Carol Vernallis- Music Theory Analysis

I have chosen to analyise Lady Gaga- Poker Face.



Narrative

• The structure of the video is very disjointed as it cuts from different locations
• The video is a visual response to the video- it narrates the lyrics and aloows the audience to watch something
• There is not a balance between narrative and perfomance- no instruments are shown and Lady Gaga is shown throughout in both perfomance and narrative. The video is all part of a story with dance routines included
• I think its a mixture of both narrative and the music- the music builds up slowly and the narrative gradually continues throughout
• There is a closure pose however not a closure to the narrative
• The video poses a few questions however the style of it doesnt mean for questions to be asked it just a very weird video. The location and the male used may pose questions as to there relevance.
• Yes there is a narrative running throughout and theme in a montage style

Editing

• The editing does match the musical phrases and beat at the start the editing is slower then quickens with the pace of the music. The video is cut in time to the beat and example of this is when there is a lot of quick beats the video cuts in time to them swapping to different locations
• The editing most definitely does break the rules of contnuity editing, there are lots of long shots to close ups, the 180 degree rule is broken, there is no even pace or smooth transitions and there are lots of zooms throughout
• The editing in this video is definitely been made to be really obvious which draws more attention to Lady Gaga. They use lots of obvious graphics there are extreme changes in loaction and time, fancy cuts and jump cuts

Camera Movement and Framing

• There are lots of close ups and extreme close ups of mainly her face but also her body
• The style and framing does run throughout the video its very obvious and qwirky
• The camera moves in time with both the music and the lyrics
• There are master shots of her dancing used frequently

Digesis

• I think this is untrue that the digesis is reaveled quite slowly because she starts in the loaction and quite quickly more is given away
• Actions are suddently interruputed as another part is cut in so we only see smaal bits of each action
• The character does do a lot of movement to the music this is shown in her dance moves and in the way she moves throughout such as moving her hip or opening her fingers over her eye in time to the music
• There are gaps in the narrative where she is just performing or its her doing a small action with her hands
• Lots of frames are shown more than once
• There is repeitions throughout as we see similar camera movements, same beat, the same theme and the same image and perforamce.