This video is solely a performance piece. The song is quiet upbeat and it has a good tempo, which makes editing on the beat easy, but essencial throughout. Bjornberg's multiple centripetal process theory can not apply to this video in such a strong context, as the isnt the freedom to swap between performance and narrative for each of the sections.
The first shot we see starts on the first beat of the music. It is an extreme close up of Pixie's face which made up for a natural look, with stronger definition around her eyes. The natural look could suggest innocence, but also confidence as she doesnt feel she has to go plastic to look pretty; and the emphasised eyes draw teh audience's attention in. The background for this shot, and following section is clinical white. This ensures that the emphasis is solely on Pixie. On the second beat of the music she starts to move her arms up, and her head back (still in a close up shot of her face) and on the third beat we cut out to see the full action. These 2 shots are alligned perfectly to keep the continuity of the dance move. Due to this cut out shot we also see 2 backing dances. They are dressed in black scoop cut neck line top, and a black tutu, with black suspeneder. Pixie is dressed in the same, however her top is a lower, V neck line- this follows Goodwins theory of voyagerism, and the attention is drawn to her clevage. The black out fits stereotypically would suggest trouble and mischief, however in this instance i believe that they are worn to connote their confidence in standing out from the crowd. The combination of black and white could suggest the song's motives, that things are either right or wrong (black or white).
The first 7 seconds of music dont contain any solid vocals, and the visuals switch between Pixie lying on the floor singing, and her and the other 2 dancing. When the master shot of the 3 dancing is on Bjornbergs theory of motion matching the visuals motions is heavily applied. The cut in and aways are edited on the beat, however the dance moves are also performed on the beat, very structuredly and joltly. The shot of an artist lying on the floor singing is often used in pop and R&B videos now a days however they generally feature the artist in little clothing, moving in a provocative manner. Pixie however is fully dressed in a black blazer, and just tilts her head to the camera to sing. The fact that she is descently clothed and on the floor portrays her power as she doesnt have to follow the trend and also the colour palette focuses our attention on her anyway. It also shows a theme of elegance and sophistication. The floor that she is lying on is slightly reflective, this makes the close up shots of her face softer, and also it is another simplistic touch portraying elegance. The reflection could also connote 2 sides to her.
A common 'concept' among ammature and tacky music videos is taking every lyric literally and putting it into the narrative, for intance if the lyrics 'so i followed him round' are heard, the visuals on the video show the girl following a lad. This is often seen as contrasending by the audience as it is suggested that they dont know what someone being followed looks like. This music video takes elements of this and puts it into her performance, but eleganlty and subliminly. The dance routine has twist turns, ups and downs naturally however at a few point in the song they resemble the lyrics for instance at 22 seconds into the video the lyrics are 'let me down' and the dance routine takes them down, the key difference that makes this not tacky is that it is done suggestitively not obviously and literally. The dancers dont sit on the floor and sulk beacuse someone let them down.
At 0.43 seconds there is a slowed down shot of pixie jumping up. This shot is a close up from behind, varying the contence of the shot from just her front. This slow motion shot also allows us to see her hair, and its length, colour and style. This focus on her hair portrays her feminity and playfulness.
During the chorus there are many more slowed downed shots, for instance at 1.10 we see her feet landing from a jump. She is wear flat black pumps which indicates her desire to fit in yet also her confidence to be different. In most music videos which containing a female singer, they are often heavily made up, wearing little clothing and extremely high heels. The fact that Pixie is not wearing 8" heels suggest an inocence about her.
At 1.16 there is a change of scene, and outfit. This change comes at the end of a line, confirming Bjornberg's theory about movement-lyric connection, however it comes half way through a verse or phrase. This makes the change less visable to the audience, hence creating a smooth transistion. In this scene the background has a big red dot on. The colour could suggest her feeling of love coming back for the man from singing the song, however perhaps they portray anger and pride, that she has done so well without him. A circle is used over any cornered shapes like a square or triangle and it detracts less attention from the artist, as the are no specific corners or points for the eye to focus on.
It is common in music videos, where there is a change of scene for there to be a change of out too. This extends the continuity so our brains arnt left puzzled hhow and why she got somewhere else. Pixie generally has blonde hair, depicting innocence and steroetypical prettiness, however in this scene change she changes it to short dark hair in a bob. This dark short hair along with the red in the background suggests evil and possibly mischieviousness. Another factor that adds to this theory is the change in makep, she went from neutral plain makeup to heavier glittery makeup. This could suggest her trying to shield her identity.
During any of the shots in which this scene occurs, we never see what she is wearing as it is not covering her shoulders. This creates and element of promisquity, and also hints at Goodwin's theory of voyagerism.
The next scene that we are shown (very briefly) has a plain black background, and features a girl in a red liatard hanging and dancing from red ribbons. This continuing theme of red could be an underlying message of her perhaps wanting to break free. From the first few shots of when this scene appears we can not tell who the girl is.
As Bjornberg's theory suggest, the motions of videos follow the phrasing and tension of the music. As the music climaxes toward the chorus we are shown the elements that were previously with held. For instance we see the oufit from the previous scene, and also we see the face of the ribbon dancer clearly. The outfit that she is wearing in the scene with the red dot in the background is black and
feathery. In symbolism it would be seen to depict a raven. Which is notoriously an evil animal which sides with evil. In the shot where we can see her fully in this outfit she looks stronger than ever and powerful. Possibly suggesting that she has turned to the dark side. In contrast to this, the shots featuring the red ribbon dancer portray her as elegant and peacefull. These to scenes juxtaposed connotes that she, herself is unsure of which way to go, as the lyrics at that point are "pulling in the wrong direction".
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