Amateur vs Pro

Amateur Vs Pro

I looked at two videos,  Lana Del Rey- Born to Die (pro) and an amateur video by the channel 'Luke Georgiades' which was also a Del Rey video ('Young & Beautiful'). The 'Young and Beautiful' song doesn't have an official video, but I thought that the A-level video was a good example to use for a blog post.

Lana Del Rey's music genre is mainly, indie and dream pop. Her video 'Born to die' is very hipster and 'dreamy'. For example the first scene has the American flag blowing in the wind as the backdrop, she uses a lot of flowers in the video, including her flower crown, which can be considered very hipster. The setting is very elegant and has a lot of art on the ceiling, it looks like an exotic church. In these scenes, she is also sitting on a throne, with a flower crown and a long white dress, with two tigers either side of her. She is portrayed somewhat angelic.

Her lyrics match her visuals, usually in hand gestures, like when she sings 'Oh my heart it breaks.' and she clutches her chest and at the end when 'We were born to die' is said and the man in the video is holding her, she is covered in blood and there is fire burning in the background.

The record label demands a lot of scenes of Lana Del Rey, as the artist of the music, as this is probably what the fans want to see the most, this is used in her video and I think almost every scene includes her.

The lighting is dim at points, especially when she is in a white, bare footed, walking down a hallway, this is to create a dream like effect to match the 'dream pop' genre and other scenes include a flash of a light in the scene to change the characters positions.

The video, I think, portrays a lot of voyeurism, fans would probably disagree, but I think that Lana is portrayed sexually, especially with the man in the video. The video, I feel, is very indie and alternative, the man has ear stretchers and tattoos. The main characters smoke and kiss a lot. I feel that the video is mainly portraying alternative fashion and sex.

Adding on to voyeurism, at the beginning of the video, Lana and her partner are both fully topless and leaning against each other, I feel that she is represented as weaker because the man is the only thing stopping her from being exposed. To me it also looks like her male friend is somewhat controlling, as in one scene, she is laying on the bed, the next he is next to her holding her and in the next, he has his hand around her throat.

Even at the end of the video, when Lana is dead, she has minimal clothing on, exposing her bra, covered in blood and the man is holding her loosely, letting her dangle, instead of supporting her. maybe this video is about a violent relationship.

The amateur video, (Young & Beautiful- Lana Del Rey) I feel, has really grasped the aspects of a Lana Del Rey video. they have really captured the dream like effect and the alternative and sexual feel to her videos.
They have used lots of close ups of the girl playing as Lana Del Rey, which was what the record label would demand.

The group have also captured the 'alternative' look, using black clothes, gold jewellery, heavy, black make up, drugs and cigarettes.

They have also used a sexual feel to it, as stereotypically lesbian scenes are considered more sexual, especially towards the male gender viewer. Another example of portraying the video sexually is when the main character runs her hand down her body a lot and the camera follows it.

The halo lighting used creates an angelic and flattering look on the person in front of it, which in this case is the girl playing as Lana.

The links between music and visuals are used just as they are in the Born To die music video. For instance, the lyrics 'Play with me like a child' the 'lead singer' pushes her partner/friend.

I'm not totally sure what happens at the end, but something about the lyrics when they say 'Will you still love me, when I am no longer young and beautiful?' makes me think that at the end when the main character dies that she has died 'young and beautiful' so that her partner will love her forever because she will remain young.

They have also taken the title of the song (Young & Beautiful) and made the singer beautiful, creating the right dress sense, make up and  hairstyle. I feel that this video has been very successful and have portrayed the right mood and an excessive amount of production and planning has gone into this.

_Andrea