Charli XCX – “Boom Clap”

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 3

The video opens with a long shot that acts as an establishing shot to establish the location of the video. This is a common theme seen in all media texts as an audience like to know the location that the text they are watching is taking place. The first shot of Charli is a close-up that only lasts for about one second on screen. This gives us a quick introduction to the artist but even then her face is covered by writing on the screen. This is because it is more important what movie the song it is representing than it is who’s singing it. We then get close-up shots of both the protagonists from ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, which is archive footage taken from the movie. This is to introduce the audience to the movie that the song is representing. It also introduces the characters of the movie for those who have not been to see it.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Throughout the clip, a lot of shots are used to show off the setting of the video. Example's include a medium close-up which shows that Charli is on the same boat that the two characters go on in the movie. There is then a clip showing off the two characters on the boat, establishing a connecting between the performance and the narrative of the movie. Through this we can also find that the video is being set in Amsterdam, the same location an important portion portion of the movie was set. When the music changes style and begins to move slower, there is a change in the mood of the cinematography. Charli is shot close-up looking away from the camera, as opposed to towards the camera as she was before. Also it is harder to make her out because of the effects used. This was all done to reflect the change in the song which has become more alternative, meaning the video had to too.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Before she enters the bus, there is a long shot that establishes Charli sat outside of it, effectively establishing the location. However, instead of immediately cutting to the scenes inside the bus as it usually does, we don’t return to the bus for a while, and even then we don’t know it’s the same location until we later see a portion of the inside of the bus while on the outside of it. This breaks the conventions found in typical media pieces of having the location established and then following with a scene in that location, instead we have the location established and then a scene in there later on. There is a close-up shot of her hands clapping as she says the word clap. This creates a cohesion between the lyrics of the song and the action that is taking place on screen. The final shot is a long shot of Charli walking away. This signifies the end of the video.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The setting for this video is on the streets of Amsterdam, the same place a portion of the movie ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ was set, creating a link between the two pieces. One of the settings predominantly featured in both the performance of the piece and the archive footage from the movie is on a river boat, which again creates a link between the movie and the video as Charli is taking the same adventure the two characters from the movie did.

The lighting throughout the video is relatively light but has a slightly darker tone to it because of the theme of the movie it is representing. This sees a change when the tone of the music also changes. The lighting during this section of the video is darker and features lasers appearing over the screen. This is to represent the alternative nature of this portion of the song.

MISE EN SCENE(SETTING/LIGHTING)

They show off the genre of music Charli makes as they are not very typical clothing, being edgier than clothes most girls wear. She wears short and tight clothing at points of the video and then is shot in a way to show off the curves of her body, specifically when she is shot from behind. This is an example of Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory. There is a contrast between the clothing and the lighting in this video. During the scenes when the lighting is brighter she is seen in more pop artist like clothes that are in brighter and more girly colours and patterns. However, during the scenes when the lighting in darker, she is seen wearing more edgy clothes that show off her alternative style of music. This done to create cohesion between the two areas of mise-en-scene.

MISE EN SCENE(COSTUMES)

The editing in this video fits the pattern found in most other music videos, that it is in time with the beat of the song. This creates a cohesion between the song and the video as the beat fits to the editing speed. The part of the video with the fastest editing is during the chorus when many shots are cut together one after the other. This is typical for the chorus of a music video as the chorus of the song tends to be the part of the music video when the song is at it’s fastest beat. Each of these shots usually change location and costume, suggesting the video is more about the performance of Charli than about a narrative which would have a few cuts in the same location follow after each other. During all this the editing used is jump cuts which is the typical form of editing. In the third verse of the song the editing changes to a dissolves as opposed to the conventional cut. This is because of the third verse of the song being more alternative than the others and the use of dissolve is something that is conventional in alternative music videos.

EDITING

Another type of editing used in the video is text and images appearing on the screen. The text that appears looks hand drawn but it will have been added through a computer software. By doing this more references to ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ has been added because the style and font of the text is the same as the text featured in the film. Also some of the text used relates directly to the film such as the use of ‘Okay? Okay.’ which is a slogan for the film. Text appears in many music videos, usually at the beginning to tell the audience the name of the track and the artist. In this case the text appears throughout the video as opposed to just at the beginning. Another form of editing featured in the video is the use of special effects appearing over the top of the video. A colourful spotlight effect appears over the top of the more alternative part of the video, again fitting in with the genre by creating a weird atmosphere. This is also helped by the lights that appear on Charli’s face during this bit.

EDITING

Other than the song playing in the video, there is no sound featured in the video. The song is used both a diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound. In the portions of the video when Charli is lip-syncing the words of the song, it is diegetic sound but both when the song is being played and Charli is not lip-syncing and when it is played over the archive footage from the movie, it is non-diegetic. It can also be said to be synchronous and asynchronous sound as at points in the we can see the source of the sound (when she is lip-syncing) but at over points we can’t (when she isn’t). Other than this there is little use of sound in the video.

SOUND