Russo – Laters I'm Off: Analysis Of 6 Shots

By Cameron Sardinha

This first shot is an establishing shot at the beginning of the video which simply sets the scene. Within this we see Russo herself walking into the shop which already suggests to the audience that she will become the main focus of the video. This already relates to typical conventions of a pop genre video as the star is commonly the main focus of the video, the camera is always focussed on them to suggest it is them who the audience should watch and aspire to be like.

This second shot appears during the chorus where Russo says “Laters I'm Off”. The lyrics are accompanied with a variety of vibrant coloured and styled fonts which appear over the screen. This once again conforms to the typical conventions of a pop genre video. This is due to the fact that in some pop genre videos especially dance ones, vibrant flashing colours and fonts sometimes appear on the screen to accompany and amplify the lyrics or what is going on in the video. This idea of amplification relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory that the audio and what is shown on screen amplify each other to make the product as a whole seem more entertaining to the audience.

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The next shot simply shows an example of Dyers star theory. This is shown in terms of how according to his theory, the star is the main focus of the video, and is almost a product moulded to suit the audiences wants and expectations. Here we see a close up shot of Russo singing using hand gestures once again suggesting to the audience that she is the main focus of the video, and that the audience should focus on her as she is the one that people should aspire to be like or conform to.

The next shot is once again a close up shot of Russo dancing and singing, once again relating to Dyers star theory in terms of how she is typically the main focus of the video. Once again this also conforms to the typical conventions of a pop genre video as she is centred in the screen with a close up shot. This is done so the audience focuses and only really notices her and what she is doing. This is to allow the audience to conform to what Russo is doing and to aspire to be like her as she is the centre of attention. This could possibly relate to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs in terms of achieving higher self esteem when viewing. A difference with this shot however is that during the video, Russo appears to be moving through the aisle without walking or moving her legs. This typically adds an entertainment factor to the video when viewing, possibly also relating to typical pop genre conventions. This is due to the fact that pop genre videos typically use different or entertaining shots to provide better entertainment for the audience.

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This next shot depicts a two shot of Russo and a customer for a brief period of time. This suggests that the video is eager to get back to presenting Russo as the main focus, and not as of an equal to another character. As well as this the shot is framed as a still as a photo. This is once again another entertainment factor used to interest the audience. The fact that the video is eager to get back to presenting Russo as the main focus suggests Dyers star theory again in terms of her being the main focus of the video as hardly any time is spent on shots like this throughout.

Towards the end of the video when the chorus begins to play again, a number of fast jump cut shots of Russo doing different actions in time with a distorted sounding audio deliberately heard over the song is presented. This is once again another entertainment factor, typically relating to conventions of a pop genre video as its sole purpose is to entertain the audience, to make them wish to aspire to be like the character presented within these shots. As well as this it relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory of amplification, as these very fast jump cuts are in time with the deliberately distorted audio. This has the effect of amplifying both the audio and the video to the extent that it entertains the audience and makes them wish to conform to these conventions as it looks appealing to them overall.

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