LADGY GAGA: Star Image

How lady Gaga uses fashion to create her 'star image' 

LADY GAGA

STAR IMAGE

Lady Gaga, born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, took the pop music scene by storm in 2009, and since then she has become one of the most iconic artists of the last few years. Her first music video, for upbeat synthpop song ‘Just Dance’, saw her at a house party in a number of exorbitant outfits and skyscraper heels. This was when Lady Gaga first let leash her erratic style of fashion on the world and since then people haven’t been able to get enough.

 In the video for ‘Just Dance’ Gaga’s outfits are outlandish, but her look still seems to be borderline between something new and really interesting and just a barmy 20 year old who’s idea of being new and creative is simply by channeling the 80’s through a pink shoulder-padded blazer. I think it’s only when her second video was released, ‘Bad Romance’, that Gaga steps out from behind her ‘generic pop star’ façade and and reveals herself to be something far more ‘new age’ and interesting. The video has a futuristic and clinical feel to It with a setting which compares itself to a psychiatric ward with Gaga strutting around in an array of ‘eccentric’ get-ups.

    From ‘Bad Romance’ onwards Gaga’s offensive on the fashion world seems to go from strength to strength with each preposterous number she wears. Although her music videos are her most notable platform to display her outfits Gaga never seems to leave the house without her attire creating a media storm. Probably the most memorable costume Gaga has worn is the ‘meat dress’.  In 2010 Gaga played her most controversial move yet, wearing a dress made completely of raw meat to the MTV awards. The dress was an obvious attempt to try and gain media attention but left many simply asking ‘why?’.

Gaga’s continuous struggle to top her last fashion venture has caused a rift within the music community. Many people have asked whether the world’s fixation with Gaga’s fashion image over shadows her music meaning she can create trashy generic pop songs and cover them up with her wacky exterior. Some people think this goes against fact that a stars image should complement their music, not overshadow it. Despite this Lady Gaga has an extensive set of music awards to her name including 3 BRITS and 8 MTV awards.

NEW IDEA!

Recently I went to a event at one of the Sense centers, where my mum works, and met some of the students there. Sense is a charity that provides education and care for deaf/blind adults and children. Whilst I was there I was watching the students using sign language and it got me thinking if there are any music videos out there which incorporate sign language. I had a look when I got home on YouTube and there were a few but not that many. Although people who are deaf can't hear the music they can still feel the beat from the music, and some people who are partially deaf can still hear some of the music they just need help to understand the lyrics.

I think for my music video I might like to make a video for people who are deaf which uses sign language. I think this would be a good project because, alothough there are music videos out there which use sign language most of them aren't very creative, and it would be nice to make a video that has a particular purpose.


INSPIRATION:   LEE'S BSL MUSIC VIDEOS


Whilst looking on the internet for music videos which incoroporate sign language I found the page of LEES a deaf studies student at Bristol University. I really like his videos he basically takes popular songs and then signs along to them, whilst beeing as expressive as possible. I like Lee's videos as I think he tries really hard to make his videos as accessible as possible to people who have hearing imparements. Overall Lee has uploaded an impressive 361 videos across a wide variety of music genres.

Lee's Profile: 

 

Name: Lee

Channel Views: 55,266

Total Upload Views: 404,201

Joined: 4 Jun 2008

Last Visit Date: 2 weeks ago

Subscribers: 1,655

 

I'm here to make songs accessible for the D/deaf and hard of hearing. There's aren't many people doing BSL songs, and those have have been making them have stopped. I love signing songs, and I hope you'll enjoy them as well. So please subscribe and I'll make some more!

Unfortunately I don't take requests. I do sign a variety of music genres and artists so I'm bound to do your favourite!

About Me:

 

Heyup people! I'm Lee, 19 years old, and a Deaf Studies student at the University of Bristol (hoping to become a BSL interpreter). I love to sign and I love music, so I thought why not put the 2 together!

And I'm hearing, let me clarify that, but that's not to say that Deaf people can't sign songs, cuz they are amazing at signing songs themselves. Actually everyone can sign songs if they believe they can and they want to. It annoys me when people say "I'll never be as good as you", cuz everyone can do anything they want to if they put their minds to it. Cliche I know, but it's a precious cliche.

 

I think Lee's music videos are really inspirational and I would like to try and creat something similar.

Lip Syncing Video FINISHED

I have now finished my Lip Syncing video. The song we choose to do was 'Anyone Else But You' by the Mouldy Peaches. We filmed the footage one together, and then both individually. To make sure our mouths were moving in time to the music we played the music in the background, and mouthed along as it was filmed.
Afterwards I edited the footage using Adobe Elements. I found this really difficult as I had never done this before. We took the sound of the footage and placed the track over the top. It was really difficult to make sure the sound fitted in time with our mouths but eventually I started to get the hang of it. I didn't finish the whole video but I definetly did enough to make sure I understood how it is done, and it has definetly prepared me for when I am shooting my own video.

The video is bellow- enjoy!

Ideas in futher detail and examples.

Storyline.

EXAMPLE: 'Forget You'

'Forget You' by Cee Lo Green is a good example of a music video that tells a story which reflects the lyrics of the song. |In the video Cee Lo plays himself from a young boy to college student and shows him being put down by his crush 'the heartbraker'. Although the video is clearly telling a story Cee Lo also sings the songs throughout the video. The lyrics lend themselves to this sort of video as they telll a clear and chronilogical story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKxodgpyGec

Educational

EXAMPLE: 'A Film About Poo'

When I went on a school trip to the British Film Institute I heared about 'A Film About Poo' which was created by Emily Howells & Anne Wilkins. It is about the importance of washing your hands and is obviously aimed at young children. It was made to promote keeping your hands clean as part of a competition. since they made it the film has been shown at 13 film festivals and has won the following awards:
Winner, Jury's Choice, Golden Poo Awards, London International Animation Festival, 2009
Winner, Audience Award, Canary Wharf Film Festival, London, 2009
Second Place Winner, Audience Award, Prince Charles Cinema Golden Poo Awards, London, 2009
Winner, Best Animation (19-25 year olds), BFI Future Film Festival, London, 2010
Winner, Audience Award (8-14 year olds), New York International Children's Film Festival, USA, 2010

I like the music video as it is a film in its own right and gives just as strong message as the lyrics that accompany it. I think this is important, you don't want your music video to have simply been made to reflect the lyrics of a song and to be nothing by itself.

I also liked the video as it was created in one of my favourite medias stop motion. Emily Howells & Anne Wilkins made the video in their bedroom and using only simple software which I think shows just how much you can achieve with just the basic equipment if you are as creative as possible.

Check out 'A Film About Poo' http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p007k1k4

MY IDEA:

I like the idea of creating a music video which has a strong and educational message. One of my ideas for a educational music video is to take a song from an artist which is popular with children aged 11-13 and to create a music video to go with a popular song that highlights issues such as bullying or Internet safety.

PERFORMANCE

Another popular type of music video is performance based videos. They were first used for when artists couldn't make it onto music shows such as Top of The Pops.

EXAMPLE: 'It's not my name' The Ting Tings.

The Ting Tings video for ' It's not my name' is a great example of a performance music video. I like it because, although it is simply of the band performing, the camera angels and the colours used make it visually interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1c2OfAzDTI

Ideas for my music video

Video techniques experiment.

OLD WOODEN BOX

One of my favourite ways of creating videos is using stop motion. I think it is very effective and can make a short piece of video more interesting than simply filming it.  I have decided that I may try and use stop motion for my music video. Linked is a video I created earlier today using stop motion. It is a little experiment as i have also included small pieces of film. I will consider using stop motion for my music video although I will also have to keep in mind that it is a very lengthy process and can take much longer that simply filming a video.  I am pleased with the way this short clip has turned out it doesn' have any form of a plot but

it has given me the opportunity to look at stop motion and how to create a successful short clip. 

GOLDFISH NATION

The second type of filming I have experimented with is animation. I have created a short acetate animation based on a poem. I decided to look into acetate animation as it is a cheap and easy way to create short animated clips. This experiment was quite quick but it opened my eyes to how i could create a animation based music video. 

This animation, named 'Goldfish Nation' is based on a poem by Jason Strugnell and is basically about how life is so much easier for a fish as they have nothing to worry about. I created a short animation for the first few verses of the poem. 

The History Of Music Videos

The first channel dedicated to music videos, MTV, was started in 1981 in the USA. But it was long before this that people were watching music accompanied by film on their TVs and at the cinema.

The first time people really became interested in the concept of music and films was when musicals first started being shown at the cinema. Musical such as 'The Talkies' and 'MGM musicals' were very popular and people really enjoyed going out and seeing there favourite songs accompanied by story lines and dancing. The next stage was Rock'n'Roll  musicals such as 'Kissin' cousins' which starred Elvis Presley. At the time when they were produced they were part of a new culture when peoples ideas about music and dancing were really changing, and it became a common practice for young boys and girls to go see these films at the cinema.

By this point people were enjoying going out and seeing these musicals but real music videos still weren't being produced.  It wasn't till The Top OF The Pops started in the UK in 1964 that artists started producing music videos. When artists were on tour if they became top of the charts they were unable to go to the studios in London to perform live. To get around this problem and still be able to perform something for their fans they started creating music videos to be shown on tele. One of the first music videos was the Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1964. The film was a 'mini film' and it was a great success. This encouraged more bands to start creating music videos for there fans .
 
The music video that really created a craze for music videos was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. The song itself was extremley popular but the reason people really loved the video was because of how experimental it was and how different it was from anything people had seen before. Even to today's standards it is a exceptional music video and you can see why so many people thought it was good.

Now artists had started creating music videos they needed a platform to show them to their fans and this was when MTV started. Launching with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," .