Music Video Storyboard - You Belong With Me

Our video is definitely is a more accurate reflection of teen life.  In Taylor Swift's music video "You Belong With Me", it portrays strong stereotypes that don't truly exist in real high-schools.  It includes huge football games with pretty cheerleaders and insinuates that every football player and cheerleader is popular.  It then shows the "band geeks" and implies that every single one of them is an unfortunate loser, an outcast who is isolated from high-school.  Our video shows the truth, of how the popular girl isn't necessarily the cheer-leader, the loser isn't necessarily the band geek, and the popular  boy isn't necessarily the football player.  The characters in Taylor Swift's music video drive around in expensive convertibles and have Cinderella-like high school ball-like dances where they show up in even more expensive gowns.  The characters walk around in designer clothes, and are perfectly made-up with not a single blemish on their face - even the loser.  In reality, none of this really happens.  High school students don't all own or drive convertibles - we show in our music video how inside of hanging out in a brilliant car, a typical teen casual hang-out is just a picnic-type bench.  We show how nobody is actually that perfect in appearance, and students do not show up to school looking air-brushed.  Lastly, we show that every single happy ending does not involve a fancy dance and fairy-tale like circumstances.  Some happy endings are normal and occur in ordinary settings like outside of the school lockers.  Our video shows typical teen actions, such as texting, studying, day-dreaming, etc.  Our video also shows the real hopes, desires and fears of what it's like to be a teenager.  It shows how teenagers really just hope to be happy and desire to feel a sense of belonging.  They fear isolation and being out-cast from their peers and society.

In the third story board panel, we see the "popular" girl surrounded by her friends, staring at a text from her boyfriend while the "loser" gazes longingly from the background.  We use the camera technique of shooting below a subject - in this case, the subject is the popular girl.  Shooting in this way makes it seems like we are below her and looking up to her.  It makes her seem superior to others, as well as appear more powerful and intimidating.  It also portrays the anger and intensity in her face, advancing the story and emphasizing the fact that she is clearly not happy with a text from her boyfriend.  We also shot from farther away, in order to capture more in the picture.  The background in this certain panel is essential.  We shot it so that you could see the "loser" in the background, gazing in desire at the popular girl.  This creates a relationship between the two people in the shot, showing the tension that is occurring between them.  As well, the girl is standing alone in order to enforce her loneliness and the popular girl's companionship.  Through all of this, the shot therefore portrays a mood.  In shooting up to the popular girl, we see the anger and intensity from her.  In including the loser in the background, we see the longing and desire that she feels.  All of this enforces that necessary relationship between the two.  This shot also shows characterization.  It expresses the true personality of the two girls: a snobby, intimidating, popular girl and the lonely, longing, inferior loser.

Pop Culture

Cell phones are definitely a pop product that contribute to the desires, fears, and hopes of teen culture today. First off, they really portray the desires of teenagers amongst present day society. They prove the fact that teens desire to have an amazing social life with lots of friends. Cell phones are used for communication, generally between you and your peers.  Cell phones can even be seen as a symbol for the link to a social life. With a cell phone, you can talk to people, talk to friends, socialize, and make plans between one another. Now a days, many friendships also begin through technology. In having a cell phone, you can meet new people and perhaps become a part of that social group that you’ve been dying to get into. All teenagers want to feel like they belong. The key to belonging is having friends and being “popular”. Cell phones provide a source for this popularity.  They create a link between you and your friends so that you make plans, boosting your social life as well as your social status.  They can fulfill the desire for teenagers to belong in society.

Cell phones also portray the fears of teenagers amongst present day society. Linked to the desire to belong, is the fear of exclusion. A teen is always afraid of being left out of the social circle, of not having a place in society or in their world. A cell phone may in fact fix their desperate need to fit in, to wash away any fears they may have of not having friends. If one didn’t have a cell phone, then perhaps they would have no way to get in touch with their friends out of school. Therefore, they would be left out of any plans that were coordinated through cell phones. Now a days, everyone talks through cell phones. In some cases, it is even how friends grow closer with one another, through talking all the time. In not having one, they would lose any chance they had to form a bond with people, thus strengthening their group on the social circle of high school. Without a cell phone, teenagers may fear that they will be excluded by their peers, isolated from society. Therefore, a cell phone may be seen to fulfill any fears of exclusion or isolation amongst teenagers.

Lastly, are the hopes. The hopes that cell phones provide are very closely linked to the desires. All teenagers desire the sense of belonging, but they also hope to belong. Nearly every teen in today’s popular culture has a cell phone. In having one, you may be considered “cool”; and vice versa, in not having one, you may be considered “un-cool”. Having the latest form of technology that everyone else has makes you feel like you belong, like you are on the same level of equality as everyone else. Teenagers simply just hope to be liked by their peers. This also links to the fears, in which teens fear being excluded or disliked. Some may believe and hold onto that strain of hope that having a cell phone will result in teens liking them. Maybe they see it as the key to their coolness. It’s a sad reality that the shallowness amongst society has led teens to believe that if you own more expensive and cool stuff, then there is the automatic assumption that this makes you cool. Cell phones make you on the “in” side of high school, which is probably something that every single teenager hopes for. Therefore, cell phones represent those hopes to be belong and be considered by all as “cool”.