Kelly Clarkson music video with linking CD album cover and poster

I have chosen the 4th single to be released from the album breakaway to see if the music video still linked with the album cover.

Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You Music Video;

• The lyrics are about neglection of a child and how the child saw the world growing up, it also is about domestic abuse because the mother was abused, may have been a drug abuser and possibly neglected as well. The director of the music video's message would be to try and stop vicious circles of domestic abuse so they don't carry on into the next generation.
• The tempo of the music is quite slow as it is quite an emotional song, there is some on the beat editing but not much the rest of the editing tends to be off-beat.
• The music video follows a narrative which is perfect for this song because it is an emotive song and it portrays that emotion to the audience through narrative as well as lyrics. It is set mostly within a house which suggests that the lyrics could be about any family who have or have had the same kind of issues within the household. In the shots where Kelly Clarkson isn't in the house and playing a part in the narrative she is in a blackened out room - maybe green screen and the background edited black by the computer - she is wearing a black, halter-neck choker type top - this makes it look like she blends into the background further suggesting that the child/mum on the receiving end of the abuse had to blend into the background and try not to do anything which would make the dad's temper rise. Also black is colourless so whenever it is worn in this context it could represent the person's personality as colourless because they weren't allowed to be anything different. A lot of the shots seem to be set in low-key lighting especially at the beginning and through the middle however the lighting changes to three-point lighting by the end of the music video due to the mood changing within the narrative (not the lyrics). Within the house there are props which resemble the objects which would be found in a household in general for example pictures of the family. This suggests that the narrative has an element of truth to it because this could happen to anyone and it would effect the child negatively whilst growing up to see their mother and father arguing and 'fighting' all of the time. There are mostly panning, tracking or still shots used as the movement of the camera this is to capture the audience's attention by always moving - static shots - also some of the shots look they were filmed on a hand-held camera, this is done to make it seem like the audience is part of the action, to feel like they are there and feel the emotion that is being portrayed. There are mostly cuts between shots and there are the occasional fade to and fade in from black.

Camerawork and Editing;

• Fade in from black, the camera pans from the tree down to the house - establishing shot - establishes the location that the music video is generally going to be set in.
• Cut in to a medium shot of a window on the house - two people look as though they are inside and they are in view - there is a slight narrow depth of focus - the focus is on the people inside the house/behind the window - this suggests to the audience that the narrative will be about a man and a woman.
• Cut to a medium shot - inside the house - cutting into the action - it could be debated as being an over-the-shoulder shot as the man and the woman are positioned how they would be in an over-the-shoulder shot. They're in the kitchen - you can see a fridge and doors etc. The camera is shaking slightly as if it was hand-held and following the action - makes the audience feel in touch with the characters even though the music video has only just begun - they look like they are arguing - it has all been edited to be in slow motion to go with the slow beat of the song - also it makes it more emotive for the audience.
• Cut to a reverse shot on the man's side - could be an over-the-shoulder shot again? Camera isn't directly behind him or looking directly over his shoulder but it still could be argued to be that. There is a narrow depth of focus also and the focus is on the foreground which is the couple having an argument.
• Cuts out of the room and the camera is slightly lower - there are details of a phone to the left of the shot and again there is a narrow depth of focus so the audience will focus on the couple fighting. There are hints that this may be a point of view shot but that isn't entirely clear.
• Cut to a two shot - Kelly Clarkson is walking out of the shot (Close up on her) and you can see the man to the left and behind her.
• Cuts to a reverse shot and you see the man following Kelly Clarkson out of the door. There is still shaky camerawork and as I said before it may have been filmed on a hand held camera to get the audience more involved.
• Cut to a medium close up of Kelly Clarkson - tracking shot - follows the action out of the door - you see the man emerge also.
• Cut into detail of a picture of what seems like the family - all of them smiling and there is a child in the middle of Kelly Clarkson and the man. A narrow depth of field has been used and the focus is on this central picture to draw the audiences attention to it because something important may happen to it or it may just be that something important is going to happen to the smiling family after the argument in the shots previously. You also see at the end of the shot a blur of blond go past - which may be Kelly Clarkson - the next shot wold confirm it.
• Cut to a medium tracking shot of Kelly lip-syncing whilst walking backwards as the first verse has started. She has also had a costume change so it appears that the blond blur going past the screen was Kelly and may also symbolise a jump forwards in time. Also the fact Kelly is walking backwards may symbolise her as going over her memories of that night/day. The lighting also looks brighter so it implies that she is happy now then she was then.
• Cut back to the picture and a hand and arm appears grabbing it - camera pans quickly diagonally up to the right to show a medium close up of the man looking angry.
• Cut to a very slightly low angled shot of the man running up behind the woman and grabbing at her.
• Cut in to a medium close up of what looks like Kelly embracing herself for him to hit her.
• Cut back to the medium long shot of the man raising the family photo up to hit her. The whole shot freezes - then green screen may have been used for Kelly to turn around and for the man to stay 'frozen'.
• Cut to a medium tracking shot of Kelly lip-syncing and walking backwards again - she is in the hallway where the shot before was taken - establishing further that she is going over her memories and walking backwards shows her thinking of the past.
• Cut back to the narrative of a medium close up of Kelly looking slightly shocked etc. There is low-key lighting in this shot - half of her face and shot is in shadow - this gives a sense of eeriness about it, then she steps into the lightened area - the whole of her face is lit up - this shows that she's stepping out of the bad situation.
• Cut to a reverse shot - a medium shot of Kelly Clarkson from behind walking forwards towards what looks like a mirror.
• Cut to a medium close up of Kelly looking quite scared and concerned - there's a narrow depth of focus as the focus is on the foreground in which Kelly is in - draws the audiences attention to the emotion she is showing on her face.
• Cut to a shot of the camera panning upwards to reveal an over-the-shoulder shot of a little girl standing in a mirror - this suggests that Kelly is looking at her past self who looks just as scared as kelly did - this suggests that history may be repeating itself in her present life as it did in her childhood - she turns away at the same time as Kelly so it confirms that it was a mirror she was looking into. Green screening would have been used to merge the little girl in the mirror and the back of Kelly's back, shoulder and head.
• Fade in from black quickly of Kelly lip-syncing and standing in front of a mirror - everywhere is black apart from the spotlight above her - the camera pans round and you can see a number of reflections of Kelly as she may have another mirror behind her - that's how you get the effect anyway unless they did the effect in editing. Fade to black.
• Fade in from black to Kelly lip-syncing in the mirror (the same as the previous shot with the camera panning right then left then right a bit again). Fade to black.
• Fade in from black to a medium close up of Kelly Clarkson lip-syncing - first looking down then looking straight into the camera when she sings "you".
• Cut to a long shot of Kelly and her childhood self walking through the dining room?
• Jump cut backwards to a master shot of the kitchen where a little girl runs into the shot (Kelly when she was younger) and you see on the far right Kelly and her younger self walk into the door frame.
• Cut in to detail - a medium shot of the little girl with what looks like a drawing in her hand - girl looks hopeful, excited and proud of herself - hands it to whoever is standing opposite her.
• Cut to a reverse shot of the dad on the phone - he takes the drawing.
• Cut to back to the master shot of this sequence - shows reactions of Kelly and her younger self in the door frame.
• Cut to a medium panning shot of the dad putting the drawing on the kitchen side/sink area as if he wasn't interested.
• Cut to a medium shot - camera is panning upwards to show the expressions on his face - blank and not at all interested in the drawing - he is wearing a suit - this suggests that he is about to go to work and/or is taking a business call - further suggesting that he is so engaged with work to pay attention to his family ie. his daughter.
• Cut to a medium reaction shot of the little girl looking disappointed and annoyed - camera panning backwards
• Cut back to the shots of Kelly lip-syncing and standing in front of a mirror - everywhere is black apart from the spotlight above her - the camera pans round and you can see a number of reflections of Kelly as she may have another mirror behind her - that's how you get the effect anyway unless they did the effect in editing.
• Cut back to the master shot of the sequence - showing little girl walking out of the room and Kelly and her younger self looking at each other.
• Cut in to detail of a medium shot of Kelly ad her younger self and their expressions of shock and disappointment - camera panning forwards
• Cut to a medium close up of Kelly when she is singing against the black background - eyes looking straight into the camera - shows the emotion of the lyrics and the message which goes with them.
• Cut to a panning, medium long shot of Kelly and all of her reflections - she's looking down to the left to show the emotion also.

I have researched up to 1.09 minutes (end of the first verse and chorus) for the camerawork and editing used in the music video however for the rest of the research I have used the whole music video.

Application of Andrew Goodwin's theories to the music video for 'Because of You';

• One of Andrew Goodwin's theories is that within music videos there are visual parallels with the tempo of the music which are directly represented in music video clips. The speed can be represented in the clips by the movement of the camera, fast editing, post production and any effect edited in by the computer. In the music video for 'Because of You' the tempo of the music is quite slow and there are parallels to this by there being some slow paced editing due to there being some takes which are long however there are some takes which are quite short due to fast paced editing (that's mainly in the narrative) also the camera movement reflects the tempo of the music so when the tempo is slow the camera movement is slow and when it speeds up at the chorus the camera movement speeds up also.
• Andrew Goodwin suggests that the voice, the rhythm and the backing which supports them are three central elements of the arrangement of pop music videos. 'Because of You' is edited to the lyrics mostly for example each line, phrase or a couple of words, it does display evidence of editing on the beat however it isn't used as much as editing to the lyrics. These each emphasise the vocals and rhythmic prominence. There are also conflicts between these two elements due to there being cuts away from shots of lip-syncing to the narrative. Just over half way through when Kelly Clarkson sings the last bridge of the song before the chorus, there is emphasis on the beat because 4 major things occur within the narrative. On a symbol crash the table hits the floor after being thrown, on one of the beats something smashes against the wall, on another symbol crash the child picks up the suitcase, and finally on the last symbol crash before the piano is the only instrument heard, the dad pulls the childs hand off the suitcase. All of these things emphasise the beat and the beat also emphasises important things which have happened in the narrative. Although the narrative reflects the lyrics it also emphasises the beat, making it hard to distinguish which element is being emphasised.
• He also borrowed a theory, of conflict being resolved from a narrative theory - it is relevant to the visual images, the lyrics sung and the music played. 'Because of You' has elements of a conflict being restored due to when the 'dad' packs his suitcases and leaves in his car, the words "Because of You" are repeated in the chorus and are borrowed from the songs title, also there is a closing drum beat and piano tune which has more impact with the song as a piano is seen as a calm and relaxing instrument as it's acoustic - this reflects that conflict has been restored due to the calm piano closing the whole song.
  
  

Kelly Clarkson's 2nd album - Breakaway
Because Of You was the 4th single to be released from Breakaway.

There are two different Album Covers for this album as one is the US original version and the other is the UK and special Edition Album Cover version.

The US version;
Front Cover;

This Album Cover clearly doesn't link with the music video in a visual sense however what the visual image represents can be seen as linking with the music video for 'Because Of You'. Kelly Clarkson has a kind of serious expression on her face which can represent that she is going to cover some serious issues in the songs within this album. Also she has got both of her hands on her head scrunching up her hair (which looks messy) this suggests that she can't take what she is being put through any longer - this links in with the lyrics of 'Because Of You' and the music video which goes with the song. The whole Album Cover has got a grey/dull tint to it this suggests that there is a lot emotion in the songs from the album unlike if the album had bright colours on it which would suggest that the songs are upbeat and have a cheery feel to them. The name of the artist is in white writing, in capital letters against a black background. This makes the artists name stand out, establishing to the audience who the artist is. This will entice any of the audience who are already big fans of the artist, also it may be intriguing to other people who are a fan of the genre of music and have recognised that there is someone who is still quite new to the industry so they may appear fresh (which is a good thing). Above the artist's name there are swirls and a pattern, this suggests that she is quite girly however the outline of the swirls suggests that the girliness is hidden beneath a cover act. Overlapping the the black box in which the artists name is in is the box with the Ablum title inside of it. The box is a dull yellow/orange colour whereas the writing of the title is in black - this stands out from the background establishing the name of the album. Also the Album title 'Breakaway' is a song title on the album as well.

Back Cover; The image on the back cover is a very extreme close up of Kelly Clarksons' face - to be more specific - half of her nose, her eye and her fringe/side of her hair are all in view. It looks like it has been cropped from the front cover as it is in the same kind of tint and her hair and eye is in the exact same position as it was. Along the bottom, taking up about a quarter of the space on the back cover is a strip of white as the backdrop - layered on to that is - from the left hand side some grey, black, yellow and white squares - it looks like a splatter of paint effect has been used to have strips of white along the squares making it look more interesting and keep it to the theme of the front cover. Above these it looks like there are some logos - of production companies? - this takes up one third of the space horizontally on the bottom of the back cover. The other two thirds is taken up by the track list and list of producers, directors, writers etc. The top half of this strip is the track list - the background for this is black and in a rectangle shape - with fancy corners to make it look more attractive. The tracks are in the same font as Kelly's name on the front cover - which carries the theme on - the writing is in white, so on the black background it stands out a lot so it will attract the attention of the fans and they will see what tracks will be on the album. Underneath, still in the same font is the list of people who worked on the Album with Kelly - this time in black and on a white background so it will stand out again. On the far left - turned vertically is the bar code so a shop will be able to scan them through when people pay for them. On the far far left and right are the sides of the CD cover which have the artists name and the name of the album on it - both in the same fonts and colours as they are on the front cover - both on top of an orangey-yellow background which goes with the whole theme of the album covers.

The UK and Special Edition version;

Front Cover;The name of the artist and album is in exactley the same position, fonts, colour and arrangement as they were on the US front cover - showing to audiences if they ever come across both albums then they will associate them together. The name of the artist is in white writing, in capital letters against a black background. This makes the artists name stand out, establishing to the audience who the artist is. This will entice any of the audience who are already big fans of the artist, also it may be intriguing to other people who are a fan of the genre of music and have recognised that there is someone who is still quite new to the industry so they may appear fresh (which is a good thing). Above the artist's name there are swirls and a pattern, this suggests that she is quite girly however the outline of the swirls suggests that the girliness is hidden beneath a cover act. Overlapping the the black box in which the artists name is in is the box with the Ablum title inside of it. The box is a dull yellow/orange colour whereas the writing of the title is in black - this stands out from the background establishing the name of the album. Also the Album title 'Breakaway' is a song title on the album as well. The image of Kelly Clarkson on the front cover of this album has a sense of movement and energy to it - it must have been an action shot of Kelly performing or just moving for the camera. The shot is a medium close up - she is positioned side on to the camera and she could have a fan on her which is blowing her hair to give the sense of movement and excitement. It seems a lot more lively than the US album cover mainly because of whats going on within the still image and the brightness of the colour - because it hasn't been dimed down in colour which makes it more eye-catching over-all. The position of the text and the image is in the exact same place as it is on the US album cover.

Back Cover;

The album back cover is in a very similar layout to the US album back cover - however the image takes up the whole of the top 3/4 of the back cover and the barcode is on the same strip as the track list etc. Also it is actually in different colours to the US album as this back cover is a lot darker in the shades which have been used. The image is a medium shot of Kelly - the background is very dark - there may have been low-key lighting used as only half of her is really visable in the image - also the clothing she is wearing is quite dark aswell. This suggests that there may be two types of song on this album - ones which are portrayed by the front cover as lively and the ones which are portrayed by the back cover as quite dark and emotional. This is to attract two types of audience - people who enjoy and are interested in those type of songs. The other two thirds is taken up by the track list and list of producers, directors, writers etc. The top half of this strip is the track list - the background for this is a grey colour and in a rectangle shape - with fancy corners to make it look more attractive. The tracks are in the same font as Kelly's name on the front cover - which carries the theme on - the writing is in black, so it looks intrigueing to the audience - also the numbers of the tracks are in a yellow/orangey colour which attracts the audience to look at the track list more. Underneath, still in the same font is the list of people who worked on the Album with Kelly - this time in a gold colour for the top half of this writing and on the bottom half the writing is in white - both on a black background so it will stand out again. On the far far left and right are the sides of the CD cover which have the artists name and the name of the album on it - both in the same fonts as they are on the front cover - "Breakaway" is in white opposed to "Kelly Clarkson" on the front cover and "kelly Clarkson" is in black opposed to "Breakaway" on the front cover - both layered on top of a gold coloured background which goes with the whole theme of the album covers.


A German Tour Poster (it was the only one I could find for this specific tour and I couldn't find any CD adverts either);Five sixths of the overall cover of the poster is taken up by the image - this is only the second most eye-catching thing - it is also the exact same image used for the UK version of the album cover - this suggests that it may also be the European version of the album cover - not just the UK's. The first is the artists name - "Kelly Clarkson" in white with what looks like a black shadow just to make it jump out of the poster at the audience - also its in the same font as her name is on the album covers. Underneath the artists name is the name of the tour in a smaller font - "Behind These Hazel Eyes Tour" - in a gold colour and italics (like on the album cover aswell) this makes the name also stand out - making it eye-catching against the dark background and establishing to the audience that it is a tour. Underneath this is in an even smaller font - "with a special guest" - this is in white so it will stand out also - this is intrigueing to the audience as they don't know who the special guest is - they would have to find out if they went - this is put on the poster try and get more tickets sold for the tour. The whole image has got a deep red tint to it - apart from Kelly's face which is glowing - the red tint is to represent her as a sexual object - to make people associate the deep red with roses and romance - hints of what the songs may be like.

In the bottom 1/6 of the overall cover of the poster there is a white strip - on the left is a picture of the UK/European version of the album cover - establishing that the tour is to promote this album and most of the songs performed will be from the album. All of the writing layered on to the white strip is in black and the same font as what Kelly's name is in and on the front cover as well - follows theme of the album etc. The largest fonts are the writing which establishes when it is held and where - 20th of March and in berlin. The rest of the writing is too small to read on computer but if it was a poster on a bus shelter for example the font would be larger - it may be who has worked with Kelly to produce the album and worked with her to set up the tour etc.

Overall with Kelly Clarkson's promotional work, the UK's CD covers links the best visually with the tour poster as it follows the exact same fonts and layout - also uses the same image - this gets the audience to associate the two media products with eachother so they may buy tickets for the tour if they enjoyed the album or they may go to the tour and enjoy it so much that they buy the album. I have also found that the 4th song's music video to be released from the album doesn't link as well as the first one does - this suggests that promotional work for the media products doesn't carry on in the music videos after the first or second song is released - however it will carry on in posters associated with the album released.