The video starts with an establishing shot of a school where some of the action will take place, suggesting the protagonists are students. The main character is seen walking outside the school in medium shot, referencing typical American high school romance films. She sees a guy sitting under a tree and they exchange glances, with quick shots foreshadowing future events. Shot-reverse-shot is used to show the characters looking at each other, both wearing black outfits like stereotypical fairy tale prince and princess costumes. The music video features many locations, costumes, and animals typical of fairy tales but would be too expensive to replicate. Closeups of the artist's face are important for promotion and establishing a fan base. This research

1. TAYLOR SWIFT- LOVE
STORY
Music video research:

2. Genre: pop
Style: Performance/ Narrative (however, there is more Narrative )
About the video:
The video starts with an establishing
wide shot of a school in which some
of the action will possibly take place.
This already suggests the age of the
protagonists and possibly the TA, as
people leaving the school can be
seen, which can imply that the main
character is somewhere in the shot as
well, but we as the audience are not
aware of it yet.

3. Three seconds in, the protagonist can be
seen walking outside of school in a medium
shot, as it tracks her walking slowly. It could
be argued that this could be an intertextual
reference to American high school films,
usually about romance, and this can be seen
already from the costumes seen so far and
the location matching the stereotype of the
genre.

4. However, as she continues
walking down she sees a guy sat
down against a tree, and as she
stares at him a second of a few
very quick shots of
foreshadowing as to what will
happen in the future of the video.

5. Shot-reverse-shot camera movements
are used to show both characters in a
medium close shot, also showing their
costumes and appearances, both
wearing black, both carrying books,
and both looking at each other in a
similar way. If you could refer to
Strauss’ binary theory this video
challenges it as the star in the video
and ‘The Prince’(Propp) are both
wearing black, and what contrasts the
dark costumes is the soft makeup on
Taylor, which represents fragility, and
innocence.

6. Looking deeper into Propp’s character
theory, there are the two characters, the
Prince and the Princess, and they are
literally in the costumes and the
location of a castle. There is everything
you’d expect from a fairytale-like video,
there are horses, a castle, a huge
garden, an extravagant ball, the dresses
and the suits that would be in a video
of such a genre.

7. However, if we were to do
such a video, we would not
be able to afford so many
costumes and so many
different locations.

8. The music video is dominated by the
shots of the artists face, a lot of
closeups/ extreme close ups used in
this video to promote the artist and let
the audience get to know the artist,
and these shots are vital in the promo
videos of rising stars in order to
establish a fan base and a steady
audience.
I will use the same technique in my
music video by using a large amount of
closeups, looking and singing into
camera.

9. How this research inspired my planning and creativity:
• I could look at more interesting locations
• I must find locations that fit my genre
• I must look at interesting costumes and possibly
makeup
• Props
• Possibly bringing animals into my video, however,
our genre is completely different