I will be analysing the music video Born to die by Lana Del Rey which is within the genre of alternative pop. This video is mixed with elements that are concept and narrative based which conforms to the codes and conventions of alternative pop. However the artist is playing the female character in the narrative parts of the video as well as the concept, which isn’t commonly seen in videos of this genre of music.

Mise en scene – During the narrative scenes of the video we are shown the artist dressed in casual clothes with a gloomy atmosphere and dark lighting. During the scenes of the artist singing, she is shown in a very different way. The lighting is very bright and the artist is exposed in a very sophisticated manor dressed in chic clothing, this way we are able to recognise what parts are narrative and what parts are concept. The usual codes and conventions for alternative pop videos are the use of a dark colour palette and the artists shown in their own casual clothing. Both of these aspects are used in this video therefore it conforms to the codes and conventions of alternative pop. The bright lighting used in the concept parts of the video challenges the codes and conventions of alternative pop.

The location of the video jumps from a church where the artist is shown singing, to a car and inside a car for the narrative scenes. The props that are used throughout the video are tigers around the artist whilst she is singing and the car during the narrative.

The beginning of the video opens with a long shot of the artist on a throne with a crown on her head, this is also an establishing shot as we can see the location of the scene. An example of a tilt is used which follows down from the ceiling which is painted in angels, which then leads down to the artist in a throne. This gives us a chance to identify where she is. The location looks like a church and the artist is dressed in all white just like an angel whilst being surrounded by tigers. This gives us an idea she is in ‘heaven’. The use of camera work conforms and challenges the codes and conventions of alternative pop as she is using a light colour palette which is not usually seen in this genre of music but we also see an example of a long shot which we usually see in videos of this genre.

During the narrative scenes we are shown a few examples of two shots. An illustration of this is when the artist is running over to the male character, they passionately kiss and fall on top of the car. This shows us immediately that there is a relationship between these two people. Another example of a two shot is of the artist and the male character inside the car. We see him aggressively forcing her face towards him to kiss her but she doesn’t want to, which also gives us an idea of what their relationship might be like. Another shot that adds to the narrative of the video is a medium shot of the artist and the male character standing closely together, he then points his fingers towards her head in a gun hand gesture, after this she is pushing him away as he tries to kiss her again. This suggests to us that they have a love hate relationship.

Camerawork

During the narrative we are also shown examples of close ups. This is illustrated near the beginning, when we see the artist and the male character kissing passionately in the car. This adds effect by creating intimacy.

Another example of a close up is shown when the male character and the artist are both inside the car whilst he is driving, we can see that neither of them are talking to each other and both show an unenthused expression on their face. This makes it clear to us that there is some sort of negative tension between them creating an uncomfortable atmosphere which is very engaging as it leaves us wanting to know why. We also see in this scene the male character look at the artist and when he does she quickly turns away which is very different behaviour of what we saw at the beginning of the video, this tells us that they have an unusual relationship or do not get along.

An example of a medium shot to a long shot is shown at the end of the video. We can see the male character holding the artist in his arms, she is covered in blood with no movement whilst there is a fire behind them. It is clear to us that this scene followed on from the car scene as they are dressed in the same clothes which tells us they must have had a car crash and she has died which also relates to name of the song ‘born to die’. The male character shows no expression on his face nor looks sad in the slightest, which relates back to the scenes of them at the beginning where he pointed a gun hand gesture to her head as if he wanted to kill her and the scene in the car where they weren’t talking which explains why he doesn’t look saddened about her death.

EditingThroughout the video we see lots of examples of jump cuts. Most of the jump cuts are used to show the relationship between the lyrics and visuals. An illustration of this is when it jumps from the artist singing the lyrics ‘lets go get high’ and then it jumps to a scene of the male character and artist smoking marijuana. Another example of a jump cut is when the artist is walking through the hallway of the church, it jumps from showing us the flashing from dark to light to her as she walks past the windows to reach the end of the room where she opens the doors to a bright light suggesting to us that this is heaven.

After analysing this video I am now aware of the codes and conventions of alternative pop.