The song ‘Safe and Sound’ is sung by Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars and
the music video, which was directed by Philip Andelman, premiered in February
2012. The song is a combination of country and folk rock, a genre of which
Swift is famous for. As is typically found in a country music video, a majority
of the shots are taken outdoors. However, in most country videos the outdoor
shots show a warm and sunny landscape. The music video for ‘Safe and Sound’
diverts from this convention and instead the outdoor shots are dark and misty
and gives the impression that the forest Swift is walking through is cold.
There are very few specific links in the music video to the lyrics in the
song, but the shots of the Civil Wars singing inside a wooden cabin with a log
fire in it suggests that inside the cabin they are ‘safe and sound’. The warm
red and brown colours in the room from the fire, contrast with the cold and
pale colours of the outside, juxtaposing the comfortable and inviting with the
hopelessness and isolation. Later in the video, while watching Swift walk
through the bleak landscape, we see a fire burning in the distance. This and
the bare trees (which suggests that the fire has been through this part of the
forest already) links to the lyrics in the second verse; ‘don’t you dare look
outside your window/darling everything’s on fire’.
The rest of the music video reflects the mood of the song rather than
amplifying the lyrics. The song which is slow and simple, gives a feeling of
loss and sadness. In the shots in which Swift appears she is the only person in
the frame, which makes her seem isolated. The trees around her are bare which
almost suggests a threat. By having Swift wear a white dress, with bare feet
and minimal makeup, she looks young and innocent which evokes sympathy from the
viewer as they watch her walk alone through a damaged and perhaps dangerous
landscape.
As the music is slow, the shots are prolonged but they do nevertheless cut
to a beat. The abscense of fades in between shots comes as a surprise when
taking into account the pace of the song and the shots. The straight cuts to
the next shot gives a sense of uncertainty and awareness, giving the impression
that this landscape is not safe. As Swift walks she lip syncs to the song which
shows that this is not reality and adds to the timeless enchanting mood of the
music video. In all of the shots of the Civil Wars, we see the man playing the
guitar, which again adds to the sense of safety in the cabin as it suggests a
sing-a-long around a fire on a cold evening with a family.
This music video presents a change of image for Taylor Swift. In her other
music videos she plays a modern girl, who wears makeup and modern clothes and
presents modern ideas. However, in this video she is playing a timeless,
nameless character as a promotion of the film The Hunger Games which
also has a timeless essence about it. Swift is never portrayed as in a sexual
nature in her videos but this video emphasises the character’s innocence more
than her previous or preceeding videos. Although this music video is for a
film, the record company are still attempting to sell Taylor Swift as an
artist, with almost all of the video focusing on her. There are several close
ups of her face making it recognisable to a viewer when they watch another
music video she features in.
There is a notion of voyeurism in this video, however it is not intended
to be a sexual display. The audience are merely watching an innocent young
woman walking across a landscape and instead of being presented with an object
of sexual desire, we see a traditional representation of a woman. This
innocence is suggested by her white dress, bare feet and minimal make up.
The audience are also made to feel as if they are watching Swift in secret,
with shots taken from behind a tree, ‘peeping’ out to see her walk past. This
could also make the audience feel uneasy and uncertain, as Swift’s character
does in the music video.
The music video was made for the film The Hunger Games in which
selected children from ‘distrcicts’ in a distopian America fight eachother to the
death, with only one winner of the ‘games’. The baron landscape seen in the
music video reflects this distopian image of lonliness. This is emphasised by
the destryed house she enters, inside finding a ‘mockingjay’ pin. This is
another reference to the film as the pin is given to the main character
suggesting that this house is where the main character of the film lived. To an
audience familiar with the film, this will add the slightly morbid tone of the
video.
The video is almost entirely performance based, with Swift miming as she
walks across the lanscape, and the Civil Wars performing the song inside the
house by the fire. However, there is a sense of a narrative as we follow Swift
through the burnt out forest until she reaches a house, at which point she
stops miming and looks around the house to find it deserted and destroyed on
the inside.
This video is simple in style to match the slow beat of the song. The use
of colour and landsacpe informs the reader of the morbid tone of the music
video and the innocence of the character Taylor Swift is portraying while the
intertextual references of the mockingjay pin and the burnt out landscape help
to sell the film that this music video was made to acompany.
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