Christina Perri – Jar Of Hearts Analysis

By Asia Thomas Jennings

Overview

Thus music consists of a mixture of performance by the artist and narrative played my other characters. This was done so the audience could see a physical representation of the lyrics in the song. Analysing this music video was beneficial because of the way that the artist created meaning through her visuals.

Mise En Scene - setting

The background for most of the music video is either grey or white which could be alluding to ambiguity in her feeling about who she is referring to in the song. We do not get to see too much of the location when the artist in performing other than colour, this could be to illustrate a level of intimacy with the audience.

Mise En Scene - CostumeThe artist is wearing a white dress which usually would bring with us the connotations of innocence and femininity. However, she pairs the white dress with a black belt which divides it. Black typically has the connotations of evil and ungodliness. This is interesting because it relates the lyrics of the song as the artist could be showing how the person she is referring to had tainted her or contaminated her through her costume. The opposite effect has been done with her hair as most of it is dark yet she has a white streak at the front. This could have been done to convey the idea that what’s in her head only has one streak of innocence because of what has happened to her. She also shows a tattoo on her chest which could be alluding to the permanency of the damaging that was inflicted on her emotionally.

Mise En Scene – Body LanguageThe artist’s facial expressions are a telling sign as to how she wanted the mood of the music video to be like. Her brow is almost always scrunched into a frown and she quite often stares eerily into the camera lens. This along with the fact that she never smiles during the video illustrates to the audience that she is clearly upset and that the nature of the song is not positive. This idea is also supported by the fact that in all of the shots of the artist that are not extreme close ups, her body language is negative as she hunches her shoulders over. This shows a sense of vulnerability as it might appear that she is hiding away.

Mise En Scene - PositioningFor the most part of the performance, the artist is being viewed in an extreme close up shot so the face takes up most of the shot, this makes it slightly difficult to comment on her position in the frame in relation to everything else, yet the extreme close ups a relevant as they indicate almost an uncomfortable closeness to the artist, like we are seeing something that we shouldn’t be. In one of the very few mid shots we see of the artist, its clear that the rule of thirds has been used and the negative space at the left side of the shot is of interest. This choice could have been made purely to add more a variety to the shot types which is vital for a music video to hold the attention of its audience.

Editorial choicesThis music video has a strong sense of editing as there is an abundance of after effects used to create the meaning behind the visuals. The artist uses something similar to an ink effect to transition between certain shot and during the narrative section of the music video there was a very subtle effect that made it look like the male was extracting something from the female when they kissed. This fits perfectly with the lyrics of the song and is a clear representation of meaning being created through the viduals.