# MUSICAL VIDEO

You Belong With Me,

Taylor Swift

No titles are displayed at the beginning of the video but the title of the song is put under the music video. The song title clearly demonstrates the romantic desire to stay beside the one we love. 

The setting starts with a wide shot of 2 opposite houses where the two teenage neighbors live on the b-side buildings of each other. Then, it changes to a shot reverse shot between the 2 teenagers seeing each other through the window of the 2 houses at the beginning. After that, they start their communication by writing on the board and showing it to the other through the window layers. This pattern is usually used as an initial step to establish a love story between the two characters. 

The conversation of the characters is captured by a set of medium shots showing some important details about the relationship of the characters. First, we notice the male character is on his phone call and the front scene is blurred where the female character turns her back to the audience. The camera follows every single movement of the male character during the call creating a gazing effect from the female and giving the audience a little confusion as “Why she is staring at him?”, “Is there any relationship between them?" or “she must know the boy but does he know her?” Then, the boy noticed the girl when she showed her inquiry on the board but he didn't say hi as a normal person does when seeing their friends. This definitely tells that the boy doesn't know about the girl before. Further support for this idea at the end of the conversation, the boy is looking forward outside the window when he closes the curtains which means he knows the girl still writing something but he ignores it. Along with this, the girl has seen the closed curtains but she still holding up the board on which she wrote “I love you" illustrating that she could have fallen for the boy in a long time but doesn't have opportunities to confess.

Cutting in action between 2 scenes

More specifically on the technical code, there is a cutting in the action of the girl from showing the board to the reflection of her glumness in the dark mirror connoting a hopeless one-sided love from the girl. Besides, the lighting also reveals some of the aspects of the characters. The boy is filmed in hard light which gives me a feeling that the boy is the type of person the usually surrounded by drama and usually faces many difficult situations. Meanwhile, the girl is set with a soft light which highlights her being emotionally soft and vulnerable. The opening scene is played along with the non-diegetic sound which is the song of the musical video and the lyrics introduce the initial situation of the love story which gives the audience a deeper understanding and emotions about the context of the story.

Hard light

Soft light

The phone he using seems like from the past decades

About the mise en scene, The female character is played by the author who is also the singer of the song so she understands clearly how the girl feels in this one-sided love. Therefore, she can convey her emotions to the audience and a good performance to fulfill the reality of the role. Next, the characters are dressed youthfully and the interior designs in both of their rooms could tell they are around teenage age. Back to the setting, the rooms behind the window are lit up which can clearly show what happened inside while outside the window is completely black showing the nighttime. Based on the usual conventions, people usually act more comfortably at night and they can easily tell the truth, and following this convention could create faithfulness for the scene as the characters seem to express their true emotions. Moreover, the bright color palette of the scene illustrates a beautiful love story that is going to end happily. After that, the props that the male character is holding is the phone that was used commonly in the early years of the 21st century displaying the time in which the story takes place.  The scene uses high-key lighting which is normally used in the romance genre. Lastly, in the visual composition, the rules of third are applied in the shot reverse shot which attracts the audience's eyes to focus on the developments in the conversations between the two characters.