"Dark Horse" by Katy Perry: DISAPPOINTING

Hello again beautiful people!

Today is tuesday and I'm here again to write about what I love the most: Music Videos, and this time I have something to say about the newest Katy Perry's music video: Dark Horse. For those of you who haven't seen it, here is it:

First, I have to say I'm a big fan of this woman because of her songs and how she normally treats the context in her videos BUT right now all I can say is I'm disappointed.

She normally treats her songs as poems and tries to get the best of everyone and every idea to make a perfect video but in this case she didn't exactly pick the perfect team nor idea. When we are talking about a dark horse we are using a metaphor so she doesn't exactly shows that in the video, but when we listen to the word magic we can see that she is being very literal. Maybe that is the reason why she picked the egyptian theme mixed with candy and her usual color wigs, after all we've always known Katy Perry as an eccentric person but with those rays of beauty in everything she shows.

In this case she keeps showing the eccentric part but I don't really know if the special effects in the video are the kinda of beauty we were looking for as fans. Those thunders or whatever they are seem so fake and plastic. It doesn't look real. And I know you might call me "idiot" because WE ALL KNOW the whole video is fiction but I can't avoid a comparison between "Dark Horse"'s special effects and "E.T." 's.

E.T. is basically a mixture of lights, wind, great clothes and a really incredible makeup design that make Katy look from another world:

Dark Horse is just a glimpse of what you can make with a basic degree in After Effects:

And even though her intention was reflecting the extravagant part of the egyptian culture there is no moment in which she makes you believe her fantasy. You might think this is stupid to say but for people like me who study filmography and audiovisual structures, it is always important for the public to believe whatever is in the screen, real or not that's how you make people like your creation and most importantly REMEMBER it. I can bet you will easily forget what this video was about.

Now, talking about photography... It is horrible. Like my title says I'm not an expert but I'm actually working on it because photography is one of passions and I've taken classes and I'm actually working in this area so I can assure you this video is not good at all in this aspect.

For example, one of our main rules is that you must never ever ever ever cut the body in little parts and make the person look like he or she doesn't have an arm, a leg, a finger or whatever and well this photographer always is cutting something from someone:

Katy Perry's finger:

A dancer's toes:

This photographer also has something with everything being in the middle. As a photographer I know that the middle is not the main point of view for people. You should divide your screen in nine little pieces like a puzzle and with that you'll know that the point in which you can caught the other's attention is where the lines collide.

And even when the photographer tries, he just can't make it right. When the thing you want for people to look at is a person, the lines should cross right in the eye but well...

Liked I said in the first place: I'm disappointed. Katy's videos are normally super good but this time the song wasn't even in context, audio-visually talking.

Anyway, I hope you can comment here and tell me YOUR opinion over this video and let me know if you want me to talk about an specific video or anything. Bye!

"Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake: AMAZING!

Welcome to my blog beautiful people! You might find it interesting, you might find it boring but it talks about what I like and most importantly WHY I like it.

I’m here to guide you through this beautiful world full of audiovisual and its technics so… Let’s start.

They very first video I want to share and analyze with you is one of my favorites: Mirrors performed by Justin Timberlake.

If you haven’t seen it here is it:

Let’s see. First of all this video is almost a year old and I know it is a bit long (8min) but I chose it because I think Justin’s videos are always full of concepts and good music.

To begin with, this one video is special because the song runs around the context of mirrors and a person reflecting another one as a sign of love and as we can see the video is very literal talking about this love. Mirrors are the main idea and the director works with them in a simple but really representative way.

The love story is understandable, maybe a bit simple but it helps us get in the context of the song. What isn’t simple is the art used in this piece. The room full of mirrors but the kind of mirrors that an old couple would have at home, the clothes they are wearing:

The scenario around the couple meeting each other, the old clothes they used to wear when they were young:

And even the room when she’s crying full of stuff a young women would have:

As a photographer I can tell you that one of the main rules when it comes to making and image is that everything around the focus spot must be there on purpose. What I mean is that you can’t see even a fly around the couple when they are around the mirrors and when the screen interacts with them by dividing itself in three.

I’m a fan of this man and I loved the last part of him dancing around the mirrors and at the same time making us hallucinating about girls. I loved that even when you can see that the girls are wearing wigs and weird clothes, he never stops being the center of our attention:

"Mirrors" is the name of the song and it is use as metaphor around it but they are all over the place when it comes to the video and they are all perfectly in place for us to never see the camera or anything that isn’t placed there on purpose. We always are looking at something else in the mirror and that is playing with us as challenging us to focus our attention in something else but what is right in front of us.

If you find anything in this video that I didn’t see and that makes it not so perfect then you can let me know in a comment. I hope to come back later with something to say about new Katy Perry’s video: "Dark Horse”. 

Bye bye!