Perri’s music video opens with shows some sort of machinery,
perhaps mirroring a human heart, spluttering sparks. This could be interpreted
as the imperfections in perfection; the use of robotic elements contains
stereotypes of perfection but with this heart-like feature spluttering sparks
portrays a lacking in robotic features. The music involved in this creates a
crescendo that abruptly stops as the next scene features Perri herself. The use
in such abruptness portrays the sudden turn off of a machine system that could
occur in an instant with the mere press of a button.
In these shots, the instrumental of the song moves in sync
to the lightening and the enlargement of the screen. Perri sits in the centre
of the room on some sort of round table; the lighting has altered between these
two screen shots of the video. One consists of less lighting, enveloping Perri
in a silhouette form, while the other spotlight’s Perri’s features
completely. The use of lighting here, is
largely effective solely due to the exposure of something alternative to
mundane, to the viewers. For instance when we come across the silhouette Perri,
we see her in exactly the same position as before, but with a slight
alteration. Viewers come across some sort of robotic wiring in the back of her
thighs and stomach. These show complementariness to the lyrics for this song as
they desire some sort of perfectionist from the singer hence putting her in a
robotic state.
The build up to the chorus features shots of Perri beginning
to slowly move in sync to the song. This could a crosslink to the lyrics as during
the chorus she highlights the humanity in her and outcomes Humans would likely
come across if they were to come across such impossible tasks. As well as
Perri’s change in position, changing in lighting also becomes evident. The room
suddenly becomes brighter and clearer, highlighting and exposing the appearance
of Perri and lightly pulsing to the keys of the piano, almost as if it were
mimicking a pulse. As opposed to the contrast of dark and light evident during
the first verse as the room constantly changes in brightness to the tune of the
song, perhaps mimicking a functional robot. These two techniques in terms of
the lighting remain this way through the whole music video, amplifying the
contrast between perfection to a state where a person develops robotic features
or human qualities in while a person makes mistakes.
The use of a closeup shot in this particular shot has the
purpose of two reasons: Firstly, conforming to Goodwin’s theory of the demand
in close ups of the artist for viewers to easily recognise the artist and
secondly to display the unusual eyes that Perri has. Her irises have some sort
of mechanical or artificial light around the edges, creating an unusual and
inhuman effect. Again, this conforms to Goodwin’s theory as the use of these
eyes is amplifying to the lyrics of the song. At this point of the song, the
artist has already started to sing. However, in the music video Perri doesn’t
sing along with it. This is again something that can be considered as
associative to the lyrics because viewers are expectant of her to sing, but she
doesn’t. Although, later on in the music video she does begin to sing along
with the song, but at the moment it is hard to depict whether this is a
performance-based music video or narrative based. This confusion could be
considered as something the video emits, an attempt to display Perri’s confusion,
whether she is human or a robot.
The camera displays a brief movement, highlighting Perri’s
features. From the above screenshot, to this, the camera develops a swift
panning movement which connects to these shots maintaining constancy in the
sequence and thus music video. Again, the highlighting of these features and
camera movements associate to the song, display a close up of Perri’s features
and perhaps question the stillness and perfection in her posture suggests
inhuman physical characteristics.
Again, different angles of the same behaviour (which in this
case is Perri walking) has portrayed, one of which involves a shadow of Perri
walking. This idea is simple, yet holds curiosity in the video hooking viewers
in. Cuts throughout the music video take a slow pace, as if viewers are
required to take in Perri. The setting itself is bathed in white with
flickering lights, it can be considered that the white room Perri is in may be
some sort of prison or perhaps a stereotype of a white room where the mentally
ill are locked. The main purpose of this is to show entrapment and captivity
that the demand in perfection is causing off Perri.
During this bridge, the pace begins to quicken as we come
across quick cuts and flickering. This is in correspondence to the crescendo of
the song and its bridge. This complements Andrew Goodwin’s theory as during the
bridge of the song, the shots complement to the crescendo, creating a montage
of the sparks flying from her internal system and flashes of Perri singing.
Also during the flashes to wear Perri sings we also come across a flickering
effect, much like the flickering effect I casted on my flashback scenes in my
movie opening. However, these effects displayed sparks emitting off the screen.
The utilisation of Perri’s tattoos revealed to the viewer’s
suggests a sense of individuality, a common trait humans share. The sparks raining
upon Perri and the shot of her robotic heart pumping blood suggests Perri’s
transformation from robot to human. This is revealed through the close up shots
of her tattoos on her forearm and the close up shot of her arm drawing in blood
as well as the wide shot displaying falling sparks are illustrative of her
robot features disappearing, and in its place forming a human. The shot of the
robot heart drawing in blood is again evidence of this transformation and
conveys another point conforming to Andrew Goodwin and the association between
lyrics and visual effects.
Watching Behind The Scenes of Perri's Human music video was an interesting experience. having first hand views on the music video by the director and Perri. As well as the bases to these different unique shots used in the video, I learned the basis to the song and why it was so simplistic which was because a dramatic song like this did not require a story line to the video.
