2. BIO
Declan Whitebloom was born and raised in London and came from a family
obsessed with films. His elder brother was one of the seminal music video &
commercial directors of his day and he spent much of his formative years ‘on
set’ absorbing the process. Declan started from the ground up, working in
every department till he found his initial calling. After a few years with Bob
Girladi’s editor he struck out on his own editing hundreds of music videos, he
was finally offered the opportunity to actually direct his first music video. He
described the transition as if a light had gone off, saying that as soon as he
‘got behind the camera’ he knew he didn’t belong in editing. Now 3 years on
Declan has become a succesful video and commercial director with his videos
for Taylor Swift, One direction, Sugarland, The Fray and many others.
3. STYLE
Though Declan has a variety of styles within his music videos, his consistent
collaboration with Taylor Swift shows a repetitive style that was clearly created
between the two of them. When in an interview both Declan and Taylor said
that together they agreed on the ideas they would each bring up and it was
very much a team effort between the artist and director to create the music
video. The style is quite childlike, to appeal to the teenage girls that Taylors
music would mostly draw in, both the video and lyrics itself portray a theme
of teenagers ‘first love’ and shows the complications teenagers go through
with this in a very creative and positive way. The quirky, unique videos are
something of a trend with young artists these days as they appeal to the right
audience.
5. VIDEO ANALYSIS
This video presents the many different feelings that the stereotypical teenage
girl would go through with her ‘first love’ ending badly. The video shows the
split between fantasy (by dressing the band as woodland creatures and being
set in a forest at parts) and reality (which is shown with her in her pyjamas, in
her bedroom) this split enhances lyrics such as ‘I used to think that we were
forever’ which is very much like the fairytale ideology that a relationship will
last ‘happily ever after’ and then the lyrics and video both show the reality of
the ‘first love’ ending unexpectedly. Though this video is not like all of
Whiteblooms other music videos, it is his joining with swift and her ‘country’
style music that has allowed them to create this interesting ‘storybook’ music
video. The storybook is the way that the video is all one shot, and the use of
props ie. The bed standing up when she is on the phone that make it look as
if the pages of a book are being turned – the pictures are what make it look
fairytale-like.
