New Rules, Dua Lipa - Textual Analysis

  

The video opens with the artists name and the song title boldly in the middle of the screen. The surrounding setting is night time whilst the text is giving an idea of bright lights and a lit up 'sign'. This grabs the audiences interests straight away as they focus on the bright text.

We are then introduced to a scene with low-key lighting with two flamenco's situated in the centre. The shot is used as a middle, full shot of the flamenco's as we cannot see the surrounding setting. The colouring of the light is tinted pink to link with the flamenco's. This is mysterious for the audience as the flamenco's seem like an abstract figure to the video so it makes the audience curious as to what is going to appear next.

 The next setting in the video is the high-key full shot of what looks like a hotel corridor. This again, relating to the flamenco's creates curiosity for the audience as they do not know what is going to appear from the doors or follow on from this shot. The high-key lighting creates a sense of normality and reality as it has no effect to the scene.

 Immediately after, we are introduced to the artist, Dua Lipa, using a close up shot of just her face whilst laid on a pillow. High-key lighting is used to show the detail and definition in her face. Her serious and dull facial expressions show her emotion with links in with the lyrics of the song implying 'new rules' for her partner.

 We are then to find out that surrounding the artist on the bed is 3 girls perched over the bed admiring the singer whilst she lay still facing the ceiling. This shows authority and status within the scene as it highlights how Dua Lipa is the main focus in the shot. High-key lighting is again used and a middle/full shot is used to show all the detail of each person in the shot.

 Linking back to the idea of status in the previous shot, we are then shown to another high-key lit, middle shot of the artist perched on the centre/end of the bed whilst she has two backing singers/dancers beside her. This shows how they are giving her a sense of protection and security by each standing beside her, as well as demonstrating the authority and high status of the artist.

 The next scene shows strong emotion, this is due to the fact her back-up dancers are parked with their legs up the wall whilst the artists stressfully storms through them. The abstractness of the dancers up the wall makes the shot very interesting for the audience as they are trying to figure out why they are they. The continuous use of high-key lighting also makes the scene confusing as low-key lighting tends to be use to make emotions run high.

 Next, is a middle/full shot of all the girls (excluding the main artist) in a line hugging each other. This shows a sense of girl power and presents girls sticking besides each other. They are all wearing the same robe in different colours which demonstrates equality within the group and highlights how all races of girls are the same.

 We are then introduced to a whole new scene completely. Now, Dua Lipa is the main focus using a middle shot with a mixture of both high and low key lighting. High key lighting is used to focus on the artist whilst a low-key lit blurred effect background is used to define the focus on Dua Lipa. She has changed her outfit to a bikini type top which also shows her confidence within herself.

Finally, the last few shots are introduced with a full shot of an upside-down swimming pool with multiple flamenco's surrounding the sparkling blue water. It then switches back to up-right and shows Dua Lipa and her 'girl gang' exotically dancing around the pool. It also shows them 'magically' walking on water, this engages the audience as this is inhumane and impossible for humans so this is abstract and interesting for the audiences to watch. Also, this shot is placed at the end of the scene as it entices the audiences to want to see more of this exoticness and gives the sense of our eyes being 'glued to the screen' as it is unusual and interesting. The music video ends with a cut off black scene, this goes from one extreme to the other as it went from a bubbly, high-lit performance to a black screen. It presented the idea of a camera being used as it cutting off to end the song. Strangely, I think this fits in with the tempo of the song as if it was a slower, more emotive song I think that would be too harsh to end it however it fits nicely with the ending of the setting.