Thinking of you

“Thinking of you” Katy Perry “Thinking of You” is

a song by American singer and songwriter Katy

Perry, taken from her second studio album, One

of the Boys (2008).

The start of the music video is filmed with a handheld camera,

cutting to close ups of certain items in her bedroom such as the

cross on her wall, giving an idea that the video may include

something to do with religion. We then see Perry walk over to her

dressing table before the camera cuts to a close up of her face

when she starts singing. Her face is out of focus at first but fully

focuses within a few seconds to go with the calm, slow start of the

song. The camera is constantly moving slowly, panning down her

to show that she is holding her necklace while she is singing and

the camera also cuts onto important items she picks up/holds

such as the bible and picture of a man. Because of all the

religious items in the room, we are given the impression that the

man in the picture is deceased.

The lyrics really go with the narrative of the video. Due to the lyrics we can figure out that

the man in the picture was her lover at some point.

The camera moves between her siting at her dresser and another man lying asleep on

the bed behind her.

“I guess second best is all I will know” – It cuts to a close up of her face as she sings

these words, showing the pain in her expression; this illustrates that she is still in love with

the man in the picture but is trying to move on with the man behind her.

This is further proved when the

lyrics get to “When I’m with him

I am thinking of you”. The

camera cuts between her with

the man she’s currently with

and the memories of her and

her past lover. That technique is

really effective with the lyrics

and it ends up giving emotion to

the video.

Katy Perry gives real emotional

expressions whilst she is singing, so it

adds to the sadness of the song and is

showing how much pain she must feel.

Whilst the camera is cutting between

the two couples, there is a close up of

the current man’s hand showing him

taking some sort of ring off. This straight

away gives the impression that he could

be an already married man, adding

further depth into the narrative.

Throughout the song, the camera

always cuts back to a close up of

that picture to constantly remind

viewers that she is singing to him-

“I wish I was looking into your eyes”

The camera still constantly cuts

between her memories and the

present to show the contrast

between them both. She seems

happy and content in her memories

and now she looks distraught and

lost. In her memories she is outside

with her lover in the sun, riding a

bike and running around. However

in the bedroom she’s currently in,

the curtains are closed with the sun

shining through and she looks

trapped.

An over the shoulder shot is used

while Katy is standing at the window. It

shows her memories of the place

she's looking at through the window.

The new man comes up behind

her and starts caressing her but

we still se e her memories of the

same sort of situation happening

to see the contrast of how happy

she looks then to how sad she

looks now.

The different cuts between

memories and reality are really

effective to make the viewers feel

for the singer.

We start getting black and white

flashbacks of her last lover in the war,

it’s black and white to perhaps give

connotations of how dark and sad the

situation is and also to make it look

more in the past.

When it gets to the part where he is

shot whilst fighting and falls on the floor,

Katy pushes her boyfriend off her at the

same time so he falls down too. This is

a very clever effective use of shots that

has been used to give an overall feel on

how distressed she feels.

we can tell that the creators made the narrative fit completely with

the words of the song by the use of comparison between memories

and current reality. We get a sense that Katy used to feel all free

and happy whilst in the memories and now looks all trapped and

unhappy; it kept changing between them to show this and give the

viewers a better insight to the meaning of the song.

The cinematography has been used well to look close at Katy’s

expressions to show what she is feeling whilst singing. Her

expressions are an important aspect to the narrative as it shows

how unhappy she is.

The mise en scene is quite bright apart from the war parts, we see

a lot of sunshine, however, this goes back to the fact she feels

trapped and alone. In her memories she’s outside in the sun but in

the present she was trapped inside a house while the sun was

shining outside.