Monday 3 October 2011

Music Video Analysis Three - "Lady GaGa & Beyonce - Telephone"



This pop video/ short film is 9 minutes and 31 seconds the song only starts at 2 minutes 53 seconds; giving a long prequel; typical of Lady GaGa's outlandish, contraversial, unconventional pop videos challenging society.

The mise en scene used establishes the location/ setting of an all female prison; the other characters costume is skimpy underwear - this is typical of Lady Gaga's raunchy music video's. Lady Gaga's opening costume sees her with coke cans in her hair whils wearing ciarette glasses - this representation defies the social norms of conventional pop video's but follow's conventions of Lady GaGa's own strange pop videos. She is later seen dressed in "caution" tape whilst in her prison cell - this is most likely targeted at the modern youth audience who are perhaps to scared to defy the norms of society and be themselves; this video could therefore inspire them to grow confidence and become more of an individual. Gaga is constantly seen in extremely strong make up which emphasises her femininity and exentuates her sexualiy through the video. The props used in the video includes a car named the "pussy wagon" which could be aimed at sexually interesed teenagers and relates to the audience of hit Channel 4 TV show "The Inbeweeners" which sees four sexually frustated boys name their car the "minge mobile", "clunge magnet" and going on "pussy patrole" which is linked to teenage adolesence. The driver of the "pussy waggon"s costume consists of a  latex body suit; this is highly unconventional of the normal costumes chosen in pop videos but typical of costumes in GaGa videos. Another prop used in the video is a "crsuifix" which is placed over Lady GaGa's nipples over a see through top giving the impression that religion is close to Gaga's heart/ important to her life; however viewers of an older age may find this contraversial and feel the use of the crusifix as innapropriate. The second location used in the video is a bedroom/ motel - this is a popular choice of location used in pop video's; during this scene GaGa is dressed in a formal jacket covered with jewells which is covered by the American flag; this emphasises that GaGa is patriotic and loves her home country.

The first sound used in the video is of female prisoners talking through dialogue, this is later followed by an ambient kissing sound - emphasising the sexuality of the video and relating it to te target audience of teenagers. A voice over is used on "intercom" which is a typical feature of a prison location. The song begins later which is use of non diegeic and digeic music as the audience are hearin the song and throughout the video the characters dance to the music. There is further dialogue in the video when the prison guards, Beyonce and Lady Gaga are talking and ambient sounds of drawers being opened and closed and keys rattling; these fixtures are all typically found in prison cells.There is further ambience of high heel footsteps which gives a sense of femininy and suggests the person is coming close because of the loude footsteps: sound perspective. Offensive language is used in the video as dialogue to appeal to the teenage target audience as the youth have been sugessted to use this type of language; therefore the youth can identify with the language used in the pop video.

Various types of camerawork are used throughout the video; a mid shot/ close up is used of Lady GaGa this emphasises tha she is the protgaonis of the music video. There is also a two shot used in the car showing both Beyonce' and Lady GaGa emphasisig their importance as the two main characters in the video. An extablishig shot linked with a pan is used to show the setting of their car going down the road and establish the video's location. There is also a pan/ tracking shot following Beyonce' walking into the diner - justifying her importance in the video which is followed by an over the shoulder shot from Beonce's point of view; this allows the teenage audience to directly see from Beyonce's perspective. Later there is a close up on the excentrically dressed GaGa weaing a hat made of telephones; this is a typical costume for GaGa to choose after she wore a meat dress to an award ceremony.

Various editing echniques are used througout the pop video; subtitle headings are used to entitle the name of the song and what the video is about; this familiarises the ouh audience with the particular video. Later, there are jump cuts to multiple different scenes; this emphasises the business of the video and the story behind the song - this fast paced action could be a metaphor of te teeanage audience's hectic lifestlye so they can relate with the video. CCTV style camera shots are made to look like he characters are under constant surviellance as they are in prison; this is typically unconventional of most pop videos but conventioal of GaGa's video's. There is also use of a reverse zoom shot showing the phone cable, this emphasis on telephone's is the primary focus of the video and the title of the song. There is also use of a flashing camera to give the impression that photo's are being taken as a snapshot image to go with the rest of the video with CCTV cameras. Subtitles are later used in the video during the diner scene to show the speech from Gaga to Beyonce'; this editing technique is conventional of pop music videos. A multiple split screen of Beyonce and Gaga enables the video what both artists are doing at the same time to conventionally send a message to the audience. Jump cuts are also used to show everyone eating in the diner to show the business of the location which also emphasis the fast paced editing of the video.