Lily allen 22 Analysis
- 2. Technical Aspects The opening shots are shaky, as if filmed though a hand-held camera. This is done to illustrate to the audience the artist the video is drunk or tipsy as she stumbles through the crowds. The dark nature of the shot suggests she is in some sort of bar or nightclub. As the artist walks up to the mirror in the bathroom, close-ups of the other women are used, displaying the mean, dirty looks they give the artist as she enters the room. These looks are emphasized to convey the idea that the other women view each other as ‘competition’ in the bar, and they all push and shove for a space in the mirror. These images relate strongly to the lyrics that suggest the artist is lonely and feels old and is in the bar looking for a partner, just like all the other women in the bathroom.
- 3. The close-up shots in the mirror illustrate how the artist really looks; disheveled and messy as a result of her night out, and how she sees herself in the mirror, pretty and put together. This suggests the artist is not happy with her life and is trying to ignore the reality of being ‘nearly thirty now’ and still ‘out every night’. This is shown by the artist lip synching at the image of herself that she wants to be like. All the women in the bathroom join in with the artist, singing at their reflections suggesting that they all feel the same. The shot changes to the artist dancing in a dark Technical Aspects room with a handsome man, whom she obviously likes, however this man disappears and the dark room is illuminated and shown as an empty male toilets. In contrast to the female bathroom, they are completely empty and this seems to suggest the artist feels men are not under the same emotional pressure felt by all the women in the bar.
- 4. Convention/Genre/Meaning Following the classic Pop conventions the artist lip synchs throughout the majority of the video. However, this is slightly challenged when the large group of women in the bathroom surround the artist and begin to lip synch in time with her. This further emphasizes the idea that all the women in the video feel the same lonely, unhappiness emanating from the artist and also creates a sense of unity in the video, very different from the usual self-obsessed video seen in Pop culture. The video illustrates a sad, unhappy vibe, not only seen through the lyrics but through the visuals of depressed, desperate looking women and the dark lighting that dominates throughout the video. This atmosphere contradicts and juxtaposes the cheerful Pop sound of the song, which seems to be the only aspect of the video following Pop culture convention. The defiance of Pop convention is finally seen in the lack of a ‘happy ending’, the male love interest appears half way through the video and soon disappears, indicating he was only a fantasy of the artist, illustrating what she wished she had. Unlike classic Pop video’s where the love interest is firstly real, and secondly, ends up with the artist.
- 5. Carlsson Sven Carlsson’s theory of Modern Mythic Embodiment is blatant in this video, as with most Pop videos it follows the idea of the commercial exhibitionist, using close-ups of the artist to sell her brand and image to the audience. However, the close-ups do not illustrate a sexualized image as with many videos, instead the artist is disheveled and looking worse for wear. The video could be said to convey more of the televised bard than the commercial exhibitionist, telling the personal story of the artists so-far failed love life.
- 6. When looked at though Shore’s perspective we can see that this video does not follow his theory of surface without substance as it tells the story of the artist’s pain and Shore loneliness and it connects on a subconscious level with a large number of the audience. It does however had the clichéd imagery of the artist looking at herself in the mirror, women putting on make-up in a club/bar bathroom and the classic romantic scene with a male love interest.
- 7. This video only has two different scenes, the ladies bathroom and the men bathroom. The Goodwin effect of only having one scene change is that the message embedded in the song and its lyrics is easily understood as the audience are not confused or overwhelmed by an ornate, over-the-top video and as a result the message is amplified. The use of a simple set again helps illustrate the message behind the lyrics, the repeated shots keep the audience interested but at the same time allow them to focus more on what the artist is trying to convey. The video only becomes disjunctured when the scene changes from the women's bathroom to the men's, where the artist begins to fantasize about her ideal man. This dream-like scene breaks up the smooth flow of film and disrupts the simplicity of the video. However, it does help to make the video different and more appealing to the audience.