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| 1st shot: walking towards lense, stays in MS. Semi-revealing costume |
Tata Young -
Dir: unknown, 2004.
Dance-pop/R&B.
SUMMARY
The track is dull and tedious, and it gets the video it deserves! Its all proficiently done - the green-screened CGI is fairly impressive, the dance routines are slickly choreographed, the male performers are suitably tight-lipped and moody, the shirtless male provides eye candy for a female gaze/audience, a wind machine adds that dramatising touch, some aerial shots are set up well.
Nonetheless, it suffers from a lack of shot variety; the studio setup and the cliched basic romance setup both fail to hold the attention. Britney Spears shot to fame by fusing signifiers of innocence and sexuality in a polysemic promo that be read as raunch or innocent; this video appears to be attempting a comparable blend, less successfully blending these binaries - although this Western-centric reading may be misinterpreting Thai cultural signifiers.
It is worth working through all the screenshots for the final shot, which is beautifully lit and very well executed.
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| For quite some time we crosscut between this shot (graphics colour changes) and that below |
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| A basically very dull video, notwithstanding the slick green-screened SFX/CGI |
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| Eventually we get some variety; her costume is now burlesque; there is tension here between signifiers of innocence and sexuality; the Lolita meme at work perhaps? |
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| Compare this MCU with the shot above: innocence vs sexual expression? Simple point: a wind machine is used throughout |
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| Matching the lyrics, we get fire FX |
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| An overtly sexual pose: strip bar/lapdance club connotations? I'd guess Britney Spears was a key influence |
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| This was underused: the potential for performance to add greater variety was missed (tho' still useful verisimilitude) |
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| This isn't explicit - shirtless males are considered acceptable - but is effective in signifying adult sexuality |
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| In many ways this shot sums up the cheesiness of the vid |
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| A well-lit aerial shot injects some much needed variety |
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| This is actually the last shot, and the one artful exception to the
general tedium: beautifully lit, we presume they kiss, but can't
actually see to confirm this. The height differential would of course be
typical, but carries potential connotations of a power differential too
- the silent, strong male as dominant, in control? |
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