Music Video Deconstruction

Lady Gaga " Paparazzi"

The Story:

The video is shot at a seaside mansion with a sea view balcony and the sound of seagulls in the background. Lady Gaga and her boyfriend are making out on the bed, they move to the balcony and continue. A hidden photographer starts to take photos and Gaga soon realises she is being used by the man for him to become famous and so attempts to push him away and stop him. He then out of anger pushes her over the balcony and kills her. The paparazzi come flooding around her and start taking photos of her lying dead on the floor whilst every so often a tabloid newspaper would pop up on the screen saying "Lady Gaga is Over".

The song starts with Gaga getting out of a stretch limousine and straight into a wheelchair with the help of males alongside.The camera switches from between 2 different scenes, 1 currently in the wheelchair pushed up along the isle and the other with Gaga on a couch just singing to the camera. She then gets us and walks down the rest of the isle using crutches. On the beats at the end of the chorus the camera changes to different scenes with dead maids. She starts to make out with 3 other girls on the couch. It then goes back to the scene with her on the isle but with a different costume of a white body suit. There's a lot of flashing lights whilst she wears a filmstrip dress as if its taking photo after photo.

The next scene you see Gaga with her boyfriend reading a magazine on the sofa. She again has another costume change and wears a yellow jumpsuit and black sunglasses. She pours him a drink and releases a white powder out of the ring into the drink. He drinks it and it kills him.

You hear in the background Gaga call 911 and admit she just killed her boyfriend. Forensic scientists and police come round and discover the body and Lady Gaga is arrested in handcuffs with paparazzi taking photos and again tabloids just like at the beginning but now saying "She's Back".

The song was written to portray her struggles with the quest to fame. The lyrics describe a stalker following someone to grab the attention of the media and gain fame. The music video is trying to show Gaga as famous whilst being hounded by photographers and who is almost killed by her boyfriend. The video tries to show her survival/ comeback/ revenge and her experiences with fame.

I think it tries to show what celebrity's have to go through when they become famous and how their harassed by the press and followed constantly. It also shows what extent young people will go to to become famous and how far their willing to put themselves out there and do things to become recognised.

Throughout the video the mise en scene used is black and white. This connotates with the colours of newspapers which paparazzi work for. You also constantly hear non digetic sound of clicking cameras and the sound of flashing lights which make you feel as if the paparazzi follow your every move and you can never get away from them.

Here is Lady Gaga's Music Video.