Lady Gaga: Poker Face

The music video is a performance, and consists entirely of the artist performing the song.

Editing:The concept of evenly distributing the screen time to differentcharacters does not apply within 'Poker Face'. As Lady Gaga is theonly main character throughout the whole video, she is the one iswho shown the most. The editing also matches dance routines, forexample, mirroring a specific move. In the video, the lyrics say"poker face" and Gaga has a hand movement that circles her faceand indicates what she is talking about.

The editing also highlights that there are no order to the shots, and there is no continuity.However the editing is still connected very closely to the song, and keep the whole flowof the video going. The clear beat is emphasised by the short takes within the editing,which are obvious to the audience.

Cinematography: There are lots of long shots which help to givegreater prominence to the character. However, there are also a varietyof other shots that help to keep the audience engaged. There are closeups, to show Gaga's emotion, and also shots such as as mid shots toshow space around the character, and to show that the figures areequal. In the video, Lady Gaga breaks down the 'fourth wall', andlooks directly at the camera to address and  'speak' to the audience. In a music video, thenarrative should be hinted at through shot types, however shouldn't fully explain thewhole narrative. The video itself does have a narrative, however it is not fully explainedin the shot types, or any other devices within the video. Other rules within the TV andfilm industry, such as the 180 degree rule, do not apply to music videos because musicvideos do not follow the same written and unwritten rules.

 Showcasing the star: There are frequent close-ups of the star throughout the video, and the co-stars never have as much camera/screen time as the main character. There are also supporting dancers and actors that are there to help the 'star' show off, and look good. For example, in the video, there are many backing dancers that help to draw attention to Gaga, and also give the audience something else to look at. 

Editing, Image, and Sound: Lady Gaga lip syncs to the song throughout the video, as she cannot sing it live because the qualityof the audio would be terrible, and she wouldn’t be able to dance asexpressively if she had to sing it live. As a result of the editing andthe images, the audience pay less attention to the individual lyricsthemselves, and more to the images that they are seeing, andespecially Gaga's bright costumes and dance routines. The figures inthe video interact with the sound, for example, when they do thedance routine and do the arm actions on the beat. The attention thatthe audience have towards the song shapes the way that they see theimage. For example, the song and the meaning of its lyrics itselfmay prompt the audience to interpret the song in a certain way, and this pre-conceivedbelief/opinion of the song that has been created through Gaga’s pre-existingrepresentation in the music industry may be a contributing factor to the interpretation ofher content when the audience watch the music video.

Mise-en-scene: The location is very appropriate to the pop genre, and also the artist andher narrative. Lady Gaga is renowned for doing things a little bit differently, and so herchoice of outfit and location is very fitting for her image and beliefs. The audienceprobably already know who Gaga is, and essentially what she's all about. Subsequently,there are very few surprises within the music video, we see the artist walking around playing poker, and dancing, nothing particularly new for Gaga. The setting itself suggests many meanings, and those meanings must be carefully

considered when choosing the location.        Gaga chose a pool setting, representing sophistication,

an outside decking area representing wealth and excitement, and she adds different props to these two locations such as beds, chairs, poker etc. From glancing at the setting, the audience quickly identify the genre, which is pop music. If Lady Gaga was a rock artist, she probably wouldn't chose the setting

that she used, as if wouldn't have served a correct function for the message that she was trying to promote. The 2 contrasting settings of the poolside in the day, and the outside decking in the evening gives variety to the video, and helps to draw interest and engagement towards the narrative. We are easily able to identify who the different characters are by their clothing, Lady Gaga wears clothes that are more exotic, colourful, eye catching costumes, whereas the other characters might all wear the same colour, or the same clothes so that the audience can easily identify who they are, and the status that they hold.