1. Media Music Video Essay
Lady Gaga
Love Game
What 2 key concepts are you discussing? It is best if you state them at the beginning so
the reader knows what they are looking for.
The initial incentive of this clip of film is to be as sexy as possible. Lady Gaga uses a
variety of outrageous outfits to show her feminine attributes and to portray that as a
woman she is hardcore and sexy.
The whole mise en scene of the video is shot in dark secluded areas the hint at the
beginning of the video is the fact her ‘gang’ lift up a drain lid on a busy New York street
with her mark on it ‘Haus of Gaga’ and you know you are headed somewhere mysterious,
and deserted, it ranges from an underground basement to an underground train, to a box,
to a secluded sort of car park. The colours are very dark, with lady gaga wearing a range
of outfits which suit the theme (what is the theme?), white at the start of the video to
black and neutral at the end. The lighting stays practically the same all the way through
adapting to the setting e,g the train, the lights flash at the side to show it moving, the car
park the lights look cheap from the ceiling, dancing at the end its very central on her. The
light mainly keeps to a harsh white blue and grey.
At the beginning there is already a distinctive sign of institution. She straight away
promotes her album as the name of it is shaved on a gang members head seconds later
two earphones are displayed obviously advertising the network site Bebo. Jumping
forward again a beer bottle is focused and the make is shown. Companies will have paid
for their product to be used in this video and within 22 secs 3 have been shown.
The narrative starts with a sort of initiation process she is surrounded by men in a circle
in a dark place and is dancing for them in the middle, but is distinctively taking control of
the gang, who are all dressed in leathers and studs looking quite menacing with LG in a
white leotard a glowing stick and mesh in front of her eyes, she is mesmerizing to the
gang and easily falls for her and move closer to her, this then moves to a group dance on
the stairs of a tube station which then leads to a slow motion scene which shows the
energy of the group and leads to a train where there are at least 10-15 male dancers and
LG in the middle, she has dominated the group and they act as if they are beings that
have never seen a female specie, or not a female specie like her, this leads to a costume
change dressed like them, it shows that she is now part if not the leader of the group. At
this part of the dance they become more ‘touchy feely’ with LG. At first they appeared
frightened of her as a threat to their pack now they can’t keep their hands off her and are
so attracted to her. So at this stage she is the leader of an underground gang, it then
switches to a bigger area, a car park as if they have broken out of their compound and are
released like wild dogs. It is then broken up by police men arriving with the breakdown
of the music, some of her gang are arrested but LG takes a policeman ‘hostage’ in a booth
of some kind, a very confided space, her costume changes again so she looks similar to a
police officer as if changing sides, she is filmed kissing the male policeman then a police
woman as if to show off her sexuality more. The clips are very ‘blink and you’ll miss it’
with the realisation she is kissing another woman being quite demanding to watch. It also
portrays that not only can she dominate the emotions of a large gang of wild, under
achieving, gang men but also a status of high society and of the law and both genders. It

2. represents the fact that she can and will take and dominate for perfection, which I feel the
small shots of her naked covered in glitter sat on two models wearing under pants and
one with a denim jacket also, shows her as invincible and ‘perfect’. There are then
continuous shots of her kissing and being close with all the ‘characters’ showing an
invasion of space yet and irresistibility. The last scene is that of a large group dance with
the ‘gang’ where she is still dressed as a form of authority but is dancing with them with
complete control over the group and by her dancing , she is thrusting towards the camera
as if you are next to be controlled and dominated by her.
B
Great start to the term Hermione. You are getting a great sense of how narrative is
constructed and you are beginning to understand how Institution plays a part in these
creative works. It is important to remember that Institution is closely linked with Genre
and audience. It is important for the institution to know that they will benefit from the
money they have put out to these artists. So the video must attract a certain audience and
reflect a certain genre of music or video style that has been successful in the recent past.
Product placement does help with this but many videos do not include blatant product
placement and rely on genre and targeting to make their video successful in the main
stream, which will then in turn promote record sales and concert tour sales (it’s all one
big marketing machine).
Great attempt with institution, I know I haven’t discussed this concept with you so it may
be very new to you.