Born To Die - Lana Del Rey

Born To Die Analysis

From the album Born To Die that was said to be 'a dark love story seen through hopeful eyes' the music video and song to Born to die were meant to be about how she'd found someone she was happy with, this is meant to be different to how she's felt before.

From analysing Lana's video, I have discovered that the lyrics to the song do fit the video, this comes across when listening to the lyrics as well as watching what's going on, for example the video is part performance and part narrative and through listening to what is being said you start to see that the storyline is about a couple. 

Use of the American Flag.

The first thing you see when the video starts is Lana and a male character stood in an embrace positioned in front of an America flag. When looking into where she was from I found out that Lana is American herself so it could be a way of showing her nationality. The use of the flag also becomes apparent in her first music video, Videogames.

Tracking shot of the ceiling.

A tracking shot is then used to show Lana's new location. This follows the ceiling of a large space, which could be related to religion. As the camera reaches the back wall the lyrics come in as the camera begins to close in on Lana.

Centralised between two tigers.

From the shot you are shown Lana to be in the centre of two tigers, however they don't seem to have much significance throughout the video unless the lyrics 'come take a walk on the wild side' resemble the two tigers.



Other things that become quite apparent from watching the video is that Lana seems to wear white quite a lot. From the lyrics 'we were born to die' it makes me wonder if she is in Heaven as the world she is in is dreamlike.



Shows Lana walking towards the new character.

As the video carries on, you are introduced to a new character in the video, he is first seen waiting by a car for Lana, who then goes towards him.

Lana watching her boyfriend.
Many of the clips following this one also
includes the two of them sat in the car.

This is the first time in the video that you start to understand that the song will be about a relationship and it is the first of many clips showing the two of them together.

Close ups are then used to show how close the two characters are especially being in the front of the car. From the screen shot on the left you can see how Lana is watching her boyfriend, and from the clip you can see that focus pull is being used as you can't see the man clearly.

Medium Long Shot - The main focus is on the hand gesture,
however the camera angle that has been used is far
 enough away to allow you to take in more of the scene.

While this is going on, the video goes from what is happening in the car to Lana sat in the large room. This part of the video is now more performance based than the rest, this shows her to be singing the lyrics.
However the video then gets more serious and by using a medium long shot it shows the male character to make a gun shape out of his hand and holds it to her head. This happens when she sings the line 'you like your girls insane' and this sends mixed messages as they looked like they were getting on before.

Lana then goes on to whisper 'we were born to die' into the ear of the male,
this is where you start to wonder about what will happen.

From this screen shot, you can see that the use of
 body language in the video is quite important.

In the next part of the video the scene is set in a bed room and the lighting used is one of the key features. It first shows Lana to be alone but then as the darkness covers her and then moves again the male is shown to be lying next to her and it shows her face to be expressionless.  This carries on for the next few scenes and it then goes on to show the male to be stood in a room behind Lana with his hands by his throat, to me it looks as though he's making motions that suggest he might try to kill her.

The next few scenes take place in a car, throughout this time you see both characters, but the body language of Lana doesn't seem to be very positive, making me think that she doesn't really want to be in the car with him, maybe even with him at all. As the video progresses you are then taken back to the main hall where the video begins, once again showing her to be alone.

Lyrics heard at this point are 'You and I we were born to die'
and from this you as the viewer realise she has
 died due to the fact she's going into the light. 

Following the hall ways, you are shown the interior of the space. With the use of lighting, different parts of the building are uncovered, this shows the walls and the ceiling. But as well as this forward tracking shots are used, this makes you as a viewer follow where the camera is going. Reverse track is then used as Lana is walking towards a door way, the camera then changes using a long shot which then shows her to open the door, walking into a white light. 

Reverse track is then used, but this time it starts close up to the male characters face and as the camera moves back, it reveals Lana's body lying limp in the arms of the male. The scene at this time shows a car to be on fire in the background, and as the camera gets further away the fire is the last thing you can see.

 A close up used at the start of the video is then used at the end, showing both characters to be in an embrace with the use of a medium close up.