The music video for "Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri uses visual elements like costume, lighting, facial expressions and editing to represent the meaning and emotions of the song lyrics. The artist wears a white dress with a black belt, representing innocence tainted by darkness. Her frown and lack of smiles convey her upset emotional state. Extreme close-ups of her face draw the viewer in, while negative space in mid-shots creates variety. Subtle effects during a kiss scene symbolize something being extracted, fitting the song's narrative. Overall the video uses visual storytelling to bring the feelings of the song to life.

1. Christina Perri – Jar Of Hearts
Analysis
By Asia Thomas Jennings

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Mise En Scene - Costume
The 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.

5. Mise En Scene – Body Language
The 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.

6. Mise En Scene - Positioning
For 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.

7. Editorial choices
This 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.