music video, digipak analysis - Lily Allen (Its not me its you album)

Video analysis (sorry for poor quality):


Lyrics:
The main message which Lily Allen is trying to get across is that society at the moment is very materialistic and everyone is more interested in riches, and material goods rather than things such as love. For example, she says "I don't care about clever I don't care about funny" which suggests that many people in this society will marry for money rather than because they are in love. She also implies that people will now do anything to get publicity, for example there are many women who are willing to go half naked in newspapers, for example at this current moment in time there is the whole issue with the X Factor girl who punched her friend, and she is now in the newspapers topless. In this day in age it has become very acceptable for women or men to be shown on television, or in the newspaper half naked or in some cases fully naked. As she says "I'll take my clothes off and it will be shameless/Cause everyone knows that's how you get famous". She also outlines the issues with girls becoming anorexic or obsessed with their weight as she says "everything's cool as long as I'm getting thinner" which suggests that the society at the moment are too obsessed with their appearance. It is also clear from the chorus that society has lost all morals such as not knowing what is right or wrong.

Tempo:
The tempo of this song changes between the chorus and the verses. The beat on the verses are quite slow, and this shows on the video as there are quite long shots, however whenever the tempo does suddenly change, on that exact beat it cuts to another shot of her walking into a "fantasy" land, for example when the tempo of the music changes during this shot it cuts and we can suddenly see how different the inside of the caravan in. The tempo in this song varies throughout the whole song.

Camera shots and editing:
The establishing shot is of a tree, and then the camera starts to pan towards Lily Allen who is stood leaning on the windowsill of the caravan window. During this first part of the sequence she starts to lip sync and the part of the song is quite slow, for example the first shot is 25 seconds long (approx) and then there is a sudden cut on the beat in which she now jumps out of the caravan and starts to walk very slow forwards (whilst still lip syncing). Next as Andrew Goodwin says there is a "shift in emphasis" as the lyrics seem to become more important, for example as L.A lip syncs the word "shameless" she crosses her hands in front of her genital area, and she looks very shy/embarrassed. This shows that the lyrics are more emphasised as she seems to be highlighting certain words for example on the next line she lip syncs "I look at the sun" and she looks up at the sky. This again shows the importance of the lyrics within the song, as people would then notice the lyrics more rather than the beat. She then turns around and starts to run/skip back into the caravan, and as she opens the door we can now see that it is much bigger and more posh on the inside. This could be referring to the postmodernism idea of using intertextuality as it refers very much to the idea of 'Doctor Who' (the Tardis being bigger on the inside than on the outside) and it could also refer to her being like 'Alice in Wonderland' as she seems to have entered a glamorous life such as having butlers in her house rather than being stuck in her small caravan. The next shot is then a birds eye view of the males stood either side of the carpet with their hands behind their backs, they then start to dance as she is walking down the center of them a long the carpet. When she gets to the other side of the carpet she turns around and some men pick her up and start spinning her. The next shot is of the roof and the camera is also spinning, giving the audience the view from Lily Allen's eyes (eye line match). The shot that follows is the one to the left, in terms of where is appears in the song it is when she starts singing the second verse. This is very similar to the first shot, as in the first shot we can see her just off from center in the shot, and there is also the fact that there is the rail which is very similar to the first shot in which there is the washing line with clothes and a teddy hanging off of it. This is showing us that she has a very rich, laid back lifestyle, for example she has the Hollywood style mirror and she has the rail which is filled with frilly, fluffy and bright clothing. She also has very grand lamps which you would expect to see in a rich household. There is then a cut away shot of a toy car, with a teddy bear sitting inside it. There is also a doll sitting on a sofa, next to some small suitcases. The teddy seems to be the same one at the start which is on the washing line. There is then a cut and a very quick pan across a table covered with cupcakes. This could show her immaturity and childlike nature as these shots are very childish, this could link with the lyrics as the lyrics are emphasising how fast society grows up and that she is clinging onto her childhood and childhood innocence. The next shot is when the men open the door, and there is a huge room filled with huge gift boxes, she then skips into the room and keeps turning round to face the camera whilst lip syncing. As she gets to a pink box she leans down and starts to lean onto it, the shot then keeps cutting between two different angles, one from the side behind the boxes and one front view. The view from the side could make the viewers feel as though they are spying on her, whereas when we are facing her we feel as though she is singing to us personally. There is then quite a humorous shot as the boxes suddenly stand up, and white legs in tights appear underneath the boxes. The next few shots are cutting between a birds eye view and side views. We can see that from the birds eye view shots Lily Allen is the main focus as she is in the center, and the floor is also very patterened, however as it is black and white any colours seem to stand out much more. Also, the big gifts are very light blues and pinks therefore they do not stand out much on the floor, making L.A the center of attention. We then see her leaving the room, pushing the boxes out of the way and then she starts to skip out of the house. This again shows her childlike personality as she skips away. As she is leaving the house the music slows down, and so does the shot. It has been edited so that she is now walking as slow as the beat. They also slowly start to make the background (such as the butlers, the inside of the house and the walls of the house) less saturated therefore she again becomes the main focus of the shot once again. There is then a cut to a close up of her in which the background is almost fully black and white but L.A in the foreground is now fully in colour, therefore she still seems to stand out. It is also clear to see that the slower the tempo of the song, the longer and slower the shots become and the faster the tempo the shorter, and more variations of shots are used. For example, from 2:41 until 2:51 there are approx 11 cuts with there being 7 different shot types between this 10 second gap. This emphasises the importance of the beat and tempo of the song. When L.A is outside there is a shot of the same legs which were attatched to the big gifts, but they are now covered with a lot of balloons which again gives us a very humorous image. When she gets to the bottom of the steps, there are different angles of her walking, and we can see smoke appearing from both sides of her in different colours. We can also see the men skipping in the background and the balloon people in the far background. We can still see that Lily Allen is the main focus as her clothing makes her stand out from the smoke and the people in the background. However, overall it very much looks like a circus. As the music starts to slow down near the finish of the song, it has been edited so that Lily Allen is walking much slower and she is walking again to the pace of the song. One of the final shots is of Lily Allen stood infront of the house, with "Lily Allen" spelt out with big, black 3D lettering on the garden lawn. It is written in the same font as the writing on the front of the album, creating much synergy between the two. The camera then zooms out to an extreme long shot of the mansion and into the clouds.

Digipaks:


The digipak for this album doesn't have much synergy when it comes to referring it to the music video; however at the end of the video as Lily Allen is walking down the path outside of the house we can see that on the lawn hidden by the smoke is large, black 3D letters spelling "Lily Allen" which is the same as the writing on the digipak. The writing for the album title is very small, and not very illegible as it is written in a handwriting style, however the writing in which her name is written is very legible and the outline which is white makes it stand out more. Especially when it is over the big capital "L" which she is sat/lying on. Personally I really like the style on the back of the digipak as I think writing the songs on the album in the top centre of the case as it draws attention from the viewer. I also like how there is a big image which can be linked to the music video, and the front cover.

Advertising:
When searching to see if I can find any posters advertising this album, I noticed that especially on the internet they didn't use posters to promote the album but they infact just used an image of the CD cover, for example like the images to the right. It is clear that when it comes to artists such as Lily Allen who is a British singer (in opposition to an American singer), it is important to get images of her whether it is from the CD cover or pictures of her posing infront of a camera to help advertise her more than the album itself.