call on me - eric pridz

Call on me – Eric Pridz-Ministry of Sound- Released September 13, 2004 (Europe)

Call on me is a workout video that is made to show girls in a provocative and sexual way. The music video is well known to have controvosy over whether it is showing the representation of women in a negative way. Throughout the video there is an all girl exercise class and one male looking at the girls. The camera often acts as a point of view shot from the one male. They show the male admiring the women in the excercise class. The genre of the music is french house music and not music that you would generally relate to an excercise class however the excercises they perform are not typical excercises. The music video is directed by Huse Monforadi and the choreography was done by Deanne Berry. The choreography in the video has become know globally and even the Prime Minister Tony Blair commented about the video and the sexual dance excercises. There seem to be such high demand for the video they released an arobics DVD which sold worldwide. The music video is know worldwide as a controversial and sexual music video that pushes the boundaries of a dance workout video.

The video opens with a fade in low angle shot of a girl walking into a dance class with a stereo. The camera is low angle and we can see her feet but when she moves the camera pans to follow her and the rest of her body is then revealed. She is wearing little clothing and the camera is looking at her from behind and therefore the audience focus is on her bottom. The camera reveals her from her bottom half up to her top half this im immediatly a negative representation of women as the camera is immediatly focusing on her body and not her face. The camera is makin her beauty and the way she looks the main focus. She is particularly dressed provocativly and this gives a negative representation that women dress in this way to gain attention. The audience know that dressing like that will gain negative attention and that men will look at her body and not for who she really is. It is then clear that this video is aimed at the male gender. The next shot shows her putting the stereo down however closer to the screen there is another focus on a woman’s bottom. This is clearly showing voyeuristic treatment of women.  There is then a close up shot of a hand pressing play on the stereo. The hand is an eligant womens hand with typical eligant red nails. The red could represent love, passion or Romance. This is a typical womens colour to have painted on your nails and stands out in the frame. The music then begins.
                    
There is a close up shot of the only male in the exercise class. The facial expressions he is showing show that he is admiring the girls in the room however the audience is aware that he just is looking at them as objects and not for who they really are. This relates to Laura Mulvey's theory of The Male Gaze.  This is when the male sex looks as the women as an object and looks at them in a  negative way. Laura Mulvey had strong views that women should not be looked at like this and women should not be any lower than men or represented in a particularly negative way. The music picks up and the girls and boy begin to perform exercises that could be portrayed in a sexual way. The director knows that the typical male will look at the video in this way and not just the fact they are doing an exercise class. They have purposly put the male in to show how the male audience are likely to repond to the excercises they are performing. The audience are also aware that there seems to be tension between the instructor and the only male as the camera catches them looking at each other. The female audience knows that the man is just looking at the woman for her looks. The director knows that the male audience will look at the woman in the same way and they know they should be looking at her but from the way the director has clothed the woman then the typical Male Gaze will occur not just from the actor but from the male audience watching the video.

The exercise class dances in sync as the genre of music video is dance. There is a slow motion technique used of one of the girl dancers swinging their hair. If a male is looking at a woman in a desired way then the women’s movements are in slow motions to show that he is taking in every detail. The slow motion is when the music slows down and when the music speeds up again so does the editing and the pace of the movements the girls are doing. This shows that there is a relationship between music and visuals which is one of the points that Goodwin stated in his analysis. Goodwin’s analysis of a relationship between lyrics and visuals does not apply here as there is only three words said throughout the music video and none of them apply to the idea of the music video.  

There is a close up shot of the instructor biting her lip in a sexual way whilst looking at the male in the room this is when it becomes very clear that there is sexual tension between them. The rest of the women in the music video are also dressed in a provocative way and the camera will tilt to show there body in a point of view shot of what the male audience would typically do when looking at this music video.

At the end of the video the class are dismissed and walk off the instructor and the male walk towards each other in the centre of the shot. The video then fades out contrasting to the beginning where it started with a fade in. The music video has been immitated globally and has created a lasting impression on everyone.