bad blood

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 UNSEEN TEXT - TAYLOR SWIFT "BAD BLOOD"

CONTEXT

  • It could be about Katy Perry because Taylor Swift's dancers left her tour to join Katy's, as the lexis of the lyrics details the idea of a close friend's betrayal.
  • It was released on May 17th 2015, and was apart of the album 1989, which is produced by Republic Records.
  • It was directed by Joseph Khan.
  • The song was written by 
    Shellback, Max Martin, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift


Cinematography

  • The camera slowly pans towards the mise-en-scene of an empty office desk, which creates a calm atmosphere, due to the lack of commotion and the slow pacing of the camera movement. This calm atmosphere is binary opposed by the mise-en-scene of the male actor being thrown onto the desk, introducing a disequilibrium within the narrative, from the start of the music video, informing the audience that this video will conform to the action genre.
  • The camera quickly pans from the fallen man to Taylor Swift, who is represented as having star-appeal, as she is the first face the audience see within the music video. Her capability to throw the man connotes strength, yet this is binary opposed by her carefree expression, representing her as powerful - as throwing someone does not affect her stamina. 
  • The producer zooms in, providing an extra close-up shot of her face, reinforcing Taylor's star appeal, as she is strongly focused on. 
  • The camera then pans upwards to reveal another actress, who the producer also zooms in on, providing another extra close-up shot of her face. This actress is Selena Gomez. The close-up shot of her face establishes her as an important character to the narrative of the plot.
  • The cinematography of the camera being placed on eye-level to Taylor Swift as she walks through the mise-en-scene of the training facility, creates an intimidating mode of address, as the audience are forced to share eye-contact with her. This represents Taylor Swift as powerful and scary. This also correlates with the lexis of the lyrics 'now we've got problems', as the narrative is created that Taylor is speaking to the audience. From a polysemic perspective, this could position the audience as Selena Gomez's character, and create the narrative that the video is addressed to her.
  • The camera shot of Taylor Swift and her friends walking towards the camera, is taken from far away, once again positioning the audience in Selena Gomez's character's perspective. The camera shot is slightly low, positioning Taylor Swift as powerful.


Mise-en-scene

  • The binary opposition between Taylor's lightly coloured costume, and Selena's dark-coloured costume, presents the audience with the idea of good vs evil. Selena's dark costume could act as proairetic coding for her being a villain character, as she is shown to be working with Taylor up until she betrays her. The black wig could also act as symbolic coding for Katy Perry, who also has dark hair and wears wigs, this theoretically could be true particularly given the context of the song, with many speculating it is about Katy Perry.
  • The mise-en-scene of the text on screen displays the actresses superhero names. Taylor is called "catastrophe", and Selena is called "Arysn"
  • The mise-en-scene of the makeup products represents Selena and Taylor as feminine, due to the female stereotypes associated with makeup.
  • The mise-en-scene of the light-blue coloured lights (LED), and the simplicity of the white and blue colour pallet, introduces the sub-genre of SciFi. This displays genre hybridity between SciFi and Action.
  • The binary opposition between the white colour of The Trinity's outfits, and the black colour of Taylor's outfit, visually demonstrates the narrative to the audience, as Taylor turns "bad" to get revenge on Selena Gomez's character.
  • The mise-en-scene of the lexis "Mother Chucker" on screen composed beside Cara Delevigne's character, allows the producer to play with language to create a pun. A younger audience member will likely not understand the joke, but an older audience member would. This ensures the music video is appropriate for those of all ages, which is particularly important for Taylor Swift, as her target demographic can include younger children.
  • The knives being thrown at the wall could demonstrate intertextuality to films such as Divergent, and conforms to conventions within the action genre all together, as this is a common narrative/scene within action/dystopian movies. The boxing scene is similarly reminiscent of scenes within Divergent, particularly due to the mass amount of actresses surrounding the ring, which represents the event as important, alike how it is presented in the Divergent film.
  • Hermeneutic coding is created through the mise-en-scene of the motorbike helmet, which does not reveal who is racing against Taylor on the motorbike. This creates mystery, as the audience wonder who is behind the mask. This is later revealed to be the character of "Domino" who is portrayed by Jessica Alba.
  • The mise-en-scene of weaponry further reinforces the conflict narrative present throughout the music video, and the conformity to the action genre.


Sound 

  • There is diegetic sound of the man smashing against the table, the glass smashing as Taylor falls, and yells and screams of the injured actors, contributing to the action genre conventions.


Editing 

  • The fast-paced editing of the opening scene correlates with the fast-paced action within this scene, conforming to action genre conventions. It allows the audience to be immersed within the action, and makes the fighting movements of the actors more entertaining and realistic.
  • The transition between the opening, establishing shot of London, and the following shot of the inside of an office, is executed using a blur technique. This allows the producer to successfully establish the location of the music video as the inside of a London office, with the blur being representative of the London skyline reflecting on the window of the office.
  • The transition between Taylor laying on the car, and her being on the bed, is achieved through CGI, as her body falls between the two sets effortlessly, seemingly without a cut.
  • The editing cuts before Selena and Taylor can hit one another at the end of the video, creating hermeneutic coding regarding the outcome of their conflict


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