Final Cut: Weekends, The Jacques

Digipack: Magazine Advert

Digipack: Side Strip

Digipack: Back Cover

Digipack: Inside Back Cover

Digipack: Inside Front Cover

Digipack: Front Cover

Representation of The Jacques

Analysing Existing Album Covers and Posters

This is one of the album covers of our band. It is in black and white, similarly to some of their music videos, which conforms to the indie rock genre. The picture shows two young boys smoking, emphasising the reckless look they want to create about themselves. There is no writing on the album cover other than the band's logo. Overall it is a very simple design, but it conforms greatly to the indie rock genre, as well as giving us hints to what the band's style is like. 

When coming to make our digi pack, we plan to use the same level of simplicity in our design, possibly using black and white, depending on whether or not we chose to put our music video in black and white. As they have used children for their album cover, we thought that it would then work well if we used one of our concept ideas- to use children to represent the band- as they have associated themselves with children before.

Analysing Magazine Adverts: Conclusion

What we found out

After looking at three magazine adverts from three different indie rock bands, we were able to determine a rough 'template' of what we thought we need to put on our advert for The Jacques. 

The most common similarity which we found between the adverts was that they all included the bands' names at the top of the poster in the middle in a different font to that which was used on the rest of the poster. All three magazine adverts also included a small logo of the bands' record label at the bottom of the page. The backgrounds used were either identical or quite similar to the album which the advert was advertising, meaning there would be no confusion with what the poster was advertising. This meant that the band was often not shown on the tour poster. One of the posters gave a name of one of the tracks on the album (presumably one of their more well known tracks) as well as the band's website and the website of their record label. This could be because the band is less well known and they want to promote themselves more. We also noted that all of the magazine ads which we looked at were portrait as they would have been shown in a magazine. 

From this we decided that it would therefore be essential to include The Jacques name at the top in the centre of our poster as well as including relevant information about the band such as their website and their social media pages, as our band is not so well known. This would help the band to promote themselves on as many different platforms as possible. We also plan to include the logo of The Jacques' record label, Rough Trade Records. We decided that it would also be essential for our advert to be portrait so that it would fit with other ads which you would expect to find in a magazine and we also thought it would be good if we could use a similar or identical image for our background of the advert as we did for the front of our album, so that our audience could easily link the two together.  

Analysing Magazine Adverts: Arcade Fire

Analysing Magazine Adverts: Arctic Monkeys

Analysing Magazine Adverts: The Libertines

Analysing Album Covers: Conclusion

What we found out

After analysing album covers from several indie rock bands we saw that the album covers always included some sort of known logo of the band (this included specific fonts which the band always use for their band name. The fonts used varied too much to comment on, however this is because the font depended mostly on the bands personal style and fonts which they had used in their logos. If font was used, it was always clear and easy to read. 

Colour effects were sometimes added to the background. This included black and white (which is also used in many indie rock music videos) and filters which gave the album a more vintage look. The backgrounds themselves always conformed to the indie rock genre with their rough and reckless appearances, hinting to low budget, urban locations. The background also had very simple designs so as not to distract from the text or to look too complicated. In all the examples we looked at the band were not shown on the album covers.

When making our album covers, we plan to include the name of the band on the front in their chosen font. We are also planning to take stills from our footage to use for our covers, as this saves us having to reshoot to get stills. As we are not using the band themselves, we thought that it would be suitable to show some of the kids on the album cover, as the bands which we looked at did not use stills of themselves on their album covers.

Analysing Album Covers: Arcade Fire

Analysing Album Covers: Arctic Monkeys

Analysing Album Covers: The Libertines

Post-Production: Logo

Adding in a logo

After finishing our music video we just needed to add one more thing to make our video look as though it would be shown on TV- a logo. We needed to add in an MTV Rocks logo to the top corner of our video, as all music videos shown on TV include a logo of some sort. We decided on MTV Rocks for our music video, as it is the channel where our music video is most likely to be found. To do this we simply had to save a copy of the logo, remove its background and place the logo over the top of our music video. 

The logo which we added to our music video

Post-Production: Colour Grading

Colour grading our film opening 

After we had letterboxed our sequence, we needed to colour grade it. When doing this our aim was to make sure that all of the shots had a similar level of colour/light. A lot of our shots were over exposed, so we had to reduce the brightness of the shot. As well as this we had to adjust the colour levels in some shots, reducing or increasing the warmth when shots looked to warm (red) or cold (blue). 

Our performance shots were particularly hard to colour grade as we used coloured lighting when filming, so it was hard to tell when a shot had too much red/blue etc. as the colours were constantly changing. To combat this, we tried to ignore the colours more (unless the shot was obviously very strongly one colour) and just increase and decrease the brightness as necessary. The narrative shot were slightly easier to colour grade; all we had to do was to make sure that we made the same/similar adjustment to each shot so they fit together nicely. 

Post-Production: Letterboxing

Letterboxing our music video

After we had played down our shots and we were happy with the order/cuts which we had chosen we needed to letterbox our piece. This is a technique used by most professional music videos to frame the shot better and make sure that it is positioned correctly on the screen so that the video can look as best as it can. In order to do this we simply had to make sure that each frame was set to the same size: 2:35:1 and then reposition each shot slightly by dragging the shot up or down depending on what looked best. 

After letterboxing on of our shots 

Post-Production: Sound and Visuals

Matching the tempo of the music to the visuals

After uploading our footage to final cut pro, renaming the footage and making a separate folder to put it in, we were ready to start editing on Final Cut Pro. However, before doing this we decided to listen to our chosen track again and try to make a rough graph showing the tempo of the music throughout:














This graph made us realise that the music was faster paced during the instrumental sections of the song, so here we would try to include lots of faster cuts so that the fast pace of the music would be reflected in our video. In contrast, the pace of the music slowed slightly during each chorus and verse, which would make it easier to lip sync our shots as we would not need as many fast cuts here. The start of the song has a very slow pace as all you can hear are the strums of a guitar, this is idea, as we would be able to show our narrative here clearly without lots of faster cuts between different shots. 

Production: Part 2

Filming the performance scenes

When filming our performance scenes at Norden Farm, we already knew we would be very pressed for time. So, we made sure all of the children were there early, as well as being early ourselves so we could go in and set up as soon as possible. We also brought sweets with us and took regular breaks to make sure the kids didn't get tired. Luckily, were brought water halfway through filming because the kids got really hot dancing around under the lights for so long. 

We managed to get through a majority of our planned shots by filming two at a time; as we had two cameras. We also did close up shots of some of the instruments e.g. the base drum while the children were having a break, as we didn't need the children in these shots. We were very worried when filming that we would not end up with enough footage in the time that we had, as we would not be able to reshoot (getting this time to film was difficult enough) unlike with our narrative scenes which we could easily reshoot at any time. 

Production: Part 1

Shooting our narrative scenes

The shots which we shot in the bedroom were quite difficult to do. First of all we had to make sure that the room was well lit enough so that we could see, without over exposing the room, which was hard to do with the lights which we had. As well as this we struggled to show depth in our shots as they were close ups and mid shots of the girl laying in bed against a flat background (her bed). We also found that after shooting these shots, we did not have a very big variety of shots to use in our video so we decided to do a reshoot. 

When reshooting the narrative scenes, we decided to record the girl walking up her stairs and into her bedroom, also including shots of her picking up her head phones and plugging them into her phone. It was a lot easier to create depth in these shots as the girl was not just against a flat background unlike our original shots. We also then had a much better variety of shots to use when cutting back to the narrative during our music video.

Some of the shots we took after reshooting:

Pre-Production: Test Shots

Test shots on location

Norden Farm:

Pre-Production: Shooting Schedule

Our chosen date

The only date which our whole group would be able to do is Sunday 13th September at 12pm. However, due to another event being held at 1:30pm on our stage we would only be available to us for an hour and a half, meaning that we would be really pressed for time. We will be taking two cameras to the shoot so that for each run through of the song, we could film the children from two different set ups, in the hope that we may be able to get through all of the shots which we had planned in the shot amount of time. 

Pre-Production: Lighting and Colour Research

What colours and lighting would be most suitable for our shoot?

For our shots in the bedroom, we wanted to make sure it was bright but not too bright so that the room looked over exposed. We wanted to create the effect of there being a sort of night light on. This would mean having a small dim light on in shot as well as possibly another light on out of the frame, so that we were still able to see as the light from a small night light would not be enough. The colour scheme in the bedroom which we were going to film in made the room look quite warm. As it would be too difficult to remove a bit of this warmth when filming, we would be able to take some of the red out of the shots in post-production. 

When filming on stage, we know that there will be high quality lighting already available. On the day, we will also have someone there to help us with using the lights. As the stage room is quite dark with black curtains around the stage, we would need quite a lot of bright lighting to make sure we could see all of the performers as well as creating some depth. We also decided to possibly use coloured lighting, to remind the audience that what they are seeing is in a child's imagination.

Pre-Production: Actors Research

Finding actors to represent The Jacques

Finding actors to use to represent The Jacques was luckily fairly easy. We decided to use one of our friend's sister and her friends. Four of our three actors are girls, they would play the parts of the lead singer, the guitarist and the base guitarist and the drummer would be played by a boy. Despite the fact that the entire band is actually male, we didn't feel like using girls would be a problem as had already decided to use children so they we would not be able to easily find lookalikes anyway. Also, as our narrative is based off a child dreaming that they were in the band, using children who do not necessarily look similar to the band would make this day dream perhaps more accurate as we would be representing a fan of the band instead of the band themselves. 

Pre-Production: Costume Research

Planning costumes for our actors 

When planning what kinds of costumes to use, we decided to study what kinds of clothes other indie rock bands wear. Here are some of the outfits which we found particularly useful:



From these images, we decided that most indie rock bands wore clothes which were darker in colour and have more of a 'hipster' look. As we would be using kids for our music video, we decided that we would tell them to wear all dark clothes e.g. black skinny jeans/leggings, black boots and a grey jumper/top. By doing this our band which we would be creating would look more as though they were of the indie rock genre. 

We then looked at the sort of clothes that The Jacques would typically wear and found similar things:


The Jacques also wear a lot of darker and baggier clothing, which confirmed for us what we had planned for our dress code for the children, which we would use in our music video. 

Pre-Production: Props Research

Choosing our Props


After we had decided on both of our locations we needed to make sure that the props we used would fit with our genre but also be linked to how we would use children in our video. 

For the scenes in the child's bedroom, we decided that we would leave all of the props already in the room the same, as we felt that this would provide us with a more accurate representation of a child's room. However we thought that we could add some props to the bedroom which would be a reference to the child's love of music, as they would dream of being in a band. This could include an instrument of some sort, music posters and headphones. 

For the performance scenes on stage, we decided to make our own instruments out of cardboard. Although we could easily borrow instruments from Norden Farm, we thought that, our video would look better if the children had home-made instruments. This meant we would need to make a drum kit and 3 guitars. 

Pre-Production: Location Research

Choosing a Location

The stage at Norden Farm

When we originally brainstormed ideas for our music video, we decided that the most ideal venue would be a pub/bar which looked low budget and as if it was in an urban location. However, one of our group member's mum worked at Norden Farm, which had a few stages which we would be able to use to film on. The stage we would use could be emptied this was ideal as we would probably not be able to record children pretending to play instruments in a bar, in order to do this we would need actual live performers. Using this location would also be extremely convenient, all of our group members know where it is, it is very close to where we all live and it would be free. 

For our second location, we decided to use one on of our group member's little sister's bedroom. As we were using children, we wanted to make sure that the location where the child was shown at home was a place where a child would spend time, particularly when they listened to music, like the child we choose would be doing during our music video.

Pre-Production: Shot Lists

Pre-Production: Storyboards

Pre-Production: Risk Assessment

Risk Assessments

Our Final Idea

Picking the Final Idea for our Music Video

When trying to chose a final idea for our music video we had to chose something which we thought would accurately represent the band, conform to the indie rock genre and be relatively easy to achieve. At first we decided to use our idea of including a narrative where the lead singer is late for their gig. We planned to show some mid shots of the lead singer Fin waking up on a wooden table outside a pub with an empty pint of beer next to him. He would then frantically look at the time, realising he is late for his gig, before picking up his guitar and running to the gig venue. We would switch between shots of Fin running and the band playing without him, showing Fin bursting through the venue doors and making it up onto the stage just in time to start singing. The remainder of the video would include fast cuts of their performance to keep the pace of the music video up. 

However, when trying to organise a day to film with the band so that we could try and chose a venue, we found out that the band would not be available until way after our filming deadline. This meant that we had to start our storyboards and planning again. 

The idea which we then decided on was to use children to represent the band. This meant that we would not need the band for filming at all and we could still go ahead with using a performance. In the end we also decided to keep a narrative but we chose a different one. At the start of the video we planned to show the child representing the lead singer, Fin, in her bedroom putting on her headphones to listen to Weekends by The Jacques. After he/she has put on a pair of headphones, we would transition to shots of the children representing the band in some performance scenes. Throughout the video we would cut back occasionally to the scenes in the bedroom. This should hopefully make it seem like the performance scenes are in the child's imagination as if she dreams of being in the band herself.

Initial Ideas

Brainstorming our initial ideas

Now that we have chosen our track 'Weekends', we decided to start off by brainstorming a few ideas for our music video:

As mentioned in the mind map above, we had an idea to use Polaroid cameras in some way, as there is reference to them in our chosen song. One idea which we particularly liked, was to use the border on Polaroid images around our music video, however we were not sure how we would achieve this when editing our music video together. 


We also decided that we would use a low budget venue. As well as this being a benefit to us as we would not to have to pay as much for our venue, it would also conform to a convention of the indie rock genre, as well as being something which The Jacques often use themselves. We decided that a preferred venue would be a small pub/bar. 

As I found when researching into indie rock bands, a majority of them base their videos mainly on performance so we decided that our video should also conform to this stereotype. Despite this, we did have a few ideas where we could combine a performance with either a narrative of a concept. For example, we had an idea to have the lead singer of the band wake up somewhere and realise that he is late for their gig. We would then show him running to the venue, making it just in time to start singing, cutting between him running and the band playing without him. 

Lyric Analysis

Our Chosen Song- Weekends

After confirming with the band that we could make a music video for one of their songs, we needed to decide which song we would chose. In the end we decided on 'Weekends'. After choosing our song, we decided to analyse the lyrics of the chorus of the song, to try and get some inspiration for our music video, and to make sure there were links between the lyrics and the visuals.

Audience Research

Our Target Audience

We decided that our target audience for our chosen artist The Jacques is teenagers and young adults. To decide our target audience, we looked at the genre indie rock to see with what age group this genre was most popular. Indie rock music is typically found at music festival, which are normally more popular with teens and young adults. The Jacques themselves have also already played at several festivals, confirming their target audience of teenagers and young adults. With this target audience in mind, we wanted to make sure that our music video was both fun and edgy, so that it would appeal to younger people.

The Jacques

Analysing our chosen artist

Our chosen artist, The Jacques, have, in the past, produced music videos which conform to the stereotypes of their genre- indie rock. The band themselves are typically seen wearing dark, baggy clothing with a slightly grungy vibe. Their hair is often messy, giving them a rougher, carefree appearance, conforming to one of the conventions of indie rock bands. As the band only started up fairly recently, they do not yet have many music videos. However, from the few music videos which they do have, it is easy to see that their videos have a certain style. The videos are almost always in urban settings, and lots of shots are used to show this, e.g. shots of road signs and built up areas. 

As well as this, the camera moves around a lot, creating a rough feel to the video, which is a common feature of indie rock music videos that I've seen when researching other indie rock bands. Some of their videos are in black and white and they have used boarders around the screen, which is similar to the techniques used in 'Debaser' by the Pixies, where they overlaid lots of shots, which I looked at earlier. 

Use of a low quality camera and a boarder in The Jacques' music video 'Weekends'.

Use of a low quality camera and overlaid shots in the Pixies' music video 'Debaser'.

Analysing Music Video Genres- Indie Rock- Part 3

Pixies

The Pixies are an American band formed in 1986 in Boston. They are associated with the genres indie rock and alternative rock. Their style has been described as a mixture of surf music and punk rock. They have said that they try to be dynamic, but their music is usually either loud and intense or quiet and relaxed. 

Debaser is an example of one of their songs. The music video features shots of a live performance, overlaid with letters and effects which make the video look as if it is malfunctioning. The video itself is very dark in colour and it is very hard to tell what is going on, as the video seems to have been shot using a lower quality camera, making the video seem more unfinished and different. This conforms to the indie rock genre, where videos are typically performance based. Indie rock videos are also often of a lower quality, to reiterate their 'alternative' feel which they have about them. 

Analysing Music Video Genres- Indie Rock- Part 2

The Strokes 

The Strokes are an American rock band formed in 1998 in New York City. The band is associated with the genres indie rock and garage rock. 

An example of one of their songs is Reptilia. The video for it is entirely performance based, a typical association with indie rock bands, however, all of the shots used are close ups. As I found out through earlier research, the stereotypical music video has an average of 60-70% mid shots and close ups, compared to this music video which is entirely made up of close up shots. In doing this, they have managed to create an interesting music video using only one shot type. This could be viewed as a technique that the band chose to employ, in order to stand out and seem different from other bands, which is something which most indie rock bands try to do in their music videos. 

Analysing Music Video Genres- Indie Rock- Part 1

As our chosen band, The Jacques, is an indie rock band, we decided to study other similar bands who incorporate similar ideas/concepts into their videos so that we could represent the band's genre as best as possible. 

The Libertines

The Libertines are an indie rock band formed in London in 1997. Their music videos typically had quite a low sound quality making the video come across as more raw and unpolished. Conforming to stereotypes of indie rock bands, a vast majority of the band's music videos are performance based and the band has often been compared to many classic British rock bands. 

An example of one of their songs is 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun'. The video opens with the band walking around somewhere in Britain (which we can tell from the British flags) with some of the band members wearing the uniforms which the grenadier guards wear- a uniform typically associated with Britain. Throughout the video, we see a live performance from the band, as well as seeing the band walking around wearing their uniforms. The camera quality is low, and the shots look as though the brightness has been slightly decreased, giving the video a very amateurish look which is also often associated with indie/alternative bands. As well as this, the shots are often shaky, as if filmed on a low quality/home video camera. This technique is also often used in indie rock videos, to give the video a more rough look.

Approval From Our Artist

In order to get approval from our chosen artist The Jacques, so that we could use one of their songs to make a music video, one of our group members who knows the band, messaged the lead singer on Facebook. 

Artist Background Research

The Jacques 

Our chosen artist to make a music video for is The Jacques, an indie rock band, from the Bristol area, who formed in early 2014. The band is made up of two sets of brothers, who have played at many venues including at the Dot to Dot Festival and Glastonbury Festival as well as being a sport act for The Libertines at Hyde Park. The band was signed at Hyde Park by the drummer from The Libertines, Gary Powell. 

We decided to use this band as they were a friend of one of our group members so we knew we could easily get permission to use one of their songs for our coursework. They also go to university fairly locally and when they aren't at uni they are only as far away as Bristol, so it should be fairly easy to negotiate a time when we could meet and record with them.

Audience Research 2

Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

For this part of our research we decided to look at what kinds of videos are shown on MTV Rocks, the institution most likely to show a music video from a band which we have been looking at, and their audience demographic. This channel mostly plays songs with the genres indie and rock. They are described as having a target audience aged 16-24.

The most common artists/bands which appear on MTV Rocks include The 1975, Twenty One Pilots, Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me The Horizon and Catfish & The Bottlemen. These artists could all be described as producing more 'alternative' music which fits with what you would expect to find on MTV rocks- indie and rock bands. The target audience of these bands range from young teens up to middle aged people, as the bands are generally quite well known. Also the genres indie and rock are more likely to appeal to a wider audience as they are becoming more and more mainstream. 

Audience Research 1

What do real audiences consume?

After looking at and analysing some music videos to try and find conventions which they followed as well as looking at the types of shots they used and how different styles of music video are structured (narrative, performance, concept). We have now decided to look at popular music videos to try and see patterns in what audiences like to consume.

When searching up the most popular music videos of 2015 we found that the most popular videos were 'See You Again' by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, 'Hello' by Adele, 'Lean On' by Major Lazer and DJ Snake and 'Sugar' by Maroon 5. These were all very big mainstream tracks. The most viewed track of all time is Gangnam Style by PSY with around 2.5 billion views followed by See You Again by Wiz Khalifa with around 1.5 billion views. Both of these videos were not famous because of the song itself. Gangnam Style is so famous because of the slightly rediculous music video and the dance which they made to go with the song. Whereas See You Again is from the sound track of a very famous movie sieries, Fast and Furious, and the song was written in memory of one of the cast members who died.

Analysing Music Video Directors- Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek

Mark Romanek is an American film maker who also directs music videos and commercials. He has been directing music videos since 1985 and has worked with a variety of artists throughout his time directing including Madonna and Michael Jackson. He was awarded his first grammy award for his video for 'Scream' by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson which is one of the most expensive videos made costing around seven million dollars to make. In his more recent videos, he has worked with Taylor Swift  in making her video for 'Shake it off' and Jay-Z's '99 Problems'.

Analysing Music Video Directors- Director X

Director X

Director X (Julien Christian Lutz) is a Canadian music video director. Some of his most successful videos include 'Fancy' by Iggy Azalea, 'Yeah' by Usher and 'Black Magic' by Little Mix. He has also worked with artists such as Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber and The Wanted.




He has been directing music videos since 1998, and since then has always worked with very popular and well known artists. In his music videos, he often uses the black 'letterbox' bars on the top and bottom of the video, which would open and close at the beginning and end of his music videos. This can be seen in Usher's 'Yeah'.

Analysing Music Video Directors- Hype Willams

Hype Williams

Harold 'Hype' Williams is an American film director, film producer, screenwriter and music video director. Throughout his time directing, he has won many awards for his music videos. For example in 1996 he won the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the Year. As well as this he has also been recognised for his work in making Will Smith's video 'Gettin' Jiggy wit it' as well as TLC's 'No Scrubs' and Kanye West's 'Gold Digger'. He has worked a lot with Kanye West creating a total of twenty music videos for him. 



Hype Williams is known for his use of the fish eye lens, which contorts the central focus of his videos. This technique is used in his video 'Gimme Some More' by Busta Rhymes. 



Another style which several of his videos employs is splitting a shot and putting the two parts of the shot above and below the main video. He has used this technique on many of his videos, including 'So Sick' by Ne-Yo and 'Check on it' by Beyonce.

Analysing Music Videos- Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me

You Belong With Me- Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She released the song You Belong With Me on April 18, 2009 as the third single on her album, Fearless. She usually produces country, pop and pop rock music and is well known for her love themed songs. Taylor’s record labels at the time that she released You Belong With Me were Big Machine and Universal Republic. Big Machine Records is an American independent record label which specialises in country music artists whereas Universal Republic Records is an American record label which has produced various different genres of music video. The music video itself was produced by Taylor Swift herself and Nathan Chapman. Nathan mainly works with in producing country music and is most famous for his work with Taylor Swift, producing her albums Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red and 1989. 

The video itself is entirely narrative based. It follows a nerdy teenage girl (Taylor Swift) who lives next door to a guy who she is in love with, however he has a girlfriend. In this video, Taylor plays the nerdy girl as well as playing the guys girlfriend. The guy starts to frequently argue with his girlfriend and ends up falling in love with Taylor instead. At the end of the video, they go to prom together and kiss. There are several different locations used: inside the boy’s bedroom, inside Taylor’s bedroom, outside on a bench, at a football game and at prom. From these settings, we can assume that they are at school. The performer wears several different outfits. When in her bedroom she wears a simple t-shirt, glasses and jeans or her pyjamas, when she is on the bench reading as the nerdy girl she wears a brown jumper, glasses and jeans. When she pulls up in a car she is playing the part of the girlfriend and wears glasses and a pink top, emphasising her feminine personality in this role. When her two characters are at the football game, she is wearing a band costume as the nerdy girl and a tight cheerleaders outfit as the girlfriend. At prom, as the nerdier girl, she is seen wearing a white dress, the connotations of which are purity and innocence, however, as the cheerleader, she wears a tight red dress; the colour red connoting here evil and danger. 

This video makes significant use of the pen and paper which Taylor and the boy write to each other on. As they can see into each others rooms, they write and hold up messages to each other. Taylor ends up writing ‘I love you’ to him but he does not see it until the end of the video at prom when she shows him. He then also pulls out a piece of paper for her with the same message written back. Lighting is used to communicate some information. This is evident in the prom scene. As Taylor walks in, she seems to be in better lit up than those around her, as they all stare at her and admire her. This emphasises that she is the centre of attention and, after cutting back to the boy, suggests that his attention is solely on her. 

The opening of the video shows a wide, establishing shot of the pair’s houses. This type of shot is more reminiscent of a film opening, as the wide shot is used to show where the next scene will take place. This suggests, that the video will be more narrative based, like a film. Shot reverse shots are also used, when showing the pair conversing between their bedroom windows, making them appear trapped away from each other behind their windows. As well as this, a panning shot is used during the ‘prom’ scene. The camera zooms into the boy’s face, emphasising his shocked expression when Taylor walks out. The pace of the video, is quite slow, due to the fact that the video shows a story; fast cuts would make it harder to understand the concept of the video. 

Characteristics usually associated with this genre are love, which is clearly evident between the boy and Taylor. However it is usually also associated with the outdoors/countryside. However, none of these are shown. The title of the song ‘You Belong With Me’ is strongly linked to the visuals shown. This is because, the lyrics describe a girl (Taylor) who is competing for the attention of the guy who she wants to be with. Throughout the video, a number of close-ups of Taylor Swift in both of her characters are used. She is also shown alone, dressing up and dancing around her room. The large number of shots of Taylor are used to promote her as an artist in her video. Also, in the ‘prom’ scene, the idea of the male gaze is incorporated. As Taylor enters, the camera seems to be from the point of view of the boy who Taylor likes.