Sunday, March 08, 2009

Just Dance

Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" music video is a mostly narrative story about the singer and her friends showing up at a party that is over and getting everyone partying again. They arrive while the partygoers are passed out around a house, and she gets everyone dancing and singing with a boom-box and her dance moves.

There are portions that are a little more non-narrative. For example, there are repeated shots of her dancing alone or with a team of dancers. These portions don't help to carry out the story of the music video.

There is mixed usage of deep and shallow space. The portions of the video where the entire house is shown and then the close-ups of Lady Gaga herself are examples of these.

I noticed immediately the shaky use of the camera in the dance scenes. To add to the affect of the party, they cameraman shook the camera to the movement of the people dancing and jumping.

I didn't notice any zooming in this video, but there was definitely panning and lifting throughout.

I like the use of a loose theme for the video, but the main focus is simply on the singer and her dancing. I think its a nice balance of trying to seem too narrative, like some other videos, and being completely non-narrative and boring like others.

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