Music Video Review

Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do Music Video Reflection

For this project, we are analyzing the elements of video production in industry professional music videos. For my music video, I chose Taylor Swifts Look What You Made Me Do video because of the unique elements that make it different from Taylor Swifts usual music videos. In her music video, I really enjoyed the cinematography and lighting that made the video unique. The colors and lighting in each scene made every shot look very beautiful and cinematic. The shots all flowed really well together as well and transitions were added naturally in certain shots.

This music video focuses on the ideas expressed in her song as well as her new Reputation album. This album focused on the hate she has received recently as a musician and she used her image as the focus of her video. Throughout the video, it visually shows her in acts of aggression, surrounded by snakes, as well as interacting with the "old Taylor". These images tell her story of how she has changed and how peoples views of her has affected the way she acts.

After watching this work I would definitely want to add the lighting into my own work. Creating good quality lighting is always a challenge on small sets and I want to learn more on how to better light a scene and how the way a light is positioned affects the shots mood.

In this video, there are a lot of transitions that are used which is something I have already learned and want to continue using in my own work. Transitions really help make a simple story line look more professional and interesting and I want to continue to use them more frequently in my work.

I believe the creators did a great job at showing Taylor Swift in a new light in this video. Lots of Taylor Swifts videos have a very lighthearted vibe to them and they contain lots of light colors. However, this video focuses on showing how Taylors reputation has affected her and by using a dark teal and red color grade, that message is shown more.

I think this work could only improve one thing, and that would be Taylor Swifts acting. Taylor Swift was supposed to be overreacting her emotions in the video, but I believe some of it seemed really cheesy and could defiantly have been improved.

Overall, I absolutely love this music video and the way the songs ideas are expressed. The video shows so many different locations and moods that come together as a whole to show Taylor Swift in a completely new way which works really well. The cinematography of the video also really helps in getting her message across and the beautiful dark color grade makes the video seem super professional.