This music video has both a performance and a narrative running throughout it. The begining of the video is set on a stage, but it is set as a country themed outdoors area. Taylor and her band/group have country-style instruments and costume all adding to the mise en scene of the performance. It start on a close up of her face singing, then jumps out to a longshot, enabling us to see the set, her band and her outfit. As it cuts back in to a close up of her face the lighting chages, perviously it was dark greys and sepia, but it fades into pink tinted clouds and slightly brighter setting.
The next 'section' is when the next verse comes (which complies with Alf Bjornberg's theory of centripetal process). This 'section' is narrative as we see a boy being picked on in a locker room- whilst Taylor sings "picking on the weaker man". This shot only lasts for a few seconds which portrays how the lad being picked on doesnt want to be there and just wants to move on.
The following 'section' cuts back to the country performance. Goodwin states that the visuals in a music video are influenced by more than just the lyrics of the songs. This shot depicts this theory well. The music gets louder and gains a quicker tempo, the visuals mirror this, Taylor starts to move more whilst singing, and her band are swaying around to the beat.
The next section is the chorus, and stays with the performance. However because the chorus is bolder and more upbeat the lighting brightens and we get close up shots of the band/group members playing their instruments happily. The lighting is used in such a way to illuminate their faces suggesting confidence. Goodwin explains how its not only the editing that needs to be on the beat. This video is a good depiction on how the visual movements (of the band members swaying and dancing) are also specifically put on the beat. During this chorus sections, there is an almost sub-section cutting back to the boy in the locker room, however the mood in the song has changed to positive, and thus the locker room brightens and the boy joins in singing the song. Then immediately cutting back to Taylor's performance where she continues the chorus. We see a number of extreme close ups and close ups of the instrument that she playing. The continuity of this is solid as each chord and note fits the beat of the song. This is good example of how Bjornbreg describe a song and its visuals to be in close corralation. At the end of this section(1.05) there is a musical bar in which a note glisandos up and down again. This is portrayed in the visual by the artist and the band swaying heavily forwards and back. In most cases the music and instruments are there to flaunt the lyrics, but for these few seconds its the visual that flaunts the mini instrumental.
The following section changes scene again, and is performance based. The transition between the last section and this one was a circle- out transition, where the screen is black except for a small circle of visual that gets bigger, eventually showing the whole frame. This transition was used as opposed to a cut because it signifies the scene change, keeping the realism and continuity of the piece. This scene depicts her sitting on a train line with a steam train stationary behind her. There is also another character in it, he is dressed in a top hat and black suit, and Taylor is dressed in a 1920's themed outfit (but modernised). The lighting is again very dark and eerie, however she is wearing a white dress so the small amount of lighting used makes her the key focus of the frame. A narrative line tends to act directly to the lyrics as they are sung: as Taylor sings "you, with your switching side" the man behind her switches side of the train track. The pace in this scene is quite fast, but not upbeat, this is shown in the visual by a continuously moving camera. It zooms in, cuts in or out of the master shot or pans across. This movment could depict her adjitction and fusrtation. When watching this section you dont obviously notice the zooms or pans because they keep the continuity throughout.
After this it returns to another verse and consequently another narrative section. The transiton between them is a cut as it is a short sharp beat that it cuts on. It cuts to a young ginger girl in a sandwich board, who is getting bullied by the surrounding teens. The next camera movement is sort of contraversial as she sings "i walk with my head down tryna block you out" however the camera pans to the right to give us a full shot of the teens throwing things and laughing. However this works well as we are able to see what it is she is trying to block out.
We fluctuate between Taylor on the train track and this girl a few times, perhaps trying to protray their simularities.
Through a simple cut shot this leads back to the chorus section which is set the same as the previous chorus (again proving Bjornberg's multiple centripetal process). Like in the previous chorus we then cut to a shot of the young girl, but this time she is happy and hopeful singing along to the song. When Taylor sings the words "ever gonna be [is mean]" she rocks her head from left to right. This is exactly on the beat, thus strengthening Bjornberg's realisation of how strongly linked the 2 (rhythm and visual) must be.
We then cut to a shot of a little girl with her lunch tray who wants to sit with some other girls, but because her ribbon is blue and theirs is pink, they laugh at her and dont want her to sit down. During this section it cuts back to the country performance, again perhaps to show simularities.
The next section is arrived at by a the cirlce out transition. This type of transition is only used between 2 scenes perhaps trying to let us forsee what part will come next. This section is performance based with her on the train track again. In this section also are the previous man, and his friend; when we cut to a close up of her singing, the man is drinking in the background, however there is only a shallow depth of field, thus portraying her as the more important one. It then cuts to the little girl with her lunch tray on a toilet seat, however (as in previous sections) she is more hopeful singing along to the song. We cut back to the master shot of the country performance after this, however tha song has picked up more, with a stronger beat, withTaylor looking more confident. It is most likely for this reason that the background behind her changed through a scroll down transition. We can vaguely make out the words on the new background to say 'broadway' however after a circle out transiton it become clear, and there has been a costume change. Her hair also changed styles. This change in mise en scene makes her look older, suggesting a time jump in the narrative. We have numerous cut in and out shots of the theatre stage, which allow us to focus on both her and the set and band.
The last section of shots switch between seeing the characters that we saw being bullied earlier in a sucessfull in life, her braking free from the train track, and the performance in the broadway setting. These quick changes depict the positive mood change but also allow us to see the similarities in her positive outcome in life, suggesting that her, herself was mistreated by other when she was younger. The last shot shows the little girl in the theatre watching Taylors performance, with a huge smile, suggesting that she has changed her mood and possibly her outlook on life dramatically.
This music video contained both narrative and performance however the 2 were not isolated sections. They referenced each other and in some cases (for instance the penultimate shot) they became one.
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