Lana Del Rey - Carmen

MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

Carmen is the 3rd single from American singer Lana Del Rey’s album: ‘Born

to Die’. The song features many references to alcohol and substance abuse,

prostitution and Coney Island; of which has been described as America’s

original ‘Sin City’.

The music video for this song amplifies many of these themes, as it’s

intercepted with old footage of strippers, chemical anatomies of meth, and a

cartoon clip with the voice-over saying; ‘How does meth change your brain’,

whist juxtaposed with children’s cartoon clips; referencing Coney Island’s

theme park.

THE VIDEO

The main locations of the music video are New York and Coney

Island, however there are many shots of derelict apartment blocks

and littered streets.

This opposes the typical codes and conventions of a pop video, as it

hasn’t been shot in a studio, or an elaborate set, and does not

display the luxury that many artists depict in their videos.

LOCATIONS

There is not a large amount of props used in this video because of

the heavy use of old video and cartoon footage, added in when

editing. As these scenes make up a large percentage of the video, it

wasn’t necessary to film large amounts for the video. There was

however, four Disney figurines used in a clip, used to amplify the

Coney Island refrences, however, you can only see the bottom half of

them. The only other use of a prop was a motorbike, used in a later

scene.

PROPS

Similarly with props, there were very few examples of costumes used

throughout this music video, due to the majority of the video being made up

of old clips. The only clear example of a costume, was the crop top and

shorts, seen below. Whilst the ‘revealing’ nature of the costume does fit with

the conventions of the genre, the purpose is mainly to illustrate the

protagonist’s youth and also to give reference to Vladimir Nobokov’s novel;

‘Lolita’, of which provided some inspiration for the song. Both the song and

novel revolve around youth and male attraction.

COSTUMES

The video is purposely edited to look old, and seamlessly transition

in and out of the old footage used throughout the video. In a time

lapse clip of a rose blooming, there’s an old video camera style timer

below it, and on another clip, the edges are rounded and blackened,

to make it look like it’s been filmed on an old camera.

EDITING