri's music video for 'Jar of Hearts' because it holds many elements for symbolic concept and a small range of narrative and performance.
Camera
For the performance side of things, their is a lot of close ups on Perri's face of her singing (she sings through the whole song when you see her). This also follows the Goodwin theory of how it is required from record labels to show the artist in the video.
A long shot is used to show the group of girl dancers behind her, which shows performance and symbolic concept; the female dancers are all very emotional and angry as there were supposedly hurt from the man who is 'running round leaving scars'. The dramatic dancing leaves the audience unsettled, also feeling slightly angry (as the fastness and harshness of the dancing represents the anger).
An establishing shot is used in the video on the last scene, where the man is standing on the road dance attacking and being dance attacked by the women he had hurt (or left 'scars'). This symbolically suggests that the women are angry and that he has upset so many that he will get hurt himself; he is shoved of the car by a women. This is part of the little narrative we see in the video as the audience follows the story of how the man goes from one girl to the next, also teaching the audience that it is wrong that he is doing that.
Editing
The fast pace editing used when the girls are fighting the man is symbolic, as it shows the anger of the hurt women and the panic of the man being attacked.
Colour correction is used throughout the video: all of it till the end is dulled down and made to look gloomy suiting the dramatic lyrics that have a depressing tone to it, and at the end of the video when the bay guy is 'dead', the colour lightens up and becomes mostly warm shades of pink and yellow. This way of using colour correction is symbolic as it reflects the moods of the song through visuals.
Prevalence is used on Perri throughout the video, as she is the artist. However, it is a symbolic concept as it foreshadows to the audience that she is the 'hero' of the small narrative: she finishes the man off at the end of the song and gets her heart back. This way, it is suggested through the whole song that she will challenge him "who do you think you are?"
Mise en Scene
CGI is used over the women's chest's to show a little, empty (or being emptied) glass jar inside of them, referring to Goodwin's theory of the visuals illustrating the lyrics "collecting your jar of hearts". This strongly relates to the symbolic side of the video as it represents the metaphor of 'giving your heart away' and 'taking your heart'.
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| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
The costumes are also symbolic as the colours used show anger, nastiness and also innocence. Typically the man is dressed in black suggesting that he is the bad guy (in which he is) and some of the women are dressed in white (including Perri), which shows their innocence and vulnerability. However, some of the women are dressed in either full black or a little bit of black and grey, which suggests how they are not weak and that they are angry and seeking for revenge. Perri dressed in white also suggests how good would defeat evil, referring to how the video is showing a bit of a narrative.
Sound
The music starts off slow and gentle, which is supported by the gentle kiss and fall of leaves. But then Perri's voice becomes louder and takes more control of the song, making things more dramatic as their is emotion in her voice, which then leads to the background dancers becoming more disturbed and upset over the situation.
Overall the song suits the symbolic concept theme as the lyrics are full of euphemisms.
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