As you may know, I am a Video Editor – and one of the things (probably the main thing) that inspired me to work in television post production was actually music videos.

Music videos are one of my favourite things in the world and I spent hours and I MEAN literally hours when I was growing up watching them Even now in the modern world, I can find myself getting lost on YouTube watching music videos for hours on end – they are an addiction.

This month we look at a musician that creates some of my favourite videos. At university, my housemate and I used to be so excited on new Lady Gaga Video day as you never knew what to expect from them and they were always so magical. I find her music and her videos really inspiring because she always goes above and beyond to do something that no-one else has thought of. So this month I want to celebrate and look at the queen of pops music videos. Be warned, some of these analysis could be essays because there is a lot I love about her videos from an editing perspective.

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

Why did you choose this particular video?

I love this song and I think it is both my favourite song and one of my favourite videos for Lady Gaga. This came out when I was at University and I spent ages learning the dance routine in the chorus. I am not really into fashion but I love this video the way that it represents fahsion and actually adore the shots and they way that it emphasises the fashion – even to the tiniest thing such as her nails. Such a great video.

So, what is the narrative?

Lady Gaga is kidnapped by a group of supermodels who drug her and then sell her off to the Russian mafia for a million rubles.

Favourite parts of the video?

Whilst the first shot that we are looking at isn’t really editing or cut it is really interesting to look at this shot because of the colour grade. In the opening sequence there is a lot of shots that play around with the light and dark spaces in the shot and I really like this one because of the colour grade – it is murky and grey to really allow the light and the ‘scary’ looking creatures come alive and it is really effective.

There is a lot going on in the chorus so being creative with the editing is vitally important. I like the way that this part of the video is edited because it is short shorts of all the different activities that are happening. The shots are on the dance routine long enough for a fan to learn, whilst the shots of Gaga being thrown about by her prisoners are short and sharp enough to create the drama and the impact in which you need in the video. Also near the end of the chorus there are these Close up shots to Gaga to show the emotion and they feel color graded to really emphasise the light colours to show the innocence of her in the situation she is being thrown into.

When the lyrics start talking about ‘fashion baby’ the style of the video sort of completely changes. The edit becomes really fast, the colour grade becomes more green in its tone and each shot has a quick fade to black between it. Also the shots have a vignette around it which makes it feel like a bit of a dream like montage. Lady Gaga is walking down a sort of ‘catwalk’ to represent the lyrics but if you look a little further into the narrative of the video it could be scene as her descent into accepting what she is about to become.