2. Technical Codes
• The use of Retro VHS effects creates aesthetic shots but also a first person narrative, showing small
snapshots of the artist’s life within the story. This creates enough of a narrative for the audience to be
invested in whilst still having a heavily performance based music video that promotes the artist through
many close-up shots that are used throughout the video, showing many different sides to her personality
(e.g. seductive, silly) that adds to her charming artist persona, making her more popular.
• The use of camera movement such as the dolly shot creates the idea of energy whilst creating a sense of
intimacy between the audience/viewer and the artist as the camera gets closer. Furthermore the use of
zoom makes you focus on the artist whilst matching the fast-pace music playing over the video.
• The music video follows a circular narrative as the beginning clips start with Camila saying ‘Stop, turn it off!’
to the camera and a similar scene with the same lines from Camila plays at the end of the video. This is done
so the music video has a basic narrative the audience can easily follow whilst having no real ending. It’s
simply the narrative of a couple in a hotel room and nothing after. This means that the audience will focus
more on the song and Camila rather than the story line as this is less important to this particular music
video.
3. Visual Codes
• Throughout the music video, Camila wears many different outfits for different scenes. At the beginning she is
seen wearing a simple white shirt, however in the following scenes she wears a bright red, abstract piece.
This connotes the idea of a bold and bright personality whilst fitting of pop genre by adding conventional,
feminine clothing and makeup. There is also iconography of a wedding dress when Camila is singing in a
large white dress further emphasising the conventional theme of love throughout the music video.
• Camila’s gestures and facial expressions throughout the music video are quite seductive as she makes direct
gaze with the camera in a slouchy, provocative way. This follows conventional pop genre music videos as the
female artist persona is often sexualised and glamorised to appeal to the younger teenage audience who
aspires to be beautiful and desired or enjoys looking at attractive people.
• The colours used throughout the music video are bright and bold (e.g. red, orange, purple, blue) that help
signify nature and beauty (e.g. Sunset) whilst also keeping a colour scheme that makes the video more
coherent and aesthetically pleasing for the viewer. This allows for the music video to have a narrative that
will keep the audience interested whilst still having a performance based video based off beautiful and
interesting scenes.
4. Audio Codes
• For the first 25 seconds, diegetic sound is used when the artist talks and the noise of the camera as it moves
and zooms in and out. This connotes the idea of an unfiltered/uncut video reflecting the aesthetic vibes of
retro media the audience enjoy. This also adds to the narrative as the audience gets an understanding of the
person with the camera (you hear a male voice speak) presenting a relationship which is very common
within pop music videos as it’s a popular topic, especially amongst the teen/young adult audience.
• Synchronous sound is also used within the music video when Camila is lip-synching the lyrics of the song but
also in her gestures/actions. For example, Camila lifted her head up very quickly as the song picked up pace.
This creates the idea of energy and movement within the music video but also gets the audience to focus on
Camila and the song as this is what they are trying to promote.
