Demi Lovato – Give Your Heart a Break (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zfzka5VwRc)

This music video has different elements of both a performance video and a narrative video. The actual artist of the song is featured as the protagonist within the narrative, and she also performs sections of the song too. The video is mainly based around the performance aspect, however in between parts, there is some sort of love story shown, which is then highlighted by the song itself. The most common theme of narrative videos is love, which is clearly what this video is based around. There is a girl and boy featured, and there are shots of photographs of them both together throughout the video, enhancing the ideology of love.

The video begins with shot reverse shot of the boy and the girl. There is a long shot of both characters, which then cuts to a close up, then to a medium shot of the girl hanging up the phone, which has been done to show their conversation and that something is wrong. Their facial expressions look quite upset, suggesting that there is some heartbreak within this video, which is a convention of pop videos. Also in the second shot, there are photographs framed on the wall and on the desk of the two characters, again, suggesting a love story. The lighting within the shots of the female is quite soft , and the room appears to be very neat, tidy and feminine. However the setting around the boy seems to be quite metallic and harsh, showing the masculinity.

The video then moves on and cuts to various shots of the female sat in the same position as before, however she is performing the song, which shows aspects of a performance video. She is wearing quite dark colours, which is not usually a connotation of love, suggesting some sort of problem.

There are then cuts between the performance by the artist and the narrative side of things, showing the girl and the boy painting together. Within the shots of them painting, both characters look very happy, this is showing their relationship, and suggesting they were happy before, which is a convention of the pop genre. The paint used is the same colour of the female’s home, in which she is sitting in, showing that the couple painted her home, and enhancing this idea of love.

It then cuts to a shot of the male sitting down, looking upset. It shows him picking up a photograph of him and the female,

and then putting it face down so he cannot see it. This enhances the theme of heartbreak, as it is suggested that they have fallen out or has some sort of argument. The lighting in the male’s home is quite soft, which is parallel to his emotions, showing his ‘feminine’ side. However, the furniture in his home is mainly black, which contrasts and shows his masculine side.

The video then cuts to a different setting where the artist is performing the song again. There is one single spotlight on the artist, which is similar to how a live performance would look on a stage, relating back to the performance video type. The artist is wearing black clothing, which contrasts with the bright lighting to make her appear clearer. In between different shots of her performing, there are various close up shots of her collecting photographs of the couple, and looking through

them. She turns one of the photographs over and it has the words ‘the day we met’ written on the back, ending with a heart symbol. This is highlighting the theme of love, and this is quite a common technique used within pop videos. The handwriting looks like stereotypical female writing, emphasising her femininity.

It then shows a long shot of the female walking away from her chair, shortly after, a cut is used to show her walking down the street, whilst performing the song. This shows that she is going somewhere, and the audience will assume it is to restore the equilibrium. There are close up shots of the couple hugging and holding hands, which re-emphasises this theme of love, and it comes across as a flash back, similarly to the shots of them both painting earlier in the video. Both the female and the male are wearing the colour white, which represents innocence and purity, and it is also a connotation of love as it is a light-hearted colour. The lighting in the performance shots is very dark and the artist is surrounded by metallic objects, however in the flashback shots of them, there is a lot of natural light surrounding them, and there are flowers and brightly coloured objects in the background, showing the contrast between their emotions in each shot.

The camera shots in this section cut back and forth between the artist performing the song surrounded by dark objects and dull lighting, and shots of the couple with each other, hugging and looking happy, in which these shots are brightly lit, creating a clear contrast in emotions.

The rest of the video cuts between shots of the artist performing the song, flashback shots of the couple looking happily in love, and shots of the artist sticking photographs of them on a wall as a collage. In the flashback shots, the lighting is very high key, and the characters facial expressions look happy as they are constantly smiling and laughing together. Whereas, in the shots of the artist sticking photographs on a wall, and the performance shots, the lighting is very low key and slightly depressing, giving off a gloomy feel. This suggests that they were in love, and are going through a rough patch in their relationship, which is a very common narrative within pop genre music videos. Therefore, making many features within this video conventional of the genre, and exactly what the audience will be expecting to see from this kind of genre.

Also, the clothing that is worn in every shot of the couple together is white, or a very pale colour. This is a connotation of love, as it could resemble white doves. Light colours also suggest happiness and innocence; conventional features of a pop video. However, in the shots of the artist on her own, she wears black clothing, giving off a moody, depressed feel, suggesting she is not happy without the boy.

There are then

close up shots of the photographs stuck on the wall the artist is organising, and it then cuts to the memories behind each photograph. Similar to before, the memories are shown with high key lighting, lightly coloured clothes and happy facial expressions, showing the love story between the two characters, which is a conventional feature of the pop genre.

There is then a close up shot of the female’s legs walking away, which cuts to a medium shot of the male character looking out of his window with a shocked expression on his face. It is then revealed that the female has stuck all the photographs of them together into a collage to make one large photo on the wall, which is the photo of when they first met. This shows that the equilibrium has been resolved and that the couple are

still in love, suggesting that everything will be fine after this scene. From a pop video, the audience will definitely expect something like this to happen, therefore making it conventional.