Analysing A Music Video

Katy Perry - The One That Got Away
Directed By - Floria Sigsimondi





 

The video was released on November 11, 2011 to accompany the single. In the UK Singles chart it only made it to number 18 although it performed better in the US pop singles chart as it reached number 1. The single is one of 5 which have contributed to a number of records to do with number 1 singles from one album. The director is Floria Sigsimondi, the same director who was used to shoot Katy Perry's previous video E.T.


This music video is mainly in a narrative although there are a few shots which use performance. The shots of performance mainly include a young and old Katy Perry singing together and taking it in turns to sing.

The video begins with Katy Perry as an old woman living in a modernistic home with her husband. It is implied that the two are now in a loveless marriage as Katy makes herself a cup of coffee and goes up to her bedroom. Once in her bedroom she begins to to think about the past. As the older Katy Perry sits on her bed, there is a cut back to a shot of young Katy Perry with her boyfriend, (different to the man depicted as her husband), he appears to be an artist. As the song plays, Katy and her boyfriend paint portraits of each other, dress up, and dance at a party. The boyfriend also gives her a small tattoo (one which is seen earlier). The scene of the young couple are mixed with shots of an older Katy as she sadly reminiscing as she continues sits on her bed alone. In the flashback, the younger Katy and her boyfriend get into an argument, culminating in her splashing red paint on one of his elaborate paintings after he did the same to one of hers. He leaves angrily and drives away. The younger Katy appears to the older Katy in her bedroom and sits next to her on the bed as they both sing. The younger Katy is also shown in a closet, crying and singing. The boyfriend is then seen driving, blowing off steam from the fight. At the same time, the older Katy is shown driving out of her garage in the same type of car the boyfriend is driving in the flashback. The boyfriend opens the sun visor above him while driving and finds the veil of the dress the younger Katy had worn while partying. As he stares at the veil, it is implied that he decides to make up with Katy. However, while staring at the veil, he does not notice that large boulders had fallen onto the road from a small rock slide. He swerves to avoid the rocks and accidentally drives off a cliff, dying in the subsequent crash without getting a chance to make up with Katy. The song ends abruptly as the sounds of the car violently rolling are heard (the actual crash occurs off-screen and is simply implied.) The older Katy is then revealed to have driven to the spot where her past lover had died, while Johnny Cash's cover of  You Are My Sunshine plays quietly in the background. She walks up to the edge of the cliff and leans against a fence until her boyfriend's ghost, wearing Katy's clothes, appears before her on the other side of the fence. The two hold hands, revealing matching tattoos on their hands. Older Katy then comes back to reality, and the Johnny Cash stops suddenly and the ghost of the boyfriend disappears. Katy then turns back and walks away from the cliff as the screen fades to black.

The first shot is a long shot which shows the futuristic house which Katy now lives in, it also gives the audience a presumed idea of what year it may possibly be.

This shot is a medium shot, it shows an older Katy Perry which confirms to the audience that the timing of this part of the video is from the future. The shot shows an unhappy Katy who is stuck in her loveless marriage, note that this shot is just before the music starts. It then moves onto a medium close up which further shows her unhappiness.

Special effects are used in the music video to produce a shot which features both the old and young version of Katy Perry, a split screen effect is used here as both of the people featured in the shot are played by Katy Perry.

 With some of the shots of a young Katy Perry and her boyfriend a handicam is clearly used, this gives it more of nostalgic feel as if the older Katy is really looking back at these memories.

The editing pace is average and the speed goes with the beat of the song. Jump cuts are used when going from the past to the present/future, these are used effectively to show the older Katy Perry is coming back to reality.

Generally the music video was well received by critics and the public, to date it has reached 102,171,012 hits on youtube. It has also since been made into a Sims 3 music video to accompany a new release of the game.