Directed by Jonas Akerlund, 'paparzzi' is a performance and concept based music video released in 2009. It was written by Gaga and Rob Fusari, her video is about her struggle to find fame.
The video begins with wiping in slowly from the centre with a circle, revealing an establishing shot of the clear blue sky and bright sun shaded by a number of palm trees. We then see an extreme long shot of a white mansion with a balcony. There is trees and flowers surrounding the mansion with a high gate around it, protecting it from outsiders. From these first two scenes we immediately get that the location is set in a luxurious, rich setting. In these shots we hear the sound of the sea and waves, this allows the audience to know that the location of the mansion is set near by to the sea. We get a feeling that the home is a peaceful, relaxing home when we hear a piano being played from inside the mansion.
The shot we see after this is one of a pink flower by her name 'lady gaga', the use of the pink flower beside her name makes lady gaga seem feminine and delicate.
We then see a long shot of piles and piles of money on her bed and on the floor beside her bed and two gold bars which emphasises her wealth. The camera cuts to a long shot of lady gaga and a man on the bed. They begin to speak in Swedish, here we see subtitles at the bottom of the video so the audience are able to understand what is being said. We then see a close up of an American dollar, but instead of the American figurehead, we see a picture of lady gaga and on top of the right hand side is written 'The United States Of Lady Gaga' here we assume that lady gaga is an important, wealthy and a powerful woman. They also go against the stereotype of men being in power as it is lady gaga who is in power here.
We then see Gaga wearing a white feathered gown which makes her seem seductive yet pure as the colour white represents pureness. We then see her wearing black fingerless gloves which makes her seem less pure with four diamond rings spelling the word 'DIOR' which is a very well known french company that sells clothing. This could be showing that the location is set in France. The use of the diamond rings is also product placement as it spells out 'DIOR' and therefor is advertising for Dior.
The couple then go out into the balcony where we can see the view of the sea. He picks Gaga up and sits her onto the ledge where they start kissing. The piano music in the background start to become louder and more dramatic symbolising danger. The scene cuts to a black and white view from another camera tilting up at the couple, here we hear the sound of the camera shutters which allows the audience to understand that someone is taking pictures of them, probably the 'paparazzi'. Lady gaga then notices the cameras and tries getting him to stop kissing her but her refuses and carries on. We then see a mid shot of Gaga slapping him on the face and a close up of his reaction, showing him to be furious and he continues. She then picks up the bottle of champagne that was beside her on the ledge and smacks him with it across the head. He then pushes her of the balcony.
As she is falling we see a hypnotic background of a black and white swirl which is spinning as she falls. We can hear her loud breathing and heartbeat as she is falling, here the audience think that she is about to die.
When she falls we see a number of men who seem to be the paparazzi surrounding her and instead of helping they take pictures, this shows how atrocious the press are and that they only care about doing their job and getting money.
We then see a extreme long shot of a black limo and a long purple carpet. We see a close up of the limo door as it opens and reveals lady gaga.One of the men who seems to be a security guard carries lady gaga to sit her down on the wheelchair, as this is happening we see a high angle shot looking down at lady gaga which makes her appear vulnerable and weak.
There is then a cut of lady gaga as she begins to sing where she is wearing a black leather outfit revealing a lot of skin and long black leather gloves which make her seem seductive, she is sitting on a gold couch which seems to be very expensive. Till this point the music video has been narrative based. It then cuts back to her being in the wheelchair, pushed by one of the security guards whilst the other three dance around her. Here two of the men begin to do the queens wave, this makes Gaga seem to be royalty. The men then remove her neck brace and begin to help her in removing her clothes, here they are using both long shots and close ups which allows the audience to see the movement of the characters.
We then see a long shot revealing Gaga to be wearing a gold metal costume and headpiece showing that even if she's on a wheelchair and barely able to move she still tries to look her best. Four female dancers enter and begin to dance. Lady Gaga attempts to walk using crutches.
We then see a cut where lady gaga is sitting on the gold couch whit three identical triplets beside her, this is shown in a long shot where Gaga is sitting between them. We then see Gaga begin to kiss the girls, this scene is very sexual. Followed is a long shot of lady gaga and four female dancers all dressed in white with blue ruffles on their shoulders, the white here again could represent her as being pure although the dance moves prove otherwise. This scene here is performance based.
We then see lady gaga in the corner of a room wearing a black costume, there are flashes of light making it difficult to see her, this could be from the paparazzi taking pictures of her.
We then see a scene where they have used a long shot to show Lady Gaga and her boyfriend sitting on a white sofa, here they have used high key lighting making it seem like they are living the happy life again.
Her boyfriend is wearing an eye patch which could be from when Gaga attacked him with the champagne bottle. The maid walks in with a tray of drinks and places it on the table. Gaga gets up and walks towards the drinks, she prepares a drink for her boyfriend, they show this using a close up of her face which shows her with no expression on her face, careless. We see her open her ring which contains a white substance, as she does this we see a little skull in he bottom right corner of the video with 'poison' written underneath, immediately we understand that the substance is therefor poisonous. She pours the substance from the ring into the glass. Gaga then hands the drink over to her boyfriend carelessly, knowing within a few minutes he could be dead. When he finishes his drink he realises that Gaga has put something into his drink and looks over at her, here they use a close up so that the audience are able to see his reaction as he looks shocked and furious but it's too late to do anything. They then show a long shot of when his head drops and he dies, here the music completely stops and we hear the sound of a phone dialing. Lady gaga phones 911 emergency telling the lady on the phone that she has just killed her boyfriend without any guilt but instead sounds rather happy with her achievement.
In this scene Lady Gaga is wearing a mickey mouse outfit, this outfit contrasts with her actions as mickey mouse is a children's Disney character that is childish and innocent and she has just killed her boyfriend.
They then use a low angle shot looking up at lady gaga as she takes her glasses of and puts them on her boyfriend, as they similarly did when they had used a low angle shot when he had pushed her of the ledge. Here they are showing that Gaga has gained her power back and got revenge. We then see a cross fade where the cut dissolves into the same room but this time it has turned dark, using this editing technique allows the audience to understand that some time has passed by. We see investigators in the room inspecting the dead body. The next scene wipes in with a star continuing from the previous scene showing Lady Gaga being held by two police officers from each side, this shows that although she has been arrested she is still a star and still is famous. We hear paparazzi yell out 'Gaga' trying to get her attention. Most of this scene is shown through shots of black and white images that the paparazzi are taking of her. The press here seem to be more interested and all trying to get her attention compared to when she fell off the ledge and could have died as they were more interested in taking pictures than helping her.
We then see a long shot of gaga walking into a room ready to take her mug shot. The scene looks as though it has been shot in black and white yet we can see her purple nail varnish and what seems like purple tattooed tear drops under her eyes. The purple tear drops go with one of her lyrics in the song which says 'my lashes are dry, purple tear drops I cry'.
At the start she had it all, the fame, the luxury and the perfect man but then she hit rock bottom and lost it all when her boyfriend pushed her over the ledge of the balcony and said 'damn you to hell' when doing so. This shows that she had lived heaven having everything any woman could dream of but then falling and losing it all. She chose fame over her lover.
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