Artist: Charlie Puth ft Selena Gomez

Song: We Don't Talk Anymore

Narrative:

This music video has a story to match the lyrics of the song. The lyrics and title of the song "We don't talk anymore" imply that two people who have shared a relationship with one another, now no longer have contact. The video shows just that. Charlie Puth plays the role of the boy in the relationship and a girl who resembles Selena Gomez plays the role of the girl. The video shows the two exes going about their daily life post break up. From going on dates with other people to hanging out with friends, it shows that eventually when they're alone, they can only think of each other however, neither of them make the first move to resume communication.

 

Visual:

The mise-en-scene shows the two exes living in NYC due to the first shot being an establishing shot of the NYC skyline. The editing of this video is very fast paced as it needs to show a full 24 hour daily routine in less than 3 minutes, from morning to night. A parallel narrative is used to enable the audience to see the lives of both people after the relationship simultaneously. The decision to use a parallel narrative allows the audience to see how either of the two are coping after the break up as the song features a male perspective and a female perspective. Therefore when it is Charlie's verse, the audience are inclined to watch the male's daily life and vice versa when it's Selena.

 

Conventions:

This music video is unique, in my opinion. The video ends as it begins. The audience is expected that at one point in the day, the two people will meet and rekindle their relationship. However, this doesn't happen as they start to type a text to each other and delete it before sending it then precede to go to bed. Therefore this video implies that this is a constant, daily cycle that never ends. Therefore this challenges the audience's expectations for a typical love story song.