Music Video Analysis - (Lana Del Rey) Born to Die

Director: Yoann Lemoine (2012)
IMAGE

Costume:
Lana has 3 different costumes in the music video depending on the location of the shots. In the song performance, 2 costumes are worn. First when Lana is sat in the grand cathedral location, she is in a long white dress with a floral head dress made of blue flowers and white court style shoes. She is wearing mostly natural shades of make-up except for the bright red lipstick and her hair is in loose natural looking waves. When we first see Lana in this costume sat on the throne style chair, part of the lyrics goes 'but I'm hoping at the gates, they'll tell me that your mine'. The combination of these lyrics and the costume give the impression that she is in heaven, and the location also plays a part in creating this idea. The second costume warn is after the first chorus. Her hair is in a similar style but with tighter waves/curls but with more natural make-up and without the red lipstick, and she is wearing a white night dress. Her costume combined with her body language, lighting and how the narrative performance develops hints that this is the darker side of her relationship.

The narrative performance shots are located outside and in a car, where she meets her boyfriend. Here her costume resembles a festival style with a tasselled white leather jacket, bandeau top, denim shorts and red converse, reflecting a carefree side to the role she plays. This also links to Lana's star image as she is often see in festival or vintage style clothing. However her hair and make-up are consistent throughout the whole video, linking to Dyers paradox 2, as she is both accessible and distant from the consumer. This also creates continuity for the star image and is recognisable to the audience.

Roland Barthes had a theory surrounding the 'grain of voice', saying that the singing voice is more like an expressive instrument, personal and unique to the singer. This is the case with Lana Del Rey as her deep singing voice is unusual and unique to her, making her instantly recognisable with her audience.

Eye Contact:
Eye contact with the camera is mostly made in the song performance shots when Lana is sat in the throne. She makes eye contact with the camera 16 times during the video, allowing her to directly address the audience. This again links to Dyers paradox 2 'star must be present and absent simultaneously for the consumer'. Through eye contact a relationship can be developed between the star and consumer.

Set & Location:
For the song performance shots, we see Lana in a cathedral style building that is mainly white in colour with light coloured religious style decor. The brightness of this location combined with her costume and the religious style decor creates an image of heaven within the audience. We also later see Lana in a dark and unlit, posh stately home. Light is wiped from time to time across the shot, hinting how the relationship is mainly bad and only has hints of good within it. This also reflects how trapped she might be feeling before eventually finding her freedom when she exits through the double doors into white light. The location used for the narrative performance is a car. The car is of a vintage style race car and this reflects Lana's vintage style.

Body Language:
Throughout the music video, Lana's body language is constantly changing, helping to reflect the mood during each shot. We also see a mixture of different facial expressions, especially during the song performance shots of her on the throne. For example at one point in the song the lyrics read, 'keeping making me laugh'. Here she smiles, hinting how she is possibly thinking about the happy moments in the relationship. However this changes and become a more serious expression as the lyrics continue and the mid shot becomes a close up shot, allowing the audience to see how her expression has changed. In the shots of Lana sat in the throne, her body language hints at how she had power and control of herself as she is proud and tall, with both the tigers either side of her helping to portray this idea. However in the other shots when she is in the car and the stately home her body language is reflective of the lyrics that accompany each shot, making her appear less in control and in some shots she almost appears fearful. For example in one shot she is seen leaning against the door frame in the stately home with her head angled slightly down wards. As the light flashes across the set we see the man playing the role of her boyfriend in the room through the doorway moving he thumb across his neck from right to left, hinting what will happen to her and giving the impression that she doesn't realise what could happen to her and is almost fearful of what the future holds.

Colour:
All the shots in the music video are in colour. The lighting and colour is bright throughout the shots of Lana in the throne, and combined with the religious decor helping to represent how she is in heaven and that life for her is better on that side. The lighting in all the other shots is much darker, especially in the car and through the stately home shots. These hint at how this is a troubled and dark relationship she is in and that it could all end badly for her. However, the lyrics that accompany the shots from these locations allow the audience to see that she still loves him even though its not good for her to be with him. Also in the stately home shots, light wipes across the shots, hinting at how she sees often sees a glimmer of hope, but the speed at which the light wipes across the shot reflects how the hopes are always dashed.

Types of Shot used:
The first shot we see Lana and the man playing her boyfriend stood in front of the American Flag and the camera slowly zooms into them. This could possibly have been used to represent how she wanted the American Dream to come true for her and she felt it could have been with him. This shot is mirrored at the end of the music video, emphasising to the audience how she hoped things would have turned out. This is reflective of the song lyrics 'sometimes love is not enough'. This music video links to Steve Archers idea surrounding disjuncture, illustration and amplification. Here the feelings and emotions portrayed through the song lyrics are amplified through the use of shots which help to illustrate the meanings of the song.
A tilt shot is also used within the video which starts looking up at the ceiling of the cathedral and slowly tilts down so that it is parallel to the ground showing Lana in the throne with the tigers. This allows the audience to clearly see the religious location and once they see Lana in white it triggers thoughts of heaven. This then immediately turns into a tracking shot that closes in on Lana and the tigers, revealing how she has power and control.
Mid shots are used throughout the video, often of Lana in the song performance shots, allowing the audience to clearly see her facial expressions therefore clearly expressing the mood and feelings expressed through the song lyrics. This links to Dyers paradox 2, as the star is both accessible and distant simultaneously. These are often combined with two shots of both Lana and the man, showing either the intimacy or the distance between them (in the car etc.). This therefore helps to illustrate the lyrics.
Close-ups and extreme close ups are used regularly throughout the song performance shots, allowing use to see Lana's facial expressions an reaction towards the lyrics. This allows the audience to understand the feelings and emotions created by the lyrics as it is an illustrative music video. At one point a shot is shown of Lana wiping the condensation of the car window revealing her face, hinting that she maybe feels trapped with the bad times and needs the freedom from it all. This also links to Steve Archers idea's on how 'the meat of most videos is the cut to the close up of the singer's face'. Again this reflects the star image and how it is presented many times throughout the video.
Push pull focus is also used on one shot during the video, allowing us to see the facial expressions of both Lana and the man in the car during the narrative performance. This clearly presents the distance between the pair even though they love each other, hinting that this is a doomed relationship that has slim chances of ever working out.

A lot of tracking shots are used at the end of the video combined with low angles shots to show Lana walking towards the double doors at the end of the long hall in the stately home and watches her open the doors and walk into a room of white light. This links both the cathedral and stately home locations, reflecting the link between heaven and earth and how in one simple move she has found the freedom she needed. This straight cuts to a tracking shot showing the man holding Lana's blood covered body in his arms. As the shot moves back we can see flames in the background. This shot helps to connect all the feelings and emotions from the entire video, as the audience is now able to see the clear connection between the song performance location and the narrative performance locations, and reinforces the meaning behind the lyrics such as 'sometimes love is not enough'. The song ends on this shot with the lyrics 'we were born to die', hinting how Lana feels the relationship was started but would eventually be the end of her life.

In conclusion, this video is clearly illustrative of the song lyrics and the hidden meanings behind them. The song performance and narrative performances are clearly linked together through the use of all technical aspects such as lighting, camera work, location and body language. This video works well to keep continuity with the star image, as Lana's trade mark vintage style in clearly represented through use of costume and props etc.