Video Analysis - Faith Hill - There You'll Be

Faith Hill 'There You'll Be' (Diane Warren)

'There You'll Be' was another very successful song and power Ballard performed by the incredible 'Faith Hill in 2001'. This song ended up being the main soundtrack for the film 'Pearl Harbour' directed by Michael Bay. Pearl Harbour is a dramatic re-imagining of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the subsequent Doolittle Raid. However, despite receiving negative reviews from critics, Pearl Harbour became one of the highest grossing films of 2001.

The video starts off with a very smooth and subtle guitar piece, with a little input from the piano. The guitar introduction has a slight echo, which sets the mood and feeling of the video. Along with the phenomenal introduction, iconography is also added, which intercuts from Faith hill and actual footage from the movie Pearl Harbour. The first piece of imagery we come across is a beautiful and vibrant sunset among the clouds. The colours are so vivid, it adds warmth and emotion to the video. Towards the right hand side of the screen we see a small aircraft flying in the sky, sweeping through clouds. The camera then fades into a master shot of a small, old barn house which is set in an clustered wheat field with a small aircraft flying overhead. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of the very 'Young Rafe' played by the talented Jesse James and the 'Young Danny' played by Reiley McClendon, both sitting in an old aircraft pretending to be pilots. Both of these shots are footage from the actual movie 'Pearl Harbour'. There is a montage of dissolves intercutting from the actual movie and Faith Hill, most of the intercuts are based on the aircraft flying overhead.

Around 0.17 seconds into the video, the camera cuts to a long and narrow street, at this point the whole image is in black and white, which suggests that it is a completely different world to what we are used to seeing. The camera slowly pans to screen left, as if its a normal day with people walking up and down the street and rubbish on the floor. Faith hill then dissolves into the frame and everything turns back into colour, as if she is the light, which brightens the day up. As Faith Hill begins to sign 'When I think back on this day' the people in the background slowly disappear, so that Faith is the only one in the frame. This is a unique and effective piece of editing, which makes the video interesting. The camera then cuts to a side shot of Faith still singing the opening verse, with her golden, blonde hair blowing in the swift wind. Faith Hill's voice is so smooth and comforting, which is why she was chosen for the song, she hits massive notes without putting hardly effort into it. The camera then intercuts with footage of the film, we first see a close up of 'Danny' played by Josh Hartnett, looking fairly depressed and upset. Then cuts to a two shot of 'Rafe McCawley' (Ben Affleck) and Danny (Josh Harnett) sharing a brotherly hug. These two characters are like brother within the film, Rafe is always looking out for Danny like a older brother. This shows the chemistry between them is fairly strong and positive. The lighting within this shot is very natural, with the sunlight coming through the train station windows.

There is a low angled black and white shot of a narrow street, which then cross fades with Faith Hill sitting on the wall. As she bleeds through into focus, the other characters around her slowly disappear. The camera then cuts to a very dark and silhouetted place, where Rafe meets Evelyn Johnson ( Kate Beckinsale). There is a close up of Rafe face when he meets Evelyn for the first time, which then cuts to an over the shoulder shot of Rafe talking passionately to Evelyn. With this shot it allows the audience to see the reaction from both actors as they are face to face for the first time. Evelyn lets out a small smile, when Rafe says something to hurt, which is then interrupted by a mass of smoke coming from the steam trains either side of them. This is a good idea as it breaks the story up, so its not giving to much away about the film at such an early stage. A low angled shot is then used to capture the aircraft moving rapidly in the sky, this is framed from the perspective of a car window. Then it cuts back to Rafe and Evelyn sharing a passionate hug, twirling around on the station platform in the darkened area. Throughout the whole verse, the music stays at the same pace, only when the chorus begins to hit, the pace rises and the piano plays the basic major chords to add suspense and tension to the video.

Faith Hill is then captured at a low angle sitting elegantly on the backseat of the car, she is dressed in a black cocktail dress with a white wrap around her arms. she is sitting against the door, looking out of the window. The camera slowly zooms in to her singing the chorus, her hair all made up and the ruby, red lipstick standing out from the background. As Faith sings the lyrics' Soar above the sky' the camera then intercuts with an aircraft flying overhead, towards a ravishing sunset. The camera then cuts to another low angle of Faith Hill standing on an object, with the wind brushing through her hair, the clouds are flowing past her, which creates an interesting effect. The camera then cuts back to Faith Hill sitting i the car, but zooming out and away from her. The music begins to increase in tempo and power, as the lyrics 'for all my life, I'll keep a part of you with me'. A medium low angle is used to capture Faith Hill singing the highest part of the song, she is looking down towards the floor, as she holds her heart and sings ' I'll keep a part of you with me'. This part of the song is very powerful and has a lot of emotions flowing through the air. She is portraying her feelings and emotion through words and music, where as Rafe and Evelyn portray it though being close together. For the ending of the chorus the camera cuts to Faith Hill and then back to Rafe and Evelyn, this is repeated a few times until the second verse comes.

In the second verse there is a similar shot of Faith Hill sitting in the car, however this time she is leaning out of the window looking out into the distance. The camera then cuts into a medium shot of Rafe sitting amongst nature, looking at the sunset in the background. A similar cross fading effect is used here as well, with the black and white image and faith Hill being superimposed into another world. Another low angle shot is used to capture Faith singing, in this shot there is an American Flag blowing in the breeze. The camera then cuts from Faith hill to footage from Pearl Harbour. Towards the end of the verse, the music picks up in power, this is when the footage of Rage fighting in mid air and crashes is shown. This set of clips fits with the tempo and power of the music being played.

After the verse, there is a montage of images from the film of when Evelyn hears the news that Rafe has died at sea, there are some very emotional scenes, which is shown through Evelyn's facial expressions. There is also a few images of Faith Hill singing in the car, this is repeated a couple of times.

In the final verse, Evelyn is seeing Danny, Evelyn goes running into the back of where Danny Works, there is a lot of white drapes hanging down from the ceiling. There is a few cuts of Faith Hill in the exact same place, and of Danny and Evelyn about to share a romantic kiss. Most of these images are repeated in the chorus, there is a long shot of Rafe standing on top of a car and Evelyn realises he is not dead. The lighting is very calm as the final lines are sung and is faded out.