Research - Christina Perri- 'Jar of hearts' music video analysis 3

I decided to analyse this video because I am a fan of the artist and feel this song will be very useful to analyse to gather information and ideas for my music video. This song shows a lot of passion and I will observe this and note down the ways the song relates to the video through representations.

The song starts off with a close up shot of Christina looking directly into camera creating direct address with the audience as this shows true feeling and her passion. It also supports the theory of Winship 'The Gaze' as she is gazing into camera showing off her good looks and dark make up. As you can see she has a blonde highlight in her hair, this could represent the darkness of the video because her hair is black like she has a darkness inside her, but the blonde highlight could be to represent that there is good inside her and that she is different. I like this idea as the gaze is used in many different music videos to attract an audience of the opposite gender and maybe sometimes the same gender. This also follows the theory of Mulvey 'The Male Gaze" as she look very appealing towards males and will catch the eyes of the opposite sex.

 The camera then slowly pans down her body to show her hands and arms. As you can see she has black tattoos to create synergy with the house style of the video and to again represent the dark theme to the video. In her hand you can see that she is holding what looks like black petals, which could be a representation of how she used to be a bright flower and now she has been destroyed and is falling apart. I like the idea of the dark synergy that has been created to work in cohesion with her tattoos, hair and make up.

This a very strong representation as you can see that her chest is opening up to show an empty jar where her heart should be, which could suggest that her heart has been stolen and she is dark on the inside. Around the jar there is a black smokey heart shape which could represent her heart as being black which is symbolic of evil and negative feelings. This close up shot creates synergy with the title of the song 'Jar of Hearts' as she has an empty jar instead of a heart and when she says "Collecting your jar of hearts"suggests that it is about someone who goes around girls and emotionally stealing their hearts. This is one of my favorite shots of the whole video as it shows strong representations and is very symbolic.

After the jar shot it fades to her walking in black boots, which is a modern representation of girls and is very different as she is wearing a white dress but not wearing stereotypical footwear to go with the dress. However you could argue that it supports the theory of Perkins 'stereotypes are not simple' as she is not dressed like a stereotypical pretty female even though she is
wearing make up and a dress.

This is an extreme close up of the couple getting quite intimate. If you look closely you can see that a pink gas is coming out of the girls mouth, I feel that this is a representation of the girls heart being sucked out of her, which is also quite ironic and stereotypical as the colour is a representation of women and innocence. I can tell that the gas is a representation of the females heart as you can see from the image below that the gas is coming from the jar in her chest, which as I said earlier represents her heart as the gas could represent the love that the female has to give. However as this image at to the right is a bright image which suggests there is a mood change in the video and she is regaining the love she has lost back from the male, which gives a sense of female dominance as she is taking back control from the male.

 I really like this group shot to the left as I feel that this shot will be very influential for my music video as it shows very dramatic dance movements which also shows a lot of emotion. The women behind Christina are quite dark like they have had the good taken out of them. I feel that the fog and tatty dresses make the shot seem quite apocalyptic and evil.

 This shot shows true emotion from Christina as she is creating direct address with the audience by giving a very passionate look into the camera. This close up shot of her face shows how much she has been hurt and how much pain she is feeling. Her singing suggests that there is a lot of anger in her words as she says "You broke all your promises" as she says this she gets louder like it is aggravating her and she has been betrayed.
This longshot of the couples dancing shows the sexual and emotional feelings the couple have for each other. As you can see the women is in white to show her purity and innocence. where as the male is dressed in all black which could represent him as a darker and more evil character. This relates to the theory of Dyer 'a star is an image' as we can see from the video                                                                                           that the male is the bad guy and the women are                                                                                       the good.

This two shot image could represent female dominance as you can see the woman appears to be confronting the male and seems to be overpowering him. This is a modern representation of women as the woman is not powerless to the male. This longshot shoes the woman arching her back as if she is leaning into the male, which suggests that she is in control of the conversation.

In this medium close up you can again see the emotion in her face. The feature that I found interesting about this shot is that the clear white background which works in cohesion with the house style of the music video. I feel that it is also white as it wants to make Christina stand out and represent her as a bright character and that there is good in her.

The reason I like this shot is because the couple are being framed in the car window. They are also in the dark which could represent mystery and that there are sexual intentions involved. This is also quite stereotypical as the male is in the drivers seat and men are stereotyped to be better drivers than women. Also as you can see the wheel is on the left side of the car, which tells us that it is an American video so there will be American views and beliefs involved in the video.

How this music video has influenced my planning and creativity

• I like the use of signs and signifiers  
• The use of contemporary dancing
• The lighting used to represent bad and good characters
• The close ups to show emotion