The image portrayed by this artist is innocence and purity. Taylor Swift is a 17 year old blonde haired girl, but she doesn’t portray the usual 17 year old girl look, especially in this video wear she portrays the ‘geek’ look. This look is achieved by Taylor wearing glasses and respectful clothes such as big t-shirts, and wearing little make up and natural looking hair.
Taylor Swifts target market is teenage girls, her videos are set in high school and are often about love. This is what a lot of girls this age are interested in. I think the artists wants to show the target market that all girls don’t have to dress and be a certain way all the time.
The video you belong with me is a narrative story and the whole video is just like a short film, a typical American chick flick about a high school love. This shows Andrew Goodwins theory of a video illustrating and amplifying the lyrics.
The video starts with a girl (Taylor Swift) in one house looking through the window at a boy in another house. There are mostly medium long length shots in this scene, as the music is slower this fits with the music. She is wearing glasses and a big t-shirt with her hair loosely tied up, this shows the image of innocence, and the effortless look. It is mostly a 180 degree rule shot, from her to him and back again.
The next part of the video is of her in her room, the music has a fast past to it now so therefore the shots are shorter and quicker. I noticed that the shots changes at the end of each line she says, therefore matching the tempo of the song, also what she is doing gives meaning to the lyrics.
The next scene is the girl sitting alone on a bench and the boy comes over, it is a medium shot from the waist up.
All the way through the video, sometimes she is singing along to what the audience can hear and sometimes she is just acting, although when she is singing along the other characters do not react to this. This illustrates Steve Archer’s theory that music videos cut between narrative and performance. There is also some focus on their faces, this emphasis her mouth when she is singing the lyrics, and also her glasses. A car then appears with his girlfriend in it; she has long brunette hair and drives an expensive sports car. The difference between the two girls shows the audience the ‘different look’ Taylor Swift is portraying.
The next part of the video is even faster which means there are even more quick shots, and different camera angles being used. I noticed in the parts when she is singing the lyrics there are close ups of her face. As a story is being told, characters mime as their voice can’t be heard, this also means that reactions are emphasised as you can’t hear them.
In the last part Taylor changes her look by taking her glasses off and putting a dress on, although she has changed she still stands out. There is a mid-long shot to emphasise on her outfit and that it has changed. As they kiss at the end there is a close up on their faces then an extreme close up on their lips. This emphasises the fact that in the end she got what she wanted from the start.
No comments:
Post a Comment