Holly Taylor

Girls Aloud- Call The Shots

Characters:

There is a male in the shower who is objectified as he is topless and as he is the only male who features within the video he is overpowered by the women which creates the representation that he is weaker and vulnerable in comparison. There are also the characters of the five girls, who have perhaps been cheated on by the man. The five girls are represented as being stronger and more independent than the man as one of the girl’s ignore a phone call from the boyfriend and then multiple shots depict the women as united and other’s depict the women as being stronger and independent as they are shot in low angle shots to create a sense of authority and power. There is a particular female character who is seen looking in the mirror applying her makeup, this displays a particular stereotype that women are image conscious. Later in the video, the same girl is shot in an over the shoulder shot of her hugging the man and crying on his shoulder, this creates a stereotype of women being weak and seeking comfort with men.

Narrative:

The male appears to of been in relationships with all the girls, as one of them burns the photo she has of him and her together and doesn’t answer any of his calls, this symbolises metaphorically that their relationship has disintegrated. There is a low angle shot towards the end of the video where a feeling of unison between the women and a higher authorative figure over the male, this further establishes the narrative of a broken down relationship. The video contains a mixture of a nonlinear and fragmented narrative, performance as well as a conceptual aspect, as it wasn’t entirely clear why imagery such as the white flags and fire was featured within the video. The fire is symbolic of the girl’s anger in regards to the male’s actions. The narrative ends with a shot of the main girl burning the photo of her and her boyfriend and then tossing the photograph in the bin, this creates a metaphorical feeling of the girl tossing away the relationship she has with the man.

Iconography:

There are typical icons of the pop genre as there features a topless male which is usually seen within pop music videos as they aim to attract a particular demographic of young females to watch the video. There also features flowers which is iconic of relationships a purple and white colour scheme features with white being iconic of purity and innocence which suggests that the women are the innocent characters in comparison to the males featured within the music video, photographs of one of the girls and the man suggests that there is a nostalgic feel to the relationship and a mobile phone features which is conventionally related to relationships as this is usually how younger people communicate with eachother.

Setting:

The colour purple featured heavily throughout the video, the colour has conventions of:

To use your imagination to its fullest

To re-balance your life

Holly Taylor

To remove obstacles

To calm overactivity or to energize from depression

And so the use of the colour purple could be used in order to symbolise the fact that the girls in the video are “re-balancing” their lives by cutting the man out of their lives, e.g. when Nadine drops the photograph of her and the boyfriend in a fire also by doing this she is “removing obstacles” from her live by cutting the boyfriend from her life.

The setting of the video is mainly inside a house, which creates a sense of realism which furthermore is relatable to the audience. One of the girls: Nicola is lay beside a pool, with the water being a deep blue colour which has connotations of importance, confidence, power, and authority. This therefore suggests that she has overcome the emotions of her relationship breakup and is more confident now. The “depth” of the colour blue is symbolic of the depth of her emotions and feelings she harboured during the relationship.