What really makes this videos verisimilitude successful is their winningly realistic mise en scene. There are party scenes which their target audience could clearly relate to, with people drinking a lot, dancing together, girls on their laptops and everyone laughing. This clearly represents the high energy associated with these party scenes that we could expect to see in a video of this genre, and it would certainly be in those situations where an electro-pop song would most likely be played. We see Fergie at the beginning getting ready to go out, represented very sexually (classic for women within music videos of this genre music), wearing nothing but her underwear, getting ready in the mirror by putting on her makeup. The fact that she is so scantily clad could represent the promiscuousness of young women at nightclubs and house parties when under the influence of alcohol. We also see a number of girls stumbling home in heels after the night out, presumably drunk. These use of props clearly make the story come alive, and the narrative successful. In the club, we get a sense of disorientation by the use of a lot of flashing lights, and loads of bright colours.
There are a lot of extreme close ups used throughout the video, on drinks, makeup and dancing, to add detail and emphasis onto these things. These are included in a range of shots including aerial shots and low angle, to further the feeling of disorientation and give us the impression of the room being filled with people, having a good time at a party, stereotypical of this time of music genre. There are several extreme close ups of girls legs, breasts, bums, and girls dancing against each other. One that in particular that stands out is a close up pan going up Fergie’s leg, when she is in the shower. This is a technique classically used in pop videos to show women to be objects of sexual desire, and represents that gender to be simply there for the pleasure of men. In this video there is also interaction between the people acting and dancing, and the camera. There are many mid shots where people are either lip synching, dancing or laughing directly at the camera. This engages the watcher, and makes them feel a part of the fun, and want to join in at a party; typically the sort of mood a track like this is trying to achieve. These are mostly men, so it may represent their need for attention by playing up, in a social situation like this one.
The editing of this video begins slowly, as the beat is slow. This synchronicity between the tempo and the speed of editing continues throughout the video, representing the link between the two. Late on in the song, there fast paced editing between two different scenes. One of these is quite bright, which seems to be a house party, and the other is a dark scene, at the nightclub. The quick flashes between these is a bit disconcerting, but gives the uneasy feeling that one experiences when they are intoxicated, as these people are at the party. This representation of young people could be portrayed at quite negative, but it is the archetypical way they are portrayed in popular music videos. At one point in the film, there is a slow motion fall from one of the band members onto a chair, which occurs when the main beat stops, and it’s only the bass line that we can hear. This mixing up of time and space is an affect used by Radiohead in the ‘Street Spirit’ music video, where they alternate between real time and slow motion effect. This editing to the beat could possibly show a change of scene or emotions within the video, or it could be synchronous to the lyrics coming up.
Within this video there is occasional lip synching by the band members, which clearly is synchronous to the lyrics of the song, and is used to detract slightly from the narrative, to show the band members partaking in the video. They sing whilst dancing, to show the vigor of the scene and in turn, the song. The narrative of them getting ready and going out to a party and a nightclub, ‘having a good night’ is largely related to the lyrics of the song, but not entirely literal. This track starts out quite slowly, as does the editing, but when the beat speeds up significantly, the cuts go with it. Coupled with this, when there is a large drop in the beat, the screen fades to a black slug, and resumes again in a second as the beat kicks back in. This is making the video very dynamic and in tune with the music.
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