Lily Allen Smile.

Lily Allen: Smile

Aspects of perfrormance, mode of address.
the video uses a mix of direct and indirect mode of address, it is direct while lily is in her own bedroom singing the song as thoough she is talking to the audience. there are no dance routines so the performance is through the artist while she reminises on her past relationship with a boy.

Narrative.
the narrative appears to be linear but as we see part way thoruhg the video it is non linear as she has flash backs of cuddling her ex at the beginning. the beginning middle and end are clear, at the beginning she is singing in her room remembering the good times she used to have with a boy, she then thinks about the times he hurt her and gets her revenge on him, feeling quite happy that shes causing him pain, in the end it results in her getting her revenge and becoming happy and laughing about it.

how does thvideo create an image for the artist/band.
the video creates a funny image for the band as other girls can relate to it and laugh, although lily seems to be harsh to her ex, this portrays her as been a powerful independant woman which is the role model young girls need, lily is not superficial and she is a normal person making it easier for the whole audince to watch and not feel intimidated by her.

how do the visual elements relate to the song.
the video amplifies the lyrics, the lyrics are all about her ex cheating on her and how she feels about it and her reactions to it, in the video we see her act on her emotions and get him back for what he did so we can clearly see that the lyrics fit to the video very well.

mise en scene.
the setting is in a 'normal place' all the places are either streets, cafes or bedrooms which lets the audience know that the song is believable and nothing out of the ordinary. lily is wearinf trainers and big gold earrings suggesting she is a common girl and not a self obessed pretty girl. her trainers became her trademark after she became famous so its the costume item we will expect to see in most videos. the streets shes on are messy suggesting she is not in a posh area and her bedroom is pink and stereotypically girly.

use of camera.
the video starts off with small cuts showing lilys emotions and that she is upset about her breakup it then zooms in on her face showing she is sad as she looks into the camera and down at the floor. a panning shot is then used to show her in the bedroom. when in the cafe pov shots qre used to show lily and her ex looking at each other and talking but at the same time we can see lily is not interested in what her ex is saying and shes in her own world singing away. there is a montage of close ups to show each reaction to the breakup and a hand held camera shot when the boy is getting beaten up to emphasis the fact its lilys fault.

editing.
small cuts/cross cuts to show to conversation in the cafe between lily and her ex, this allows us to see each reaction when lily sings another line and he tries to talk to her. shot reverse shots and match on actions are used including eyeline mathces to allow us to see what lily sees all throughout er video. the editing is fast paced and upbeat and can be inspirational to girls who have lost a boyfriend.

representation.
the video represents lily as been a normal everyday average young girlbut instead of been stereotyped as a defensless woman she is portrayed a higer figure that can stand up for herself and shes not a girl to mess with. the video shows love, passion and also jealousy thorugh the connection lily and her ex still have. youths are streotyped in this video as been very arrogant, the ex gets beat up by an bunch of guys wearing hoodies which again empahsis the stereotyped youth of working class people.

special effects.
there were not many special effects as the video was kept simple to make it believable, the lighting from the dj at the club were special effects to show that every night club is obviously going to have lights. when lily is walking down the street it can be argued that it is a blue screen and shes not actually walking.

Genre and Audience.
the genre is pop, we can tell this as it has a feel good beat to it and it is catchy with rhyming lyrics that stick in your head even when you dont want them to. the audience would be mainly aimed at female teenages possible 13-19 as lily is only young herself and doesnt have much life experience young girls can relate to her when they think they have problems and a lot going on but they dont realise they have a lot more to come when there older.