Written by: Avril Lavigne and Lukasz Gottwald
Producer: Dr. Luke
Genre: Dance-rock, pop punk, power pop
Structure: Narrative
Label: RCA
In this music video Avril Lavigne plays two separate roles, one as boys girlfriend, and one as the girl that fancies the boy. The issue between the two female characters is that they both want the same boy to be their boyfriend. This type of narrative is typical in pop music videos and I would say that this video follows the typical conventions of it's genre and expectations.
In relation to mise-en-scene, the establishing shot of the music video is a long shot of the 'Golf n Stuff' activity building, and this shows where the rest of the music video is to be set. The medium shot of the 'geeky' girlfriend and her 'cool' boyfriend shows their costumes. The girl is wearing a pink polo and a pink cardigan with a green and blue long tartan skirt. This costume is very effective in showing the audience what her role is within the video, and from the way she is dressed, it is showing her personality and her agenda. The glasses are in her costume as it is a stereotypical prop to be used for geeky characters. Also, the ginger hair is stereotypically not a 'cool' colour of hair to have and it is also going to be classed as 'geeky' to the audience. The male is wearing black skinny jeans, with a long sleeved white t shirt underneath a short sleeved black top. This costume is representing his personality, which is portrayed as being 'cool'. Avril's costume in this scene is long dark black hair, with a similar costume to what the male is wearing, and this could be to represent that they are both the same, and it is them that should be together. The way the couple are holding hands shows both of their agendas which is that they are in a relationship. The geeky girlfriend is constantly giving mucky looks to Avril throughout the video, as she is trying to take away her boyfriend. This gives off the idea to the audience that she has a slight attitude, and this is to purposely persuade the audience to dislike this character, and view Avril as the protagonist. In the music video, there are also scenes of performance, when Avril Lavigne is performing with her band, the costume she is wearing here is different to their other scenes. She has her natural long blonde hair, along with a shot blue tartan skirt, knee high white socks and a white t shirt.The short tartan skirt and knee high socks are viewed by the audience, especially by men, as a sexy and attractive look. This costume that she is wearing in this scene can be related to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory. The fact that Avril has two costumes in the music video can be to show that she has two sides, making her not as plain and boring as the ginger girl. Roughly in the middle of the video and towards the end, there are medium close up scenes of Avril singing towards the camera, surrounded by black, so it looks as if she is in the spotlight. This represents that she is the one in the spotlight, not the other girlfriend. It can also represent the males eyesight in the video, that he is focused on Avril, and not his girlfriend.
In relation to cinematography, throughout the performance scenes of Avril singing with her band, there is a lot of fast track panning, and this is to show all of the band performing, and it also adds to the videos excitement, keeping the audience engaged. In the video there is a scene of the geeky girlfriend and her boyfriend go karting, and then Avril comes and joins in with them. The backwards over the shoulder shot of Avril bumping into the back of the geeky girlfriends go kart shows a lot of dominance, and it is threatening towards her, making Avril the powerful and more fun girl to be with. In the bathroom scene when Avril is singing to the male, there are a lot of zooms both in and out, and fast tilts, this is to represent the excitement that Avril and the male feel when they are together, persuading the audience even more to make them want them both to be together. In relation to mise en scene, the bathroom and Avril's top is blue, connoting that she is a protagonist, not an antagonist. Also when on the bathroom scene, Avril draws a red cross on the mirror with her lipstick when the camera zooms in and out. This red is connoting danger towards the geeky girlfriend and is a warning sign for the boyfriend not to be with him. It can also connote Avril's hatred towards her. Towards the end of the video, Avril is pushing the male into a toilet cubicle whilst taking his jacket off. The cinematography in this scene is shaky hand held camera movement. This again is representing their excitement for eachother and it is also connoting Avril's power over him, showing that she is the dominant one, and that she can get him to do anything she wants. This can appeal to the audience because to some women, they enjoy being a dominant figure, so Avril in this video would be someone to look up to.
In relation to editing, throughout the music video there are constant fast jump cuts. This is so it matches with the fast, upbeat pace of the song, and also to make the video more entertaining to watch. There is nothing more boring in a music video than a slow and boring cuts, which is the advice that I am taking when making my music video. At the end of the video, we see the geeky girlfriend falls into the pond. The editing on this action slpws down, and this emphasises to the audience what is happening, and emphasises the comedy of the moment. On the bathroom shot that I have already reffered to earlier, the edits are extremely fast matching the beat of the song, but the edits are also buliding up exitment, and even some nerves, as the audience are waiting to see if she gets the boyfriend. These fast edits also put Avril in the perspective of being wild and fun, different to the other girl, making her the more appealing choice to the male.
In relation to sound, at the beginning of the video, there is non diegetic sound of people playing video games in the background and people laughing and talking. The diegesis of the video games could be representing the fact that Avril is about to start playing a game with the geeky girlfriend to win over her boyfriend. the laughing and chatter re inforces to the audience the location they are in, which is an activity place. After this non diegetic sound, Avril comes in with the firsy lyric of "hey hey you you I don't like your girlfriend". This straight away puts Avril in a dominant position over the geeky girlfriend and makes her look confident and the more appealing girl. The lyric is very face threatening towards the girlfriend, and it makes her look be littled from the start of the music video, setting in place the narrative. In the chrous, the diegetic sound of "I want to be your girlfriend" again is placing the narrative for the music video, and it is also setting the audiences expectations, which are for Avril in the end to be with the boy. The diegetic sound of "In a second you'll be wrapped around my finger" shows Avril again as being the dominant figure in the video. This also can give them female audience a sense of power over men, thinking that they have the control over men, not the other way round, making this video appealing to women aswell as men. Finally, the diegetic sound of "She's so stupid what the hell were you thinking" is very threatening towards the geeky girlfriend, but it also places the audience in a position of being on Avril's side, therefore viewing her as the protagonist.
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