Music Video Analysis: Lady Gaga - Bad Romance

The music video for Lady Gaga's 'Bad Romance' was directed by Francis Lawrence. Lawrence is a film director and worked on films such as 'I Am Legend.' The pop music video was uploaded to YouTube and now, in September 2015, has over 636 million views.

'Bad Romance' was nominated for Best Video, Best Female Video, Best Pop Video, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Dance Video and Best Special Effects at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010. The video won 7/10 of these awards. It also won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music video.

The lyrics of the song are about being so deeply in love with someone that you love their entire being, including the bad and nasty parts of them. 'I want your ugly, I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it's free.' The video is about a group of powerful Russian men bidding on the ownership of Gaga. She is bought and then prepared before being presented to the man. She then burns him alive in resilience. At the end of the video she is free. The lyrics and video have a relationship in the fact that they are both about love and passion. However, they take different approaches to the matter.

The mise-en-scene for Bad Romance is what makes the video so memorable. The costumes are what stand out the most. Alexander McQueen sent Gaga a selection of his fashion range for the music video and she ended up using one of his most iconic pieces. The strange clothes that she wore through out the video is what makes it so bizarre and shocking. Gaga is known most for her wacky clothing, so she repeats this image of herself in all of her music videos.

Her makeup is generally very natural looking to tie in with the pure and innocent theme behind Gaga's portrayal in the video. It's like it's showing a stripped down version of Gaga opposed to her usual heavy makeup and clothing that she is known for wearing.

The lighting through out the majority of the video uses bright white artificial lighting to create a sterile hospital feel to the setting. In some parts, the lighting is dimmer. This creates contrast against the different scenes but also adds a certain mood to the setting. For example, there is a scene in the video where Lady Gaga is in a shower with dim lighting. There is a white spotlight that shines from behind her signifying how lonely she is at that moment.

The setting is supposed to look like a futuristic version of a Russian bathhouse. It's white walls, floor, ceiling and lights all come together to make it look simple, clean and graphic. All pieces of furniture used in this white setting are also white such as the bath, the capsules, the mirror and the chair. 

A lot of close ups were used in this music video. The close ups draw attention to details that we may have missed otherwise, like product placements. Close ups were also used for showing Gaga's face. This makes her face (that also plays a big part in her branding) more recognisable to the audience as they repeatedly see it and therefore are able to recognise her in the future. Panning was also used. During the establishing shots at the beginning, panning of the camera was there to introduce us to the setting. Long shots were used for when Lady Gaga and her dancers were dancing. Full body shots were required to see the dance moves properly. When Gaga was looking in the mirror, an over the shoulder shot was used to make her actions clear and tracking was used near the end when she was walking towards the bed. This gives the effect that we are following her and gives us time to wonder what will come next. 

There are a lot of shots that sexualise Gaga. A lot of the costumes are very revealing and there are a couple of shots where the camera tracks around her, showing multiple angles of her body. They've done this to make her seem desirable. 

Editing plays a big part in this music video. There are frequent fast paced cuts between scenes to keep up with the beat of the music. The scene where Gaga is stood amongst floating diamonds was created with CGI in the edit. A lot of black fade ins/outs are used near the end of the video to show the transition of her becoming free from capture. 

The choreography was designed to hit the beat of the music with every movement. It's very fast paced and makes the audience want to dance along with it. In fact, every movement of the characters within the video have been made to keep in sync of the beat of the music. 
The target audience for the Bad Romance music video are teens to adults. It has underlying adult themes but can also be seen as an odd but innocent pop video if the themes are overlooked. Gaga has a huge fan following that the video would also be targeted at.