It has been set in a record studio/recording room, with a vintage style recording microphone and pianos in the background. It reminds of a basement with the battered floor.
There is some interesting use of the depth of field as sometimes KT is shown in the focus, however other times, she is shown out of focus which is unusual, but has clearly been used for effect. The microphone is also sometimes shown out of focus.
As you can see from above, KT is shown out of a focus and then the photograph underneath, the microphone is out of focus and her face is in focus. So I think this effect has been used to capture the beautiful of the lyrics, sometimes emphasising her face and sometimes the microphone to reflect on what is being sung.
I love the way that there are some unique CU's of her hands when she is playing the guitar. I have always wanted to film something like that.
This shot appears at the beginning of the video. As KT is finger picking, the shot is shown on the beat of the rhythm to fit in with the song and have the moving image follow. So this links in with the idea that the video links to the lyrics, although there is no narrative storyline, they still have a slight link.
What was also interesting, there is a part in the video where the camera sideways tilts towards the floor as KT stops to sing and just plays the guitar and as she starts again, the camera tilts upwards to face her.
The more I watch the video, I am noticing the technique all the way through. Also, the depth of field seems to fit with the beat. Somehow when the beat/rhythm slows down slightly, the shot goes out of a focus, which extremely interesting and unique.
The shots are mainly based around ECU/CU/MS's, with a few LS's in there to establish the setting.
The ECU is shown out of focus to begin with, however a focus pull takes place to bring KT's face back into the fore ground and I like this, as the ECU is of her lips, which again captures the beauty of the song.
The focus pul actually fits in with a breath that she takes before she sings again. So this is interesting and I really like the way it fits.
Throughout the video, the camera doesn't always focus on her face though, it actually moves down and up from her face and tilts up from her guitar to create different effects which I really like.
As the beats slightly, stops, there is a jump where the camera sort of 'fits' and it jolts to the side of her face, just showing her earring and slowly moving back towards her face. This happens around 2:40 - Invisible Empire Music Video
Sometimes the camera also tilts down to other areas of her bosy/guitar when she the song is building back up in beat and rhythm, so it has been done for effect.
When I noticed that it tilts away from her face in an unsteady tilt, it happens when she isn't singing as powerful or not singing at all, however there is one part where the camera starts to tilt down and you expect it to tilt back up when the rhythm kicks in again, however it starts to and then it jumps to CU of KT's face.
Towards the end, as she is seeing 'woah, woah, woah' and picking at her guitar, the camera jumps between her face and her guitar, clearly capturing the quiet nature of that part of the song:
I love the shots of the CU of the guitar, I really do. I think they are extremely arty and sophisiticated. Throughout the end shots, it does pull in and out of focus. You can see this from the bottom screen shot, because after her face goes out of focus, she then comes back into shallow focus before the screen fades to black.
So, although I fancy making my music video with more narrative behind it, this has enspired me for the parts that I would be singing. I also love this video and the way it has been shot and I can see myself just doing this style of music video, with no narrative, however I think i'd prefer to have some in. The use of the black and white also links in with my idea of showing a jewellery box at the start spinning round. I'd love to use a camera with has depth of field features on it, as it could focus in on the ballerina spinning around. That would look particularly good.
So as this video is just based around KT and her music, there are a lot of CU's and ECU, slightly different from Taylor Swift's video as she also has narrative in, however as she is the main star, she is shown rather a lot in MS and CU.
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