Textual Analysis (Camera and Editing) - Lady Gaga (Bad Romance)

The music video for Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' begins with a zooming long shot, from this we see Gaga centrally positioned, amongst a group of contrasting characters, dressed in white and black, as opposed to Gaga who is dressed in gold. This shot is used as the videos first establishing shot, as we are able to establish the focal point of the video's story. The camera is slowly zooming towards Gaga, cutting twice, once to a mid shot, then to a close up of Gaga's face.

We see a low angled shot of several bottles branded 'Nemiroff', which appears to be related to 'Smirnoff' the Russian Vodka brand, which suggests a russian element to the video. We can then see a long shot of several pods, before it cuts to an extreme close up, as Gaga and her dancers come from the pods, in an almost alien outfit, suggesting some kind of imposing alienation.

Shortly after the beginning of the song, the audience can see an over the should shot, looking in to a mirror, showing an image of Gaga dressed in a full black outfit with sunglasses, which is typically an image of a celebrity attempting to hide her face. We can see Gaga sitting on the edge of a bath, with two tall females standing over her, from a low angled shot, which is suggestive of their superiority, almost as though these two women are working for someone, where Gaga is being submissive to their authority.

From a high angle shot we can see Gaga in a vision of innocence, as she looks directly towards the camera, with very light make up, looking very much natural, with tears falling from her eyes. This shot makes the audience sympathize for Gaga as it seems she is becoming very emotional. The name of the song 'Bad Romance' suggests her ongoing relationship is very much on the edge, however hard to let go of, which leads me to thinking this shot is used to portray her ongoing suffering as a result of this 'Bad Romance'.

Towards the end of the music video we see Gaga walking towards a man dressed all in black. Shot reverse shots are used reflecting on the positioning and emotion of both Gaga and the man, as Gaga approaches him. A close up of Gaga reflects an image of this man from her sun glasses, that allows an image of him readying himself by removing his jacket, whilst he remains in a lounged position suggesting his control over Gaga through superiority, suggesting his position as a lover. After this Gaga removes her white fur coat, which gives us these sexual connotations as it appears she is trying to entertain this man, who appears to be a lover, rather than the general argument suggesting his position as a buyer from a Russian Mafia group. Whilst a close up on him sitting forward in interest, as opposed to his relaxed lounge position previously seen.