Research analysis task

September 16, 2010

Lady Gaga- Telephone

 

What genre is it and how is this made apparent through the key concepts?
The genre is a pop music video. Her audience for the video is aimed at teenagers and young adults as opposed to the elderly as it’s quite provocative in places, such as women dancing with little clothing on. The language used is done using lyrics and singing. The genre is made apparent through the music and lyrics and her style as she’s a very unique star. She dresses very eccentric for a start, which is never seen on other stars. The masculinity of the women in prison expresses that its more of a mans world as i think more crimes are committed by males. The butch guards are female and dressed provocatively but still acting very masculine at the same time.

How does the narrative work?

The narrative works by linking the acting in the video to the lyrics of the song. My first impression of this video was that it was set in a prison full of women. It is a very linear video as Lady Gaga is telling a story throughout and there is a start, middle and end to the narrative. The continuity of the short music video is good as it flows well with the music and narrative which is trying to be portrayed by Gaga. The reason for the song being called ‘Telephone’ is because she gets a phone call whilst in prison and doesn’t want to talk as she claims to be busy.

Therefore the song and video continues to suggest phone calls that not wanted from Gaga as well as Beyoncé who features in her music video. The narrative is made apparent by the established shot of prison.

She is  accompanied by two butch-looking ladies, ready to serve her time for the crimes she committed in “Paparazzi”, so this story is a follow on. Once chained down by her sexuality as defined by society, we see Gaga shed them and come out in the next scene in full badass-bitch garb. She stands side-by-side with her true self (Stefani Germanotta, played here by twin-like 17 year-old sister Natali), who eyes the Chanel-donning artist, in all her Diet-Coke-for-hair-rollers-glory. Gaga quotes “Men are pigs”- Protagonist Tyrese eats his food quickly and sloppily which links with what gaga just said. It is known that men rush their food and eat with less manors than women do. Beyonce pulls out the same mouse glasses Gaga has in the Paparazzi video after she killed her boyfriend, so in essence Beyonce is doing the same thing. However, she wears a ‘wonderwoman’ style outfit which comes after the diner scene suggests female power and greatness.
 Dead people scene- poisoned perhaps from drugs (the prevalence of drugs in society), or the danger of mass produced cafeteria-style food. Secondly, the lyrics “stop telelphoning me” could represent how women do not need to be bound to their husbands or boyfriends and that they lead their own lives and have a right to do as the please.

Write something about the technical aspects of the film?
The shot which sets the narrative is the first shot of a young woman standing behind some bars which suggests she is in prison. Also, all we can see is women standing around looking rebellious and quite hard, like you would expect from prisoners. The mise-en-scene is probably the most important aspect of the film as this is to do with costume, location, actors and basically everything in the shot. The costume is very provocative where the entire women are dancing around in their underwear. Secondly, they wear leather studded biker jackets which make them look fierce and potentially threatening. It really sets the personality of the video. For location, it is obviously a prison to start with but the location changes as the film goes along. The location changes suggest to the audience that Gaga and Beyoncé are running away from something like a crime for example, especially when we see the driving off in a car and saying “you promise we’ll never come back”.  However, we can also tell that Gaga and Beyoncé are partners in crime as in the middle of the video they are seen in a restaurant poisoning customers food and there for killing them. Shortly after this we see them dancing with a large group of dancers whilst there are their victims all around. Something that caught my eye during the video was the security camera where they conveyed the four women seductively dancing into the CCTV camera. Gaga poses sexily in just some crime scene tape which portrays women to be provocative and glamour model like which isn’t the case.

 It’s quite a stereotypical image for young famous women to have as it keeps the attention coming and attracts the male attention too. This part of the video, I would say is more aimed at the male audience rather than the female but is done to get the message across about the false and harsh publicity of celebrities.


Also, female sexiness- there is something sexy about the dancing (starting about 3:25)
- Police tape around 4:10 could symbolize danger, dangers prisoners face, danger these people are to society as Gaga is wrapped in police tape
- (4:27) plenty of fish dating showing the prevalence of online dating
- (5:05) animalistic nature how Gaga takes a bite of that food Beyonce has in her hand.
- (5:20-5:30) Beyonce is talking with Gaga about trust, showing how perhaps a man did her wrong, cheated perhaps, which is a common problem in society.

- Females are objectified by men and seen as sex objects. (6:00-15)- the way the camera zooms in on Beyonce’s assets, slapping one of the females ass.
In what way does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of its genre?
Featured in this video are subtle advertisements for virgin mobile and coca cola as these are used as props. Gaga uses coke cans as hair rollers in one scene at the beginning before answering the prison telephone. However, the virgin mobile phone is used in time with the lyrics ‘telephone’ and shows the starting up screen of virgin mobile. Another advertisement i noticed in the exstended version of the video was a ‘plenty of fishes’ page uploaded on the guards laptop. This may conclude to the guard being lonely or how the wrong sort of people may be met via the internet. This is clearly done for advertising purposes.

What do you like about the text?

My favourite aspect of the music video is the verisimilitude- how they really have the audience believing they’re dancing in a prison and have committed serious crimes. The narrative shows what crimes have been committed by Gaga and why she went to prison in the first place. It’s a brilliant narrative and tune.