Shot Count Activity

This music video has approximately 303 different shots in it, (during the first minute and 11 seconds I counted (approximately) 101 shots so timed it by 3 to estimate the amount of shots during the full running time) and reflects the pace of the music and the style of the group. A lot of split screens are used to show close ups of all four of the girls' faces at once. There is lots of zooming in and out and lots of cut zooming to keep up with the pace of the music. Each girl has an individual personality which is portrayed by the screen behind them, this links in with David Gauntlett's ideas on identity. Although all four of the girls are pretty and have been made up to look attractive, Laura Mulvey's Gaze Theory doesn't really apply here, as Little Mix's forte is all about girl power, so their appearance is to please the female audience. Carol Vernallis concentrates on camera movement and framing, which obviously applies an awful lot in this music video. Also the diegesis of this music video fits in with the song eg. characters moving in time to the music, some frames are more important than others. These thoughts are similar to Andrew Goodwin's theory of close-ups, thought beats, star image, and relation of visuals to the song eg. the dance movents mimic the lyrics and the beat. Jason Mittell argues that industries use genre to sell products to a certain audience, and this music video is obviously aimed females who are into pop music. The conventions of this music video back up Barry Keith Grant's suggestion that genre allows audiences to identify the texts.