Taylor Swift - Mean

The video consits of a few different storylines.
However, the main focus is on Taylor Swift throughout the video.

 In the beginning, it shows close ups of her singing, which shows immediatley that she's supposed to be the main focus in the video. There are also a few midshots in the beginning, which make it clear that the genre of the music is country. This is because we see things such as, banjos, country costumes and a rustic, country background. Other things that make it clear what the genre is are things such as, a country house and in one shot we see a goat.

 At the beginning of the video there is a change of lighting, it fades from being quite dark to being light. I think this was potentially done to show a passing of time, maybe from night to morning. It could also be so that we can see what's happening in the video clearer and we get the oppurtunity to see the setting properly so that we get a proper idea of the genre. After that there is a scene change from showing Taylor Swift and her musicians to showing a scene of a boy in locker rooms getting laughed at and picked on. The boy getting picked on is very smart looking and he's getting picked on by the football team. He looks smart because of his tidy, uncreased clothes and a bowtie. I think that this was done to show that she's not just a country artist but that she's also considered a pop artist and I think showing a typical, modern, American scene makes it more clear.
There's another storyline in the video of a girl getting picked on while she's working, so I think that this was done for the same reason. At some point in the video both the people who are getting picked on start to sing, which was done to show that despite being bullied they still have hope.

 Despite the other storylines in the video, the focus is still always on Taylor Swift, because it always cuts back to a scene of her. Another storyline in the video is of Taylor Swift tied up on the train tracks, which looks very old fashioned because of the costumes, props and the colours used.

 I think this could have been done to show that people have always been mean to eachother throughout history. I think that the video is effective because each one of the storylines have a happy ending, for example, Taylor Swift becomes a star and the other characters end up being successful. I think it works for it's genre because the video is very happy and up beat and that's what most people would expect from a country/pop video.

Elizabeth :)