Shot Count Task

Lana Del Rey - Young and Beautiful

Editing is a vital component when it comes to making a professional, high quality music video that will used to represent an artist to the general public. Because of this, I have decide to study the editing techniques used in music videos which are the same or a similar genre to the genre I am using for my production (Alternative, Pop).

The first video I am going to analyse the music video for singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey "Young and Beautiful." It is a baroque pop ballad that was created to be apart of the Official Soundtrack to the 2013 film "The Great Gatsby." When I did a shot count for this video the amount of shots used in the music video came to a total of 59 shots. This is probably attributed to the somber tones, the slow pacing of the song and the haunting lyrics about love. The entire video is shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a Super 8 type filter on the video to give an impression that the video itself is rather old. This is done to reflect the classical feel of  The Great Gatsby's Official Soundtrack.

The camera continuously cuts between shots of an orchestra playing in synchronously with the song's production, medium shots of the artist, long shots of the artist and a significant close up of the artist lip-syncing to the song. The lyrics are never visualised in the video but the classical production for the song is visualised visibly throughout the entire song.

Genre

The baroque pop ballad genre is fully realised in the music video fully emphasizing the classical aspects of the genre with a full orchestra including a conductor seen in the music video. This is even further emphasised with the 4:3 aspect ratio of the music video which used in older television and film recordings. The mise en scene of Del Rey within the video is represented by her wearing elegant dresses which recall 1920's in America which is the same era when The Great Gatsby was set. This use of intertextuality within the music video are used to synergetically promote The Great Gatsby film as well as Lana Del Rey herself.

Narrative

The video itself lacks a clear narrative as it mainly focuses on the orchestra and the iconography of Del Rey. This means that the video mainly focuses on the voyeuristic manner of Del Rey to make her appealing to men. The video however could have some sort of symbolic narrative. The final line in the song is 'Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?' which is used as a rhetorical question within the song. Much like the rhetorical question which is left in ambiguity, the video has no conclusion making it a very ambiguous ending leaving viewers to ponder on the question themselves.

Audience

Lana Del Rey  lacks a gender specific audience. However her style of alternative and darker Pop songs seems to have gathered an audience due to her unique and creative style and iconography. She also seems to gather fans from the basis that people may find her physically attractive or aspiring.

Representation

Del Rey is represented as elegant, feministic and empowering within the video with the use of make-up on her face and the expensive and designer dresses that are used. This could make members of the public believe that this is the desirable way for females to look when they are watching the music video.