Marry The Night
Styles
Narrative
The story of the video is about Lady Gaga's rise within the fame industry. It shows her at her worst (in hospital) and then her breakdown and then recovery. The breakdown was shown when she was rejected from her record label and she did not react well (scenes in the bedroom). She would then change her whole persona and then became Lady Gaga, by dying her hair and changing her whole image. She became something she is not to prove to everyone she is a pop star. The video shows the lowest of lows which gives the audience an insight into what her life was before she became what the world knows her as today.
Interpretive
The lyrics are different to the music video but can foreshadow the story. The song was written in a way that it can be interpreted in different ways. In relation to the music video, the song foreshadows it because it is about marrying the darkness and what is difficult about your life. Gaga showed us what was difficult about her life in the video and how she overcame it. The video is not 100% easy to follow because she wanted people to watch it and interpret it how they wanted to, and have their own opinions on what it is about.
Conventions
Extending Songs Meaning
The song does not explain everything it is about. The video helps by visually adding to the story, helping the audience understand what it is really about. Which is how she rose to fame within the industry.
Focus On Performer
The music video focuses on Lady Gaga because the song and video is about her and a really personal experience of hers. She plays as herself in the video which makes the audience feel closer to her because they are watching her reenact a real experience of hers.
Lighting For Mood
The lighting in this vide is very natural throughout. The lighting depends on the type of scene is it showing. During the scenes of her breakdown, the lighting is much darker than during the scenes when she is overcoming the breakdown (the dance scenes). The scenes when the song starts has dark lighting, not just because it is outside and at nighttime, but because she is still within the final stages of her breakdown. She then begins to accept and embrace it. When the cars explode, the fire from the cars help light up the area which shows she is using the darkness to her advantage and to help her become a stronger person.
Techniques
Miming/Lip Syncing
During the video, she lip syncs the lyrics to the song at various times. This helps show remind the audience that the video and song are about the same story and are following each other.
Camera Techniques
The camera techniques and cinematography uses many close ups to make the audience feel closer to Lady Gaga and help understand her emotions though facial expressions. Also there are a few shots that establish the scene. One of which being a hospital and locked up in a room with one bed in. It shows the audience how isolated she was during this time in her life. There are also many fast editing of shots which show how intense and how quickly time went for her. One day she was having a breakdown and the next she was someone totally different, and on the rise to becoming a star.
You & I
Styles
Interpretive
The story of this can be interpreted in different ways. Like Marry The Night, Lady Gaga wanted the audience to figure the story out by themselves and use their own opinions to interpret the video.
Narrative
The and video is about her ex boyfriend and going back for him because she loves him. The video itself is very complex with how it tells the story. Once she became famous she had to break up from him to pursue her career. The record label she was signed onto tried to change Gaga into how they wanted her to be. In the video they created her into a mermaid, Which is very important because a mermaid cannot be free without water. The can be seen as Gaga not being able to be free because the record label are trying to control her. The video shows her going back for her boyfriend and also shows flashback of Gaga with blonde hair showing how her life with him used to be.
Illustrative
The lyrics and visuals do not show exactly the same thing at the same time, but there are moments when the lyrics go with the visuals. For example, when the lyrics 'Something about this place" are sung, Gaga is in a field with her boyfriend playing the piano being happy. The go with the visuals but the audience will need to look deep into the meaning of it to find out.
Surrealist
There are a few unnatural elements in this that pay a lot to the story. One being, Lady Gaga as a mermaid. It symbolises within the record label. Another one being herself dressed as a man, She is representing her boyfriend and how alike they were, which is why their relationship was so good. The audience would need to look deep to understand these points. It is very intelligent and entertaining, the way the unnatural and surreal elements of the video represent the main points of the story.
Conventions
Extending Songs Meaning
The video does extend the song meaning but not in a way that is understandable straight away. A lot of thinking would go into understanding the video. Lady Gaga wanted the video to be complex and confusing for the audience because sometimes, thats the way love is, and the song is ultimately a love song.
Focus On Performer
The music video focuses on Lady Gaga the song is personal to her so the video will reflect that. The song is about her and her boyfriend so for her to be the main focus is very plausible.
Lighting For Mood
The lighting for this video is very natural which can show that it is raw and real. I expect Lady Gaga wanted to keep the audiences attention on the story and what it means which is why she used natural lighting.
Techniques
Miming/Lip Syncing
Lady Gaga also lip syncs in video, to go along with the story of the lyrics and keep the audience on track.
Special Effects
A few special effect are used in this video. First of all, Lady Gaga is a mermaid. This goes along with the complex and confusing impression the video is giving off. She was creative by having the mermaid used to represent her within the music industry instead of just showing it how it really happened. Also, Lady Gaga is dressed as her male Alter Ego Joe Calderone, who represented her ex boyfriend during the video.
Camera Techniques
Lots of close up shots to show the emotion Lady Gaga is experiencing. Many establishing shots show the audience where the video takes place. The location meant a lot to the story of the video, which is where Gaga's boyfriend lived and where they had the most fun together. Lots of crane shots and birds eye view shots can be able to show the audience a lot more of what is going on within scenes.
Applause
Styles
Surrealist
There are many unnatural and surreal elements within this video. At the start, she is flying, she then rises out of a giant top had and has a tail. At another point, her head is on a swan and she also seems to make a reference to Marilyn Monroe.
Interpretive
The video can be interpreted in different ways depending on the audience and how they view it. For example, the scenes where she is in a cage with the yellow wig, the audience can see her making references to Marilyn Monroe, but others may see how making a reference to one of her past albums 'The Fame Monster'. another moment is the scenes with the swan and the egg. Some may view it as a reference to the Black Swan film, and other can see it as a reference to Lady Gaga's egg fascination from when she entered the Grammy Awards in an egg.
Homage
During the video, Lady Gaga seems to make a reference to Marilyn Monroe. She is inside a cage and is sort of disfigured. This was referencing Marilyn because they both went through the same trappings from being famous, having to act a certain way and the media trying to mould them int what they want. However Marilyn was in love with being famous and that eventually killed her in the end.
Narrative
The song was written during her hip injury, which caused her to cancel the end of one of her tours to recover. The song is about how she misses performing for everyone and how she 'lives' for the applause she gets every night. She is confessing how much she loves her fans it is them who keep her music alive. The video shows all of this in different ways. When she rises from the top hat, it shows her rising back from her injury. The catwalk in the laser tunnel at the end shows her crying and holding a plastic leg. This can show how she is crying because she has missed the stage so much and and leg can show how the hip injury has held her back from all of it.
Conventions
Extending Songs Meaning
The video helps extend the songs meaning by giving the audience visual references into what the song means. The visuals have moments when it references the past, the future, and what is happening now. The song is mainly about Gaga sort of, resurrecting from her injury and the visuals show that in a very artistic way, for example, the giant top hat and Lady Gaga rising from it means she is recovering from her injury.
Focus On Performer
Most of Lady Gaga's songs are about her and personally experiences, which makes this one the same. The song is about her feelings towards fame and her fans, and how she missed it all. Which makes the video focus on her as it is about her emotions.
Lighting For Mood
The lighting is very unique in this video. The black and white elements of the video connote her past. The background of all of the video is black which makes the audience focus on Lady Gaga, the only thing there. The scenes where Gaga had no makeup on, also had very natural lighting, showing how stripped back she was during her injury.
Techniques
Miming/Lip Syncing
Lady Gaga lip syncs during this video like all of the others.
Special Effects
Special effects are used through the video, to create the black and white effect, the purple light tunnel at the end of the video, the swan with Gaga's head on it, and also the tail that she has when she rises out of the hat. All these special effects add to the surreal elements of the video
Multi Image
During the video, there are moments of Lady Gaga's face being shown multiples times in one frame.
Camera Techniques
The camera techniques in this video are very simple. Most of the shots are close ups and long shots, showing what is going on within the video. The close ups are of Lady Gaga either with lots of face paint on or without any at all. This makes the audience feel closer to her because they may have never seen her without any makeup on. The long shots do not move, they editing just cuts between the long shots and close ups to make the video more engaging for the audience.
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