Katy Perry/ This Is How We Do fits within the pop genre which is the same as the genre Justin Timberlake/Mirrors fits under. The narrative which is betrayed here is how girls are seen in society and it is a song aimed at an audience of just girls because it is explaining the life of a girl and what they go through and how they deal with it. That girls as a whole do things their own way and how they deal with things.
The editing in this video plays a big part in making this video look really effective. It plays a significant part in the whole image of the music video. The video is very much abstract so the music video relays heavily on the editing to make it look the best it possibly can. The shots are in very different orders and there is a lot of topic changes to different meanings. So the video can change depending on the order of the shots and cuts, the cuts here are put together in the order the lyrics fall in the song. The pace of the song is really quick and upbeat the shots are edited to fit this which is conventional to pop music video. Continuity editing is used a lot throughout the video to make the transitions smooth and the edits appear invisible, so the actions performed by Katy Perry come across as real life instead of constructed and makes the video seem more believable and realistic. The transitions throughout the video are shown as cuts to each shot then to another. The main editing technique which is used throughout are jump cuts form one shot to another shot which indicates a change of location, change of costume or where the subject of the lyrics changes to something else. The length of the shots reflect the narrative, as the video is betrayed to that of an abstract narrative because the pace, rhythm are fast but short the editing is matching the pace and beat of the song. There are many examples of special effects used in post-production in this music video to reflect different parts of the song, as when she goes to the ice-cream van the ice creams and lollies are animated but come to life which reflects the pop genre as it is funky and different. Also in the music video the shot the ping pong balls almost look 3D, this effect is created using a green screen and technology on a specific software to create the effect.
As the music video is abstract the main focus is the editing, mis-en-scene and cinematography to create the narrative structure. The only sound really used in this music video is the diegetic sound which is the lyrics themselves the 'THIS IS HOW WE DO' which is the soundtrack to this music video. As the video is abstract the mis-en-scene links to the lyrics directly and there is no added breaks to the music which has been placed to develop the narrative. But some of the song has a little break because Katy Perry talks the lyrics instead of singing them, so there is a break for dialogue from Katy when she says 'bring the beat back' which still matches the lyrics of the song and the melody of the song. Also the use of non-diegetic material the words that appear on the screen which match the lyrics and they have to be read because there is no video or image on screen apart from the writing of the lyrics this is a typical convention of the form and genre of pop as the music videos often have the lyrics flashing at some point in the music video, this is different to the Justin Timberlake/Mirrors video because it didn't have animation, special effects or much clear editing because it had a narrative.
Mis-en-scene plays on of the biggest parts in this video. Within the first shot it indicates an art gallery to the audience, we see her within a frame and a man is analysing her as a painting. The lighting goes from dark to light really quick as the song starts. With the use of costume Katy Perry is always seen to wearing bright and bold colors this adds to the effectiveness of the mise-en-scene within the video. There is a shot in the video which betrays an inter-textual reference to the paintings constructed by Piet Mondrian, This is shown through the use of costume and makeup which match the background and she camouflages in to the background, he work is famous for his use of geometric shapes and the bold colours. The body language and facial expressions performed by Katy Perry as there is a high performance element because the performance matches the lyrics. As the piece is abstract and based on modern art, colour and the lighting play a big role in the ideology of the piece. The backgrounds used throughout are both bold, bright and really block colour and the bright lighting use conveys the abstract theme. This is conventional of pop videos, also there is another inter-textual reference to Aretha Franklin, as there is a picture of her with 'Respect' written underneath which reflects the title of her really famous song, which reinforces the funky theme.
In terms of cinematography, the different shots used are medium close-ups and long shots to establish the costumes and can see the facial expressions of Katy Perry and her dancers. When Katy Perry is in the frame at the start the camera zooms in to her face, she is in the center of the frame establishing her importance, and because she is in the frame it conveys to the audience she is the main protagonist. With character placement, Katy is always placed in front of her dancers and in the middle signalling her importance. There is a lot of low angle shots looking up at Katy making her the dominant one in the videos. Establishing shots are used throughout the piece to help the audience understand the location and costume, and you see the whole frame and it reflects the abstract video.
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