Research - Cheryl Cole- 'Parachute' music video analysis 2

This video by Cheryl Cole is called 'Parachute' which was released in February 2nd 2010. It starts with a medium close up of a dark female figure that has a red light beaming on her, which suggests that she is a dangerous figure, however it could also represent love and power which suggests that the song will be female dominant and will be about love and passion, she is also wearing negative colours as she is wearing a black dress and black make up which follows Barthes semiotics theory because the colours could suggest that there is an evil side to her. It then cuts to a longshot of a male stood in the light dressed in a  white shirt, black trousers and and a black waistcoat, which is stereotypical strong male clothing.

The video then goes into a close up of the male and female to show their passion and affection. This represents romance and could suggest that there is sexual tension between the two. Also the expression on the faces of the dancers shows that there is strong emotion between the two. This is also a two shot that represents the emotion that can be shown from a couple dancing. However even though the couple are in dark colours, they have ambient lighting on their faces to suggest that they are the main focus of the video or at least this part of the video. Further on in the video the couple are surrounded by red light while they are in the light, a longshot is used to show this. The shot suggests that the couple are surrounded by love and the emotion from the dancers could work in cohesion with the read light to create power in the dancing.

The lyrics from the song "I don't need a parachute baby if I got you" which suggests that there is a different meaning behind the words and that she means that the man will be there for her always so she will not need any support from anyone else. This gives the idea of romance between the couple, it also seems to be quite stereotypical as the male is strong and independent and is watching over the woman, he is also leading her in the dancing at the start, however later in the song the female becomes more dominant when more males enter the video. This could represent a modern representation of women as this grouped longshot shows the men surrounding the woman and all want her. As in the modern day men are stereotyped to always be wanting women and sex.

This medium two shot is very intimate as it shows the male holding onto the woman and resting his head on her. The shot also shows the couple with a red light shone over them which again represents love and passion, because the red is covering them suggests that love is overpowering them and is taking over the couple. As you can see in this image the female is now wearing white clothing and jewellery which is stereotypical of a woman and the white clothing and pearls suggests that in this part of the song she is being represented as a brighter and more vibrant character.

This shot is one of my favourite shots of the whole video as it supports the theory of Winship 'the gaze' as she is looking directly at the camera to show off her good looks and to create direct address with the audience, also the fact that she is in the centre of the image supports the idea of direct address andd suggests that she is the star of the video. Another feature of this shot that I like is that she is dressed all in black while the people behind her have white clothing on to counteract with the black clothing that she is wearing. This could represent her as a strong dominant woman that is in control of the men because of her good looks and attraction.

This is a match cut of the watch that she is wearing which is all in black which matches her clothing and make up which dominates the music video, which could represent the music video as being quite dark and could have a darker meaning behind the lyrics instead of it being more romantic. This is an extreme close up of the watch, so close that you can see the time.

A reason that this could have been used as a close up is because it is classed as jewellery which again is very stereotypical of women to wear, also because you can see that she has diamonds/crystals in her glove because stereotypically women are known to be obsessed with them.

This is a modern representation of a female as she is wearinng fancy clothes and is wearing lots of make up. Her clothes suggests that she is of a higher class and the make up suggests she is a powerful independant woman, also because she is wearing strong red lipstick which is an indexical sign of love and danger. Here again she follows the theory of Winship as she is looking directly into camera but from a side, which you could argue makes her look more attractivly appealing. She also has a purple streak in her hair which is a modern representation of peple today as many people now days have highlights in their hair, so she could have done this to attract a teenage/modern TA.

This is another one of my favourite shots of the video. It is an extreme longshot of her as she is being framed by the shade of light blue material in the background behind her.The material nearere the front in my opinion looks like waves so it looks like she is abandoned. I like the light behind her acting as if it was the moon shining on her giving her a dark figure dancing in the moonlight. As the image is quite dark suggests that she has a lot of power and she is showing this in her confident movements.


This shot shows the relationship between the lyrics and the video, as you can see that is falling but he is there to support her catch her. This relates to the lyrics as she says "You're catch me if I fall" This gives the idea of the woman having to rely on the male to keep her up.

Overall I feel that there are 5 costume changes during the video, I feel that this is very stereotypical of women as they are known to get changed a lot, also many of her costumes are very dark to represent her power in the video.

Overall I feel that this video is very powerful and strongly represents female dominance and emotion. It has aided my creativity as now I understand that I will need to make it clear too the viewer who the main character in the songs video is, maybe by having them wear strong make make up or stand out clothes. This video has given me ideas for my music video such as having a male and female dancing together, but as they do so showing deep and pure emotion towards each other. Also I will use the idea of the artist wearing different coloured clothing to represent their emotion.

How this music video has influnced my creativity and planning

• The gaze
• Using the light/clothes to create representation
• Couple dancing
• Shots of artist in the dark
• Strong make up