Katy Perry’s recent release, ‘unconditionally’ hosts a mélange of rich and vigorous dream allegories throughout. Katy Perry revealed a few days back that ‘Anna Karenina’ and ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ were the two sources of inspirations for the new album. Director Brent Bonacorso went ahead in a recent interview, explaining what he tried to capture around Katy in the newest video. He describes that Katy puts in a lot of heart in her new release describing love like a tempest, an epic storm, and a powerful force of nature.
The director resorted to create a mysterious and sophisticated ambience surrounding Katy in her unconditional surrender to the power of love. He also stated that just like dreams do not have a time period, the visuals of the album also experiments with the fluidity and the relativity of time. The album represents no particular time and instead works to encourage a certain feeling of mystical completeness in the audience.
So, the album has a sequence of several unforgettable visuals that would persist in the audience’s memory for long. There is a bed on fire in a sophisticated ballroom, surrounded by people wearing regal costumes. Then, there is a car crash and a shower of flowers simultaneously. Each of these emblems has deep psychological significances, as the director explained. The car crash reflects the deep feelings on coming across true love at a turn of life. The director explained that he always thought that intense love is like the car crash, which dramatically transforms the life of a person. He explained his concept to Katy who could also relate with the visions of the director. The director continued to explain how he mitigated the violence in a car crash by surrounding Katy in a whirlwind of flowers, almost simultaneously with the car crash visual.
The contrast of snow and fire is also an important theme at the video. One of the most arresting images in the video is to see a vintage bed suddenly bursting up in flames. The bed is within a regal party hall with royals leading to it. The director explained that fire is a very powerful metaphor to describe the ignition of sensuality. From the director’s choice of visual metaphors, it definitely feels that the album is going to have a longstanding impact with the audience. He describes love as a hidden ‘inferno’ waiting to get out and burn you in passion. He confirmed that the singer could also relate personally with the visions of the director.
The subconscious dream world allegory also comes to life when the album shows the singer simultaneously into two different settings. In one place, she is alone in the whiteness of snow, and it another simultaneous place, she is in a fancy ballroom, surrounded by dancers. The director explained that just as a dreamer sees him/her in a projection, while maintaining the essential reality, the album explores this concept of duality. Each visual represents the simultaneous cohabitation of the different aspects in her subconscious. The album also shows the singer befriending a owl, reflecting the deep wisdom in the powerful forces of love.
