A2 Media Studies

Here is Stefani Germanotta in her new music video called 'Marry the Night' and it was released on the 2nd of December. Her music label is Inerscope which is in the United States of America. I chose this video because I know what Lady Gaga’s music videos are like, I originally was going to choose Alejandro but by choosing a new video that she has created, I will be able to analyse new techniques that she will be using.

The very first shot goes from white into the video recording of Lady Gaga with her eyes closed and also her hair over her face, you can’t really see the environment that she is in because the camera shot is really close to her face, it could be to show the very blank face of her being unconscious. From there it starts to spin around, this could refer to her as she has just entered a drug rehab and her head could still be spinning. Slowly the camera zooms out to reveal that she is on a table being wheeled to a different room, on the way Lady Gaga talks about her life and also talks about fashion but what she doesn’t talk about is where she is and also about her drug problems. Even unconscious Lady Gaga can say a nurse’s arse looks nice as she says in the video. From the scene of her being laid out unconscious it goes straight into her being laid on her back and awake in a hospital like environment as you can see the health cross and also it has the conventions of a hospital because of the deep green colour and also the white. It is also because of the white robe that she is wearing when she is in the bed too. There is the nurse that talks to her and as she checks Lady GaGas back she starts to cry and talks about her wanted to become a star and that she will make it and she will do it because she has nothing left to lose. The nurse ignores her and talks in medical talk. As they stop talking Lady Gaga requests for the nurse to put the music on and Lady Gaga puts on a green hospital hat. The camera then zooms out to show the room that she is in to recover. There is a very sinister laugh in the background too. This is very creepy and adds effect to the scene. Lady Gaga then dreams a dream that she will dance again and that she was on a stage. From that scene she is in her flat and you get to see how she lives and also how poor she is with the limit of what she possesses. There is a number of faded jump cuts to show that time has passed dramatically too. It then fades into a white screen again and it shows the dream again. The use of close ups show the facial expressions as she dances. There is a dark screen but a fairy is in that dark screen and links both of the scenes together. Lady Gaga is playing the piano in her room and you can hear it over everything, the volume of her voice is very low and because it is low there is subtitles, but not just any subtitles, they are in French. This shows as poor as she is she still is sophisticated. As she starts to realise that she has been dropped by her record label she then gets very angry and the music gets very racy, it almost seems like a silent movie with the piano. She gets very upset and there are different scenes of her covering herself with cereal and smashing up a table which shows the anger of her. The speed of the cuts within the editing being to speed up as she gets more and more angry. There is a number of scenes that show her as a dancer again and it shows her with a number of dancers as they are dancing, she is upset and on the floor crying. As the dream ends the scene cuts back to her room and she sits back into the bath crying. As she sits back in the bath the piano stops playing but instead of it stopping nicely, it stops very abruptly. It then cuts to a black screen that cuts to Lady Gaga bleaching her hair in the bath but in her head she is singing 'Marry The Night' You can tell that she has been crying because her makeup is very messy. The screen suddenly goes black as you still can see her still applying the bleach. From the black screen there is another voice over talking about as poor as she is she tried her best at creating her own material, as she talks about this the camera moves around the room but it shows the dancers at the top all looking down on her, this would make her feel very intimidated but she looks like she doesn’t care, she wants this so badly that she will do what she wants no matter what. There is a sound of a bell and then the camera moves back and then the camera look to the ceiling where there is a round area at the top and then there is a match on action with the moon, there is non dietetic sound of music playing in the background as the camera look at the moon. From the moon the camera slowly tilts down and looks down on Lady Gaga hanging upside down in a car. The camera is a medium shot on her face in the car and the non diegetic sound stops and all you can hear is the rain hitting the floor. When she wiggles her way free of being upside down she hits her legs on the car door and some more non diegetic sound happens as there is multiple shots of the car to show how retro it is and also to show the audience what era this car was from. The non diegetic sound stops once more and there is a close up of Lady Gaga holding a cassette in her hand, she kisses it and then puts it into the audio player, as it goes in it suddenly turns into diegetic sound as she looks like she is singing to the song, there is also a lot of synchronous and asynchronous sounds too, she is singing to the audio player one minute and then the next she is applying her makeup, picking up pills or even lighting her cigarette and taking her glasses off. There are multiple shots of the car and what she is doing within the car. She maintains her femininity by applying make up to herself while looking at herself in the car mirror too. As the music picks up rhythm the editing picks up too until there is a shot of a car exploding and then Lady Gaga slowly emerges from the other car and dances. There is a long shot to show what she is wearing and also where she is standing (on top of the car). This scene is just a car lot; there is no specific location or iconography to show where this car lot is at all. At the end of this scene you can see Lady Gaga walk away from the scene and then another scene then is established. The music then goes very ballerina then the next shows a ballerina in a dance class running into scene and the dance class is getting ready to dance. Lady Gaga is stretching out and getting ready for the dance. All of the people within the dance class are doing the same dance. The main focus is on Lady Gaga, there is long shots to show the audience all of the dancers and to also show how large the class is, there are also some close ups of her face to show how much she is getting into the dance. At the end of the dance it is just like she is proud of the dance that she has done and really happy then people start to push her around because she is new. She looks very distressed when she is being pushed around. In between that sequence, there are cuts of previous scenes where Lady Gaga is in the bath singing and also when she is on top of the car singing to the night. Then the music picks up and then another dance sequence is applied within the class and it cuts to her on top of the car again singing to the radio she is doing the same dance routine that people are doing in the dance class too. When she is in the dance class she then discovers that someone near her falls so she helps her up and it establishes a friendship with everyone within the dance class. After that she has different shots again but what is different is that she is smiling and when there is another dance within the chorus the camera only sees her stood up and everyone else dancing, only showing her that she is the one in charge of this dance now. There are different shots (looking back on her) of her in the bath and her singing the song as her hair bleaches. At the end of the dance class she goes up to the camera and smiles as if to say she is happy here and that she has made friends here too. Just before the sequence ends she is on the floor and people are dancing around her and she is being lifted up by the other dancers because she is loved by them now that she is their friend. The next scene cuts straight from the dance studio to a street scene where all the dancers are doing the same dance and it is a long shot so the audience can see the street and also so they can how many dancers there are on the street too. It then cuts to a close up of Lady Gaga singing and then taking off her glasses and then it cuts to a number of different scenes from her in the bath, then the ballerina, to the parking lot, to her house and her being angry again, to a party eating food then to her taking a piano out of a house. The scene ends with cars exploding to the beat of the music going by and then all of a sudden going back to the street scene where there is a final dance. The very last shot which is made so very obvious to the audience is her hand when she uncovers it and it says Inerscope records CA and she is so happy because she has been given another chance again.

There are a number of dominant camera angles thought-out this music video, for example the main one that is used is a long shot to establish the surroundings and also the scene. The second main dominant camera angle is a medium shot for example, when she is dancing in the dance studio and also when she is sat in the car smoking and taking her glasses off too.

The prime colours used within this music video I think would be the colour black as well as when she is on the car she is in a black suit and she is on top of a black car, it also reflects upon the colour of the sky as that is also black too. The red comes from the bottom of her boots, her lips and also her nails when she is dancing within the first scene, there is also a black outfit that she wears on the last scene when she gets into the car and when she is also dancing in the street scene too.

The black would connotate the night or the dark and the red would connotate that she has a passion for the night and also she loves it.

The narrative of this music video is a story of such, at the beginning of the music video it starts at the very beginning when she was in a drug rehab and then it goes through her career when she has just been dropped by her record label and then she gets angry and she turns everything around by bleaching her hair and starting to dance again and finally at the end she gets her second chance with another record label. The scene is an outside environment mostly as she is dancing with the exploding cars and also when she is dancing in the street scene, there is the indoor scenes too when she is in a dance studio as well as her own apartment. Lady Gaga is telling her career life and what happened and where she went wrong and now she is back on track.

The genre of this music video is pop. From the conventions used within the music video there is the narrative and not any instruments within the music video, the conventions also relate back to being dancing within the music videos and them showing how they did thing by rein acting their action in front of the camera for the audience to see.

This music video is mainly aimed at Lady Gaga fans and also fans of the same genre being pop. I would say that this music video is aimed at people at least over 18 as there are a few scenes where Lady Gaga is nude, it is covered up but I still would say that it is unsuitable for people under 18.