All Too Well short film Mise-en-scene

 

    The short film I chose to analyze was Taylor Swift's short film for her song All Too Well. I intend on my short movie to be a drama so choosing this as my inspiration was fitting. The short film follows the relationship between a young woman and her boyfriend who is years older than her and their crumbling relationship. We are seen the good and the ugly of their love, from when they were infatuated with one another to when he left her. However, towards the end we are seen with an older version of the girl in the film and how she has healed from all the pain. 

SETTING

    The setting was essential for the film to be successful. The song that is playing talks specifically about autumn and winter, so throughout the film autumn leaves, autumn trees with shades of red and orange, snow and overall colder weather is presented to us. Colder seasons, like Autumn and Winter are associated with sadness (mainly due to the reduced hours of daylight) so this heavily sets the mood for the entire short film. We are also shown other setting places, for example, right at the beginning we see a home and the characters are smiling signaling warmth. However, the home ends up being the place of absolute sorrow because we see the main character (the girl) in a place of fragility and vulnerability when she is at the dining table with her boyfriend and he ignores her. Also, later in the home when they are in the kitchen, which was once a place where they would dance around together next to the refrigerator light at night, but now it is a place where they argue. The girl's bedroom is also a main setting point and she uses her room as a safe pace to cry and sob over her heartbreak. The setting is one of the main factors that makes the short film work. The The song compliments the setting helping viewers visualize what Swift is trying to say. A big reason I adore this short film is because I know when the colder seasons roll around (even though we don't have cold days in Florida...) I can listen to this song and the short film and fall into a place of peace and sadness. 

LIGHITNG

    The lights in this short film is something that true fans of Swift probably caught on to immediately. Nevertheless, those who are familiar with color psychology will also be familiar with what the lighting and colors signify. When we first see them enter the home, we feel warmth and happiness because there is yellow/orange lighting giving the sense of optimism. As the film continues we still have orange/yellow lighting until we hit the kitchen scene, which is the fight scene. The lighting turns blue symbolizing the isolation the girl is beginning to feel from her boyfriend. After the fight, we see flashbacks that the girl is getting as well as present time scenes but this time the lighting is red. Some may take the red lighting as love but because I was aware of the backstory, the red represented the danger she began to sense. Then after the breakup, we are given dull and dark lighting signifying that the main girl is heartbroken and empty. Towards the end, we see the girl in the future with the yellow/orange lighting again showing she is once again happy, and we see the boyfriend get flashbacks of the girl with yellow lighting meaning he associated the girl who used to be is with happiness making us question whether he has regret over breaking her heart. The lighting helped set the mood for so many of these scenes, once again tying back to the drama aspect of the short film. If she would have used the same colors and lighting throughout the film then it would not have had the special factor and people would not have picked up on specific clues that showed the shift in the relationship between the girl and her boyfriend. I loved the unique lighting because it tied in to her song 'Red' where she describes colors to express the feelings she felt during her relationship at the time. For example, she sings 'losing him was blue like I'd never know, missing him was dark grey all alone' and during specific scenes where she felt these emotions, these colors show on the screen. 

COSTUME

While the costume was not the main aspect from the mise-en-scene that I focused on, there was a particular item of clothing that was emphasized throughout the film, the red scarf. In the song, the mention of the scarf is said multiple times. That being said, when we do pay attention to clothing, it matches the setting. This can be seen as both characters wear sweaters and cozy clothing, appropriate to the season they're in, Autumn. Moreover, one can say that the clothing matched the mood the character was feeling. For instance, when the girl was dealing with the breakup, she is seen wearing his old flannel showing how she misses him, also making it quite a dramatic scene. Rather than wearing clothing, like pajamas, she decides to wear his clothes. The scarf was such a huge part of the short film because it represented her innocence from when she first got in to the relationship, then after the boy and the girl end things he is seen wearing her scarf. People can take him wearing her old scarf multiple ways, one can say he is remining on the time they had together or that he's wearing the scarf because he knows he took apart of her she will never receive back. Once again, this brings back the drama of the short film. The scarf didn't have to be brought back but because Swift wanted to make the film emotional she made the boy wear it. I appreciate the costumes because they tied in with the setting making everything feel more natural, which is also why I love this film because it all felt authentic. 

STAGING

    Everything we see would be the staging, which is all set to capture the dramatics. One of the most striking staging we see in the short film would be when scene where both the boy and the girl and dancing in the kitchen with the refrigerator light. The side the girl is on is closer to the window, where we see a yellow/orange shadow. This shows her naivety and her innocence while the boy has a blue shadow represents the dark power he has over her. Another part of the staging that was set up perfectly was the dinner scene, the placements of the glass and wine where we see the girl doesn’t have wine because she’s underage and visibly younger than her boyfriend and his friends. Moreover, we can see the staging and how it helps with the drama genre when she is in her grieving stage. In the bedroom, the way everything is crafted to look like an actual young girl is experiencing heartbreak, from the dirty floors, to how she wears the now ex-boyfriend's clothes, it allows us viewers to almost experience it with her simply by the staging done. With my short film I hope to capture the same feeling with the staging. I would love to have everything feel real to the audience and have those watching think they are also going through what my main character will be going through.