Music Video Analysis - 'The One That Got Away' by Katy Perry

 'The One That Got Away'  by Katy Perry

(Directed by Floria Sigismondi, 2011)

The music video to Katy Perry's 'The One That Got Away'  has directly influenced our own work, as it focuses on the relationship between a couple and uses flashbacks to alternate between the present day and the past to highlight the passing of time and the disjunctive narrative, reflecting the couple's fragmented, broken relationship.

The mid-shot of Katy Perry as an elderly woman stirring her coffee cuts to a close-up to show her physical reaction and the audience understands that she is reminiscing about her past, immediately connecting the lyrics with the visuals; 'summer after high-school when we first met.' Subsequently, an extreme close-up is shown of what initially appears to look like coffee being stirred, however, the camera tilts upwards to reveal that in fact a paint brush is being immersed into watercolour paint. This technique promotes an effective, smooth transition to represent a change of time and the viewer instantly recognises that the narrative has shifted from the present day to the past. We aim to emulate this in our music video as we will essentially be creating our own type of transition shot to signify a flashback and shift in narrative but in a more creative way, rather than using a generic fade or dissolve transition.

Furthermore, a long shot is displayed of a young Katy Perry positioned in the centre of the frame, identifying her as the 'star' and even though the person closest to the camera is her partner in the video, he is positioned to just about appear in the last third of the frame, emphasising Perry's dominant status and star image. Other key features that distinguish the present from the past is the noticeable difference in mise-en-scene and lighting. At the beginning of the video, the camera is placed at a high-angle and slowly pans to show a vast, modern house (representative of isolation and loneliness) which juxtaposes with the small, cosy apartment that is portrayed in the first flashback and the lighting presented in the close-up of the elderly Katy Perry has a slight blue tint representing a futuristic quality, compared to the dull, dusky light in the long-shot of the couple, which seems quite faded, perhaps like Perry's memories of her past life.

There is a clear connection between the lyrics of the song and the visuals, for example: a close-up is shown of the couple kissing whilst Perry sings: 'never planned that one day, I'd be losing you.' This connection is ironic since the visuals depict a happy couple that only seem concerned with indulging in the present moment, whereas the artist is singing about loss and the future. In addition, when Perry commences with the chorus line: 'in another life...', the narrative shifts from the past back to the present, highlighting the star's 'other life' and the visuals show a long-shot of an elderly Katy Perry sitting on a bed amidst a dark lit bedroom, almost engulfed by the the amount of empty space in the frame and the blank white surroundings, representative of how her solitude and loneliness is her burden and this bleak imagery contrasts dramatically with the previous, tightly-packed close-up shot of the couple kissing and intimately embracing each other.
 

The performance element of the music video involves the young Katy Perry singing whilst roaming around the elder woman's house, similar to a ghostly figure, which represents how the regret and remorse of her past constantly haunts her mind. However, there is a role-reversal when the elder woman begins to sing the bridge line: 'all this money can't buy me a time machine'; she alludes to the worthless value of her present lifestyle in comparison to what she once had in the past. A close-up shot depicts both past and present versions of the star, emphasising the fact that although they may appear physically different, they are emotionally identical since they both perform the lyrics and express how they both 'pay the price' and this line is sang by the two characters in perfect synchronicity to heighten this.

The series of arguments create tension between the couple and help build up to the dramatic climax of the narrative where Perry's partner dies in a car accident. As an extreme long-shot captures the Mustang plummeting off a cliff in slow-motion, the video cross-cuts to a mid-shot of Katy Perry collapsing to her knees in slow-motion, which emulates how they both endured the effects of this tragedy. Furthermore, the fact that 'The One That Got Away' is still playing whilst the car falls, introduces the concept of contrapuntal sound and this only adds to the intense, emotional impact of the music video since the slow-paced, moving love song juxtaposes dramatically with the horrific and tragic event.

Intertextual Reference 

At the end of the music video', Johnny Cash's rendition of 'You Are My Sunshine' is heard as the elder Katy Perry reminisces of her lost partner. This links back to the lyric in 'The One That Got Away': 'I was June and you were my Johnny Cash.' Perry compares the love that Cash and his second-wife June Carter shared to be similar to what she previously had with her partner in the music video.