A2 Media Studies

Lady Gaga is known for her crazy whacky star persona and this is probably one of her weirdest videos in my opinion however it has a lot of intertextuality to it. Lady Gaga is a pop artist who was at the top of her genre at one point but recently has taken a decline in popularity. 'Telephone' is a narrative video which is clear as the story is long for a music video as its just over nine minutes but is entertaining throughout with comedy aspects to it as well parts for the male gaze with the lack of clothing.

 

Lady Gaga is clearly a fan of her mise en scene as she has many different costume changes and overall makes the video look good with different types of items. Many parts in this video such as when she walks through the prison ground with coke can hair bands make the audience think "wow" however this is also a smart way to use techniques such as commodities using the star as a advertisment. Advertising coke is only one of the many things she shows as throughout she has a laptop with a beats sticker which is clearly shown as a prop in camera shot because it has its own screen time. On the laptop you also had a dating website shown in a close up shot as she walks past the laptop. We also see her on virgin mobile which is another way she shows off another company making Lady Gaga seem like shes one big advert. The cigarette glasses were used to show her weirdness as they didn't advertise any brand and just gave a overall weird llok as they didn't serve a purpose either.

 

Intertextuality is used in cases such as her car being called the 'Pussy Wagon' which is a reference to Kill Bill and this would attract more than one audience as you know bring in the audience of Kill Bill fans so they can see what its about. It raises awareness of this film as well so there could be a revival of the film franchise so there could be a large link between the two forms of media. We also then have the cliche ending of driving into the desert where the sun sets which is from Thelma and Louise which was a large film upon release and still seen as a classic. A final reference to something else is the cooking show which looks like a comedy sketch trying to make fun of a cooking show that is typical. All of these case of intertextuality advertise both forms of media and can overall be seen as a positive.

 

Objectification is clear in this video as we see all of the women in the prison is barely any clothing showing a lot of their body off. This video contains no men in it until the last two minutes and is strictly a female video so we see a lot of parts that would appeal to the male gaze. Costumes such as Lady Gaga wrapped in the crime scene tape is very revealing and show her as a sexy person. Often the directors choice to decide what everyone wears and how they look to the audience and because of Lady Gaga's star person i feel like this would be more of her idea because she likes to reveal herself and show body confidence which is a message clear from all of her videos including this by the sexual dance scenes. The amount of costumes that both Beyonce and Gaga change into is also another way they try to show off their bodies and make themselves look sexy with small bits of clothing such as a swim suit one piece worn by beyonce. A fight is suppose to break out however we see two women fighting in a sexual way and not violent at all which will appear to males defiently and promotes body confidence at the same time.

 

Voyeurism of the audience seeing the women in their prison cells being sexual for example when they rub on the poles and lay on their bed in a sexual model sort of way. we are given a high angle shot which looks like a CCTV shot making us feel in control of the women we are viewing.

 

Some of the micro elements used in the video such as the editing to add comedy text at the beginning. This signifies you are not going to be watching one of her serious videos and its going to be a comedy/parody of something else made to look good and make people laugh. Throughout the video they use a lot of fast cuts and one reason for this would be to match the pace of the song and another would be because they want to show off as much off the artists as possible so they show many different camera shots and angle to give a overall look of the stars.