As the music starts, we see a mid-shot of Lily Allen sitting in her room on her bed, which then zooms into a close up of her eating chocolate, which is a stereotypical thing for a female to do when she's upset. There's mise en scene of bright colours which contrast to the lyrics of the song and her mood.
It shots to a flashback of her and her partner lying on the same bed as she's currently sitting on, which then flicks to mixed shots of her alone on the bed then her with her partner as it shows it brings back memories. The mise en scene of the orange room which colour codes as happy which contrasts to how she feels. She's wearing a long, pale coloured dress which repressents innocence.
As it cuts to a long shot of her standing in the street, we see several close ups of her face so we can relate to her, the long shot makes her look small and vulnerable. She's wearing a puffy prom dress with a black coast wrapped over the top, then trainers as her footwear, this occurs in several Lily Allen videos so it's become her trademark in a way. As a man walks into shot, there's a close up of Lily's hands as she passes over some money to him, it quickly cuts to the next scene which is a long shot of the boyfriend from the first scene walking down the street.
It cuts to a low angled shot of four thugs, they are wearing stereotypical baggy clothes and hoods, it's filmed at a low angle to make them appear bigger and strong. Suddenly there's a long shot of the thugs jumping into shot and start attacking the ex-boyfriend, it now becomes clear to the audience that Lily had payed them to attack him.
It cuts to a mid shot of Lily and her ex-boyfriend sitting in a cafe, there's mise en scene of a dingy cafe with hardly any colour to it, her ex is in dark coloured clothing. Lily is the only one who stands out, which suggests she's stronger and more confident than him now.
For the rest of the video, there's a long shot of Lily walking down the middle of the road at night. This is a typical cliche for music videos which was first seen in Massive Attack's video for Unfinished Sympathy and also creates intertextuality with The Verve's video for Bitter Sweet Symphony. The idea of someone singing in public, a normal environment is very abnormal yet becoming more popular.
By Leila Robertson
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