2. Cinematography
● The video begins with stable medium close ups of Katy and her husband at the altar. These shots
establish the location of the scene which is at their wedding in a church.
● They then switch to a close up of the groom swallowing hard to show his distressed state and lead
the viewer to think that he may be considering saying no to marrying her. The use of these close ups
build up the tension in the scene.
● The shot changes to a wide/long shot of all the people at the altar breaking into the song and being
angry and fed-up with the groom. This brings us back to the purpose of the video which is to hear the
song.
● A low angle shot of the groom running out of the church shows his desperation to get out of there.
● A tracking shot on a handheld is used to follow the action outside of the church.
● Close up of Katy Perry running after him shows her singing.
● Medium and close up shots of Katy Perry singing in the nightclub and with her backup girls in the car
are used to show her expression and portray aggression and anger.
3. Editing
● Shot reverse shots between groom and bride at the altar to follow action. More
shots of groom are used to build up tension and anticipation as to whether or
not he will say yes.
● With the faster paced parts of the song, the editing uses a composition of
many short shots. This creates the effect of a hectic quickly moving
atmosphere, therefore suiting the tone of the song.
● The editing uses cross-cutting between different scenes like the night club and
the brides in the car. The use of many different scenes portrays a suffocating
and overwhelming mood; perhaps reflecting the emotions of the groom who
cannot escape Katy and her friends.
4. Mise-en-scene
Costume: Katy Perry wears many different costumes and has her whole crew of background singers and dancers matching
her costumes. This creates a sense for the audience that they have a very large budget and come from high production
values.
Lighting: In the church scene the lighting is slightly low key as it usually would be in a church. This makes it feel more
realistic. When they run outside the lighting is bright and natural. In the night club the lighting has a red and flashing colour to
give the effect of a real night club. For the most part, the video functions in a high key lighting atmosphere.
Acting: Katy acts frustrated and fed up with her soon to be husband. The groom’s performance displays him as distressed
and conflicted as well as desperate to get away from committing to Katy.
Music: The music is the song Hot and Cold.
Props: There aren’t any props used by Katy, however the groom uses a Nokia phone; assumingly for sponsorship purposes.
Setting: The setting is based first in a church, then running after the groom in the street, then in a nightclub, then in a
warehouse then back to the church. This cyclical structure constructs meaning because is depicts the groom imagining how
Katy would react if he said no instead of “I do”. Thus portraying Katy as crazy rather than himself as she refers to him as “hot
and cold”.
5. Sound
The video begins with the dialogue of Katy, the priest and the groom at the altar,
hesitating to say I do. This acts as the transition and introductory stage into the
song.
The synchronous sound of Katy Perry’s song “Hot and Cold” plays throughout the
whole music video.
6. Genre
The genre of this music video is a drama, however the song itself is classified as a
pop song.
The reason why it is a drama is because it is filled to the brim with exaggerated and
dramatic events. Such as the many crying brides and running after the groom in the
street. Since drama is mostly comprised of events that would not realistically
happen in real life; this music video conforms perfectly as I highly doubt a nightclub
would randomly appear in a tunnel and have a bride singing as the lead.
7. Audience
The target audience is older teenagers and young adults.
This video appeals to the target audience because it features many conventions
such as bright colors, funky outfits and crazy settings that would catch the eyes of
this audience.
This will leave the impact of creating a comedic and uplifting mood for the
audience.
8. Narrative
The narrative structure follows a cyclical pattern:
-it begins in the church getting married
-then running after him on the street
-then a nightclub scene
-then in a warehouse
-then back to the church
All of the scenes written in blue are scenes imagined by the groom when he is considering saying no to marrying Katy. This
means that in reality we have never left the church and are simply venturing into the groom’s imagination.
The purpose of this structure is to show how crazy Katy’s personality is, since we are told that she would act this way if he
said no.
The impact of this narrative structure makes the audience feel confusion towards Katy due to her irrational and strange
actions rather than sympathy as we felt towards her in the start.
9. Representation
Men are represented as indecisive “ you change your mind, like a girl changes
clothes”. This not only offers a negative representation of men but
also women. As it plays on the stereotype that women are overly emotional and
cannot choose for themselves. This representation is further
confirmed when Katy is shown acting like a psychopath and following him around.
This representation leaves an impact on women as they may feel angry about how
they are represented. Men may feel positively as they may agree
with this over emotional representation of women as they may feel that they’ve
encountered women who act similarly to Katy.
