Sunday, 2 July 2017

Research - Genre specific Lana Del Ray Blue Jeans analysis (2)


The song 'Blue Jeans' is by Lana Del Ray.  The song explains how attractive the male in the video is and how different he is to other males that have been in the woman's life.  It describes how the woman fell in love with the man at first sight and ill never stop loving him.  
I love the shots in the video and how the video is all in black and white.  

The opening shot must have many after effects used on it as it shows the woman on a black water background, which is rippling.  Her face is very transparent, and ghost like.  It is centred in the shot and as the background ripples, she moves with it.  The shot is very dark with light on the side of Lana's face, highlighting her.  The shot itself is a close up shot and is very still; tripod used.  This shot plays for a long period of time to introduce the video. 

The shots then move onto the male in the video .  The camera pans around the character as he moves into the camera.  This is one of my favourite shots in this video because of how smooth it is.  The majority of this shot is dark, in black with the white light hitting the males face, hand and neck.  This creates a contrast.  The smooth movement of the male is complimented by the slow, smooth starting of the song.  A lot of Lana's videos start in a similar style to this; with the same smooth start.  The shot is a high angled close up of the male. 

The previous shot with the male turning into the camera is contrasted with this shot following it.  Firstly the shot is a wide shot of the males location, which contrasts with how close to the males face the previous shot was.  It also contrasts with it because of how dark the close up shot is, in comparison to how light this one is. This shot is low angled and shows the male stood by a pool, smoking, looking downwards into the pool. 
The next shot is one which keeps coming up throughout the video.  It starts with a almost extreme close up of Lana Del Ray lying on the floor.  It is highangled and to the side of her.  She looks angelic.  Her eyelashes are long and dark, her lips are slightly parted.  She has her eyes closed.  It is quite a dark shot, with neutral lighting.  There is a shimmer of wavey light lighting going over her face; it looks like the reflection if the water, perhaps from the pool.
The next shot is the same one as the previous, however it is from further away.  This shows more of her body, and what she is wearing. The shot sits Lana diagonally across the frame.  The lighting is still almost mottled like the reflection from the water on her.  The lighting is hits on side of her face, highlighting it and making a contrast.  This leaves the other side of the face to be dark.  This is similar to the close up shot of the male, where half of his face is highlighted with the lighting.
The male then becomes the frames focus again, with a shot similar to the first shot of him.  The shot is now not as heavily dominated by the dark lighting and shows a lot more of his face in the light.  He now combs his hair backwards, showing his arms also in the light.  Here you can see that the male has a lot of tattoos,including one across his forehead.  Thisis again highlighted by the light.  The background is not visible, however lighter than the original shot.
This shot is one of my favourites, it shows the woman through the window looking out at.  Her appearance goes in and out of focus.  You can also see the reflection of what the woman is looking at on the window.  This shows one of the first shots of the man standing by a pool, however this time, he is getting undressed.  It is presumed that he is going to go swimming and that is why he is taking his clothes off.The woman almost seems obsessed with the male.
After a shot following the males hand move down the woman's body, mimicking a choking gesture as he moves up her throat, his hand end up in her mouth.  Her eyes remain closed as the shot is the same as the first shot of the woman lying down.  The light only hits half of her face and the other side is in shadow from the maleshand.  The shot is again a close up of the woman's face/ males hand and the whole movement is very smooth/suggestive.  The camera tracks the males hand as it moves.
The camera then takes you outside to where the male is.  After seeing the male undress, he dives in the pool.  The camera shows him do so with a birds eye view shot of the man.  He is dominated by the lighting and the focus.  The water is dark and only shows the ripples on one side of the pool;the same ripples as shown on the woman previously.  I presumed that the camera would track the man as he swims, however it doesn't.  The male comes into shot when he dives and swims through ashe leaves.
After the male has swam, he leaves the pool.  This isn't recorded on camera,however is suggested through the following closeup.  This shows the male looking down and water dripping off his face. He appears tired.  There is little harsh light in this shot.  There is a theme of almost miserableness throughout the video.  Although the two are meant to be in love, they seem miserable and very far away in terms of emotions; almost like strangers.  This could be to represent the love at first site, story Lana is trying to represent through the video; she watches him.
The woman now enters the pool.  We can now see that what she was wearing before was a swimming costume. Costume used throughout the video are very minimalist.  I think this is used to have a focus on the love affair or perhaps to show how raw the love is.   The shot here is a low angled shot.  The shot is placed between underneath the water and above.  This way you can see the bottom half of the woman walking down the steps into the pool and also the top of the woman.  This could be representative of there a view underneath the surface; of the relationship.  This is also suggested through the storyline and emotion of the two; although they are meant to be in love, they seem miserable. 
Once in the pool, the woman submerges herself in the water.  This shot again shows the ripples of the water reflection.  The shot is high angled and a mid close up.  The idea of her falling underwater, with the bubbles of air hitting the surface, could be interpreted as her falling and drowning in the love. The water is again very dark and is shown this way in a lot of the shots.  This could show that the relationship is toxic and dark.  
Once submerged in the water, the woman goes very deep into the pool with her arms in the air almost as though she is falling.  She is barely visible through the dark water, with little lighting.  There is lighting coming from the surface of the water, and comes down in strong shards and strips.  It comes down and can be seen on the bottom of the pool.  This is the only form of lighting which makes the woman visible.  Again this follows the idea of the woman drowning in the love. 
The woman and the male surface and the woman swims to him.  Half of their faces are submerged in the water, so that the focus is on their eyes, looking at each other.  The water ripples as the become closer.  The encounter is soon followed by the couple passionately kissing in the water.  This is the first time the two have showed emotion and passion towards each other.  The woman appears very pure and clean in comparison to the male; he is covered in tattoos and piercings, where as she shown as pure. 
The camera then goes back to the girl under the water.  The girl is now seen surrounded by swimming crocodiles.  The fact that she goes beneath the water to swim with the crocodiles, shows that she is risk taking.  Crocodiles can each kill humans.  It could be that the man is dangerous; by entering the pool and swimming in his dangerous waters.  The shot is still very dark and there is minimal lighting.


The scenes switch between above and below the water.  This shot is a mid close up of the couple kissing above water.  The previous kiss has become more passionate and it seems as though the woman is dominating the frame and the male.  The lighting hits the top of the males head.  This is contrasting to a lot of the connotations about the man as the light almost imitates a halo.  In this shot, its the first rebelious im,age seen of the woman.  Not only does it show her dominating the male, but a tattoo is visible.  
The next shot goes back underneath the water with the woman and the crocodiles.  In this shot, the lighting is coming from the top right corner, down onto the crocodile and the woman.  She looks as though she is going to ride the crocodile.  This is commonly something people could do with dolphins, however this shows again the risk taking and her approach to danger.  The shot is a long shot, but only her shoulders downwards can be seen, along with the crocodile tail between her legs.  The image itself is quite provocative, which links to the intimacy and relationship she has with danger, in the form of the male.  
Above the water, the camera takes a birds eye view approach on the couple.  They are positioned off centre and the woman lay on her back, in the males arms.  The ripples of the water can be seen in this shot and the water itself doesn't seem so dark.  This could be representative of the couple in that they have come together and the darkness from the male is being broken up by the light from the female.  This can be seen in the positioning of the two in this shot as the light can be seen to cover the female, however also go onto the male.  Both lights and darks can be seen to cover both of them.  This is a very iconic shot which is zoomed into in the frame that follows.  
The shot which ends the video is this another birds eye view shot.  This one is a lot closer to the couple; directly above them.  There is strong light lighting coming from beneath the two.  The woman lay back on the man's shoulder and she look up to the camera.  The male looks forward, with his hand around her neck.  She almost looks in pain, as though she wants help.  As the clip goes on, the water engulfs the couple and they are seen beneath in.  The light continues to shine, as the two go down to be with the crocodiles.  The image goes dark and the video ends.  This is another very strong image and shot from lana. 

From analysis the music video to 'Blue Jeans' by Lana Del Ray, I have inferred an odd but relatively clear narrative.  The male is seen as dangerous and contrasts with the beautiful, innocent woman.  The woman enters his danger by entering the pool.  She loves him enough to be influenced by his danger and enough to 'drown' in it for him. The black and white theme is something I would like to use in my own project, as well as the close ups and shots which are representative of the couple.   





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