Textual Analysis – Eliza Doolittle, Rollerblades

Why I chose this text - I have chosen to do a textual analysis of Eliza Doolittle’s “Rollerblades” because this is the genre of music I plan to create my music video for. It is an upbeat and happy song similar to the Diana Vickers song that I want to use.

Brief Description - The video shows Eliza on a relaxing bike ride through New York City. She is followed by a man similar to her age who keeps disappearing every time she seems to turn a corner. The audience later realises that this is a ghost of a past relationship and by the end of the video, Eliza leaves with her friends.

Analysis - 

Mise-en-scene

The location is set in New York City; the audience knows this by the mise-en-scene, with letter box’s saying “New York Press” and yellow traffic crossings.

The costume, make-up and hair all have a casual vibe. She is wearing denim shorts and a white vest top, this helps to identify the heat/warmth of the city reflected the happy tone to the song. She is also wearing a bright pink bra that can be seen which also helps to reflect the upbeat song.

There are many props used throughout the video, including the bike that Eliza uses, the balloons that the ghost of a past relationship gave her and the ice creams that the ghost buys for her at the end. All the props are brightly coloured to show significance to her past relationship. The bright colours also fit to the conventions of a pop video as it helps to reflect the upbeat and happy song.

The lighting throughout the video is natural daylight, this also adds to happy tone of the song.

Cinematography

The camera shots used in the video are mainly close ups or mid shots of Eliza singing. This helps to put an emphasis on the lyrics that she is singing. There are only two or three long shots used in the video, and one of them is a long shot but develops into a close up as Eliza is riding her bike towards the camera.

Develops into this shot…

There are many tracking shots used in the video of Eliza pedalling down the street. This helps to identify how far she is travelling and allows the cuts to be longer as she is going in the same direction singing into the camera.

Editing

Jump cuts are used to create an ellipsis when Eliza travels around a corner and ends up in a different location but it is slightly later in the day.

As Eliza travels around the corner, it jumps to this shot…

The editing pace of this video is very fast, with no more than 3 seconds between cuts unless a tracking shot is being used which lasts up to 7 seconds. There are also no dissolves or special editing techniques used in this video.

Sound

The sound throughout is non-diegetic as it is a song added after editing. But there is diegetic sound used at the end when Eliza is laughing with her friends. There is also diegetic sound used at the beginning of the text when the sound of the bikes wheels can be heard.

Who is the target audience for this text? – From watching the “Rollerblades” video I have come across a slight problem. I have found that the songs target audience is different to the videos target audience. The song is an upbeat happy song about a girl moving on from her past relationship, proving that the target audience for this will be females aging between 16 and 21. The video, on the other hand, isn’t necessarily gender orientated. There is a part near to the end of the video where Eliza is seen dancing underneath a hosepipe. This creates sex appeal which will then attract a different target audience of young males.

Creates sex appeal

Representations of social groups

There are two social groups that are represented in this text: Young females, and young males. Young females are represented as happy, care-free and strong. Eliza (the young female) is moving on from a past relationship, throughout the video she is smiling whilst singing the lyrics about moving on. This represents her as a strong independent female, who doesn’t need a man to make her happy and that she is not going to be upset about the break up.

The second representation is of young males. They are represented as passive, pursuing, and caring. The ex boyfriend in the video, follows Eliza, always walking behind her emphasising how she has moved on from him. He also gives her a bunch of balloons (e.g. presents) showing his caring side but also showing that he is the one pursuing her not the other way round.

Summary – Doing this textual analysis has helped me to decide what I want in my music video and what I do not want. It has also helped to reassure me in the conventions of a pop video so I know what is important for me to recreate within mine.

In the “rollerblades” video I thought that the connection between the song and the text was very effective. When you first watch the video it is hard to tell what the meaning of the video is, it just looks as though Eliza is randomly cycling around a city. Once I watched the video a few more times, I began to understand the connection and I think it was a clever and effective way of doing it. The video shows Eliza moving on from rollerblades to a bike, which is a metaphor within the song about her moving on to better relationships.

I also found that the bright colours that were used throughout the video worked very well. The colours kept the song and the video upbeat even though the lyrics weren’t necessarily happy as they were about a split from an ex-boyfriend.

Props - Bike

Costume - Jewellery

Props - Balloons

Although there were many things I liked about the text, there were also some things that I disliked. I particularly disliked the mixed signals that were sent out about who the text was aimed at. The song is about moving on from a past relationship, which would have the target audience of young girls, but the video has a clip within it which has been created for sex appeal, which would therefore then be aimed at a different target audience.

In the text that I create I will avoid sending out mixed signals like this as I believe it could cause confusion with the audience. I will work out the target audience for the song, and then keep the same target audience for the video.