#video breakdown

[weareravershq]

REMA | HEHEHE (Gifs)

[artemisandhersilverbow]

I'm still not over Taylor's Fortnight MV... to say it's my favorite visual work she's done would be an understatement. As with all things on this album, she did her research. Her incredible DP - Rodrigo Prieto - who has shot The Man, Cardigan, and Willow MVs. As well as, Brokeback Mountain, The Barbie Movie, Killer of the Flower Moon, etc.

There are so many ways to parse the story of the Fortnight video, but I will mostly focus on Taylor's use of mirroring to make some of the video's larger points.

I am a queer former film student so I wanna note that that's the bias I'll be writing from. If that disinterests you, no worries! This just may not be for you.

Love that we start with silent film era titles. One is black, one is white, perhaps a ying yang visual or simply representing the original album + the anthology. Could also be the light + dark of her two sides represented by Taylor and Post Malone.

The vertical alignment shift in the word Fortnight is interesting because the other time i noticed her doing this was in the closing poem for TTP with, "Some stars never align." Would be cute to have it like a nod to screenplay scene heading: INT. FORT - NIGHT

We start with Taylor, virtually still, but singing. She's handcuffed to an askew bed frame - sans mattress - with bars resembling a prison/cage.

The mirroring she's doing here is reminding us of "real life" Taylor's outfit at the 2024 Grammy's, but with the addition of white gauzy gloves + garter belt (like on tour), it reads more bridal, more bed sheet. That similar clock necklace is set to, best as I can tell, 9pm.

And she's got enough hairpins to... idk... make me spin out? Her make up evokes a little Clara Bow, Greta Garbo, legends of the silver screen, etc.

Taylor stops lip-syncing. Breaking the fourth wall, with direct eye contact, she's forced a "Forget Him" pill and unshackled from her bed prison. Unlike the next instance we get this match shot, it feels like she's telling the audience she knows we're watching and her look has a "this is what I'm forced to do" anger charged to it.

Also, the pill itself seems to break Taylor's reality from here on out. She "forgets him," but perhaps also becomes a different him herself.

She walks over, in her wacky funhouse of a prison room - skewed angles, upside down doors (those who enter from the left walk on the "ceiling" - to an actual mirror. But this mirror looks more like a one-way mirror. Meaning that the subject can see themselves, but so can others they can't see on the other side. Usually so the subject can be observed.

Still appropriate to break the fourth wall as though we are watching her in a way she can't return.

She wipes her face to reveal Post Malone's tattoos under the veneer of her prerfect facade. Once done, she utters the first "I want to kill her." She wants to "kill" Taylor TM?

I'll basically be going forward assuming that Post Malone is established in this mirror shot as a representation of Taylor, perhaps her True Taylor underneath the engineered perfection. This door/portal splits her in two on entry. From one white-clad figure to two black-clad ones. Kind of like the splitting of a prism.

Instead of exiting this upside down asylum, she goes deep into a department - perhaps the Tortured Poets kind. We get an awesome match cut/panning transition where Grammy dress referential Taylor morphs into a Victorian mourning dress. One very similar to the dresses on stage during Folklore during Eras (at the bottom of post). Perhaps also a nod to Emily Dickinson herself.

The way they design the set to make it so her asylum and office are connected feels like a not so subtle call out on how she feels about her chosen industry. Not quite a cheery take on the Lover House for ex. Time also becomes a little bendy, irrelevant when she does this portal walk.

When she enters she sits at a mirrored desk, morphing into Post Malone's silhouette. To the side we have faceless writers, also dressed in black older fashions, that seem to go on for infinity like a mirror trick.

Taylor sits down to start writing, Post Malone is already typing. They're both in black with embellished collars. We see that she has a top sheet with typed words, but under they're blank. Post has a pile next to him, along with his fountain pen, which perhaps are fully done b/c placement on the other side of him. Their desks are also arranged ever so slightly different. So Post-Taylor is a typing machine, Taylor needs to catch up...

But then Post Malone looks up to create this awesome mirrored match cut.

Taylor and Post-Taylor get to work, singing the chorus, camera cutting on their lines in mirror shots respectively.

We see a typewriter jam the same lines from the song, but specifically "I LOVE YOU." Granted, we can't be 100% sure whose typewriter it is, but we see Taylor type "Love You." Perhaps they're mirroring each other in even this task.

Eventually their stories starts leaking blue and orange/gold ether which prisms out to reveal "The Story of Us."

Really great shot of the infinity vanishing point effect from the unidentified crowd, how they're positioned makes them look like they're mirroring all of us watching/sharing our opinions.

This is where I'll stop for Part 1 because it's not ok how late this album has been keeping me up.

But a couple of things to start:

Taylor using very strong, very consistent mirroring techniques to create distinctions from narrator, character, and audience. Even the music is mirrored in the chorus with Post Malone's repetition.

By both wearing the face tattoos under a perfect exterior (the face we know her by), and immediately separating into two characters - one with her face/gender expression as we know it and Post-Taylor who now wears the face tattoos we just saw/is also sporting the face and gender expression we are familiar with him. It's Taylor TM the Brand vs Hidden (in plain sight) Identity Taylor.

Her typewriter emits an orange/golden glow from all of her repeated "I LOVE YOU'S," while his emits blue. Together they're creating the next story vignette: "The Story of Us."

One basic read for this is that Taylor could be owning her male POVs that come up in her songs (Folklore we're looking at you). Another read I have is that Taylor TM is writing the love song framework expected from her as an artist while Post-Taylor injects the devastation, anger, emotion, the heavy blues we often unearth from a song we originally thought was upbeat, romantic, unassuming. And considering these mirrored halves, I think that aligns with her own messages about her music, that people will always going looking for paternity tests - the publicized romance pulled from what we think we know about her. But perhaps the assumed truths of a song could be, and often are, driven by your gendered expectations - "Girl loves boy, sings about that." The hidden in plain sight Taylor subverts what the surface level shows.

The True Taylor is an unrecognizable author. And that writer is producing the meat of the work.

Additionally, I love that she's wearing a dress that feels taken off the Era's stage.

Folklore in particular was a really different writing era for her. She presented the characters and stories as fiction and all the sudden an unknown male collaborator — William Bowery — gets credited on it. I'd love if the message, in part, was hey I'm actually my own male writing partner. Regardless, her other half/POV was able to allow her to write truths so long as they remained unrecognizable.

But she's wearing the mourning dress, looking over at her hidden true half, looking over anxiously. And then begins to write. They're half the story that makes up the whole, one needing the other to tell the story they want to tell. Perhaps it's a call out to Folklore in particular as a solution to being limited by expectations of her signature diaristic-like songs' perspectives. Using it as a way to tell a version of the truth from a POV society or the powers that be in her life would accept it from — not Taylor TM as she is/who she's known to be.

More generally, the "male pov" and the male pronouns, just seem to be called irrelevant smoking guns in the game of knowing the unknowable - what her work, a lot of her work, is referencing specifically. These two writers, as presented, are still both Taylor. Them's the rules here. Ok, see you in PT. 2!

[feelingofcontent]

Video Breakdown: THE FINAL GOOGLE FEUD

For @childofphivorce​ who won this breakdown from the @phandomgives​ fanworks raffle as part of Dan’s birthday fundraiser! Thanks for donating and for choosing one of my favorite DAPG videos! 😄

Date video was published: 08/22/2018 (X)

Welcome to perhaps the most chaotic of all DAPG videos. 😜 It was filmed in early August during Interactive Introverts, in a hotel room in Vancouver before they started the Australia leg of the tour. It was also filmed the same day as DIL CLONES A SIM which was the video posted before this one. (Also chaotic, and the source of my most meaningless DNP theory).

They left Vancouver on August 16 (1, 2), so this video was posted once they were already in Australia, the same day as one of their shows in Brisbane. (Can we talk about what else they posted from Australia? That month was extremely…something 1, 2).

This was the fourth (and ‘final,’ obviously 😅) of their videos playing Google Feud. ‘Excitement mixed with terror’ indeed.

0:00 - it is immediately wild. the synchronized leaning. Phil’s huge staring eyes. could they be sitting any closer. the single bed in background…

0:10 - Phil giggle! they really put a lot of editing effects into this one

0:16 - Phil’s hair is so messy!

0:20 - Dan with the “live your truth”

0:23 - “you get up to a lot when you’re not tweeting” Phil, WHAT?! 😳

0:35 - 30+ seconds into the video and they haven’t started the game but Dan’s discussing politics…seems about right

0:44 - does that…happen a lot Phil? 😅

1:02 - they are so into this conversation with each other. also significantly more eye contact than most videos

1:09 - ah there we go, lmao. I love Phil’s wide natural smile

1:23 - Phil is really not blinking…the slow head turn as he looks back at Dan. also Phil’s always sitting up straight and Dan hunching a little so Dan’s always looking slightly up at him

1:32 - nice transition to promo there. love Dan making Phil name them and trying to catch him out for not knowing

1:46 - behind the scenes searching and conversations…a lot of that in this one

1:59 - Phil thinking of something camera-appropriate to say but just went in a weird!Phil direction because he can’t help it

2:22 - Phil having a speaking struggle

2:29 - but they will not tell us the final score or who wins…guessing this might have been forgotten after the upcoming pizza break 😂

2:33 - Dan…what are you doing with your hand off camera there

2:38 - cutie! Phil is wearing one of his new merch shirts, we had just recently been released (1, 2). nice promo there boys; I’m sure everyone was able to understand that

2:47 - HOW are they always on the exact same page

2:52 - what a start to the actual game…Phil immediately and excitedly with “nipple” and Dan with “Prince Albert”...sure

2:59 - Phil is SO MAD 🤣 and Dan is immediately mocking

3:10 - “my mind goes to the dirty place” …well no shit, lol

3:15 - “ladydoor” Dan, NO

3:18 - Phil with the references. they are sitting so close they’re literally touching this entire video

3:38 - Dan does not believe this for one second and Phil is so confident about it.

3:44 - the implied ‘this guy’

3:52 - again, Dan with the touching/pushing partially off camera. surprised this video didn’t have WAY more jump cuts

4:01 - again, Phil with the extreme confidence that he’s correct. what a conversation

4:13 - love Phil somehow figuring out exactly what Dan’s talking about

4:22 - “you don’t even know what culture means” 😂 roast him Phil

4:24 - Phil is immediately excited at the words “game show”

4:26 - “my secret ideas folder”...Dan pointing at himself; Phil’s lip bite…I don’t think I want to know what else is in that folder actually 😳

4:38 - ah yes, the start of Dan guessing “dog” for many questions straight

4:39 - does Phil say “owls”?! what? I’ve never heard that before when watching this!

4:50 - surprised Phil is the one to answer with his phone anxiety

4:54 - I love the teasing and Phil’s lack of ability to keep a straight face

5:01 - jump cut and Phil’s still grinning about that “burn” 😅

5:03 - “I don’t have legs” I LOVE him

5:05 - this is some INTENSE rock-paper-scissors. god I love that they left this whole bit in

5:20 - mukbang mention! was this the initial idea or had Phil already been thinking about it for a while at this point?

5:23 - I am 100% on the side of that noise here is an ass-slap. I know people say it’s the chair, but I simply choose to believe otherwise 😊

5:25 - every video should have a pizza intermission, apparently

5:39 - they did not discuss it. love that they can’t remember and don’t care

5:43 - the prompts they got in this one really just add to the whole vibe 😂 I love Phil always looking at Dan right away to see his reaction

5:48 - love Dan basically asking if they’re just giving up at this point

5:58 - “men can be milked” …Dan is losing his will to live

6:12 - Phil being right about “man”...he should really trust the first thing that comes to his mind! 

6:21 - this video is really an insight into Phil’s brain

6:28 - minds on two different things there…

6:42 - Phil would have been so mad if Dan had gotten it right by stealing his thought. that song is from 2005.

6:53 - bread-face-Dan smile

7:01 - Phil looks so sad! 🥺 love Dan turning it around into audience compliments

7:12 - “you keep saying dog” …no kidding!

7:13 - their reaction to this one kills me 🤣 it truly makes no sense. the “carrot” bit runs through my head at least a couple times a week

7:31 - Dan is so right about the hand thing!

7:45 - this one should have been in ‘why I was a weird kid’ at some point!

7:52 - “cop out when you get to the neck...same” what does that mean Dan

8:08 - the dog guessing finally paid off! Dan is so pleased with himself and Phil cannot believe it

8:18 - oh, maybe Phil still is keeping track of the scores! they just hadn’t gotten one right in ages

8:50 - now Phil is questioning everything he thinks of

9:00 - Phil with his angry hands-behind-his-head

9:12 - really want to know what conversation got cut out where Phil suggested “tampon”!

9:17 - shingles should not get an eyebrow waggle…why

9:23 - old Dan video reference there!

9:35 - now Dan’s turn to tell a likely untrue story about a potentially non-existent aunt, lol. “a barbeque of jesters” what is happening in Phil’s brain

9:43 - WHAT was that jump cut that comes back in with Dan laughing and shaking his head and another ‘this guy’ gesture

9:51 - Dan ‘valley girl’/Becky/Jessica voice! he has fully given up at this point

10:02 - and then I love the contrast with Phil giving one actual serious answer in the whole video and getting it right 😂 and Dan’s cackle!

10:20 - they really have stopped discussing the answers much at this point

10:26 - Phil’s long-standing hatred of cheese! why he thought that would be a common search though, I don’t know…more hands on head!

10:36 - that’s what makes the video amazing actually

10:47 - Dan is so insistent on knowing who it is! like that bit in one of the Stereo shows where he HAD to know who Phil was talking about

10:56 - the dabbing was such a thing! surprised they didn’t accidentally smack each other doing that

11:06 - “why do they call it spoons” oh Phil 🤣 I don’t remember where, but I saw someone say that this isn’t as ridiculous as Dan’s making it seem! Phil was probably referring to the UK chain Wetherspoons, which is usually just referred to as “Spoons”

11:14 - Phil leaning fully into Dan’s space. and then having to get him back for the teasing!

11:26 - love Dan being so upset about Phil skipping past this even though they’ve hardly been discussing the answer at all anyway

11:29 - Phil trying to keep Dan from getting loud seems like a losing battle…though he seems a bit more distracted than upset

12:09 - there was 100% about to be a nose boop here, why did they cut it? 🥺

12:15 - the parallels of their guesses with “tall”-”tol” and “endangered”-“rare”!

12:31 - more valley girl! love the implication from Phil that this is something Dan has been doing all day/”today”

12:39 - another bit that runs through my head far too often

12:46 - Phil upping the stakes! the dramatic sound effect is great

13:10 - and now he is immediately regretting throwing that gauntlet down

13:18 - Dan is enjoying Phil’s struggle. and making throw-away guesses so Phil can’t try again 😅 (or just trying to end the video as quickly as possible at this point)

13:26 - Phil doing a bit of the voice too here…mimicking Dan!

13:40 - oh Phil…love when he’s so amused by his own thoughts

13:52 - I really can’t believe the game did that when it didn’t even accept “nipple” rather than “nipples” earlier

13:59 - I guess we know who wins after that, even without them saying

14:13 - Phil had to pick up Lion to use as a stress ball!

14:27 - “blood”...what is Phil’s brain. Dan cackle! I love it

14:45 - Dan just trying to be done and do the endscreen as Phil is speechless in the background 😂

14:52 - of COURSE he pulls out all-or-nothing! how could he not

15:07 - but for once Dan telling him no!

15:21 - “I’ll lick…” lick WHAT Phil?! and then he looks around the room for something!

15:24 - love the sad music

15:32 - Dan finding a way to defend Phil/blame someone else

15:39 - Phil is not listening just…looking 👀

15:45 - love the endscreen bubbles - “danisnotacarrot” and “noallornothingphil” heehee

15:52 - Dan has far too much energy for the end of this video

WHAT were they thinking when they edited and posted this?! I mean...it is a lot. They must have looked at the footage and then decided to just really lean into it with the edit as well. And I love it. During the Cambridge WAD preshow, Dan was asked if they were high during filming. 😂 A very common theory, but at least during the 2018ish era Dan always seemed pretty ‘meh’ about weed, so I tend to believe that they were just really really tired and horny. 🤐 Or I could see maybe a bit drunk.

We were living on DAPG content (and tour insta stories and Rize 😅 live shows I suppose)—the last main channel video was What Dan and Phil Text Each Other from mid-July, and there wouldn’t be another until the mukbang video in October after the tour ended. The next DAPG video was Dumber Ways To Die, filmed in Sydney, Australia after the (in)famous ‘or perhaps in Sydney’ live show. This was truly prime glass closet era and I think the DAPG videos they filmed during II are some of their best.

[witch-of-the-writing-desk]

Things I noticed in the New Hazbin Hotel Trailer. Breakdown.

•Husk's bar is still there and seems to have a permanent green glow while Vaggie and Charlie are spinning in a circle.

•Alastor annoying Husk and turning his neck around like the exorcist or a deer with a broken neck.

•Angel dust preforming a music number and wearing the same outfit from the teaser gifs. The hearts shaped window in the background indicates this might have something to do with Valentino while the blue screen could be Vox.

• Small clip of alastor snapping his fingers most likely using magic like he did in the Pilot.

•Lucifer looking like he's about to sing a solo in what looks to be a birthday party he might set fire to.

• A funny musical duet with Vox and Alastor. Vox looking very annoyed.

• We got a young Charlie being carried away from what I can assume is Lilith.

•Angry Adam crushing a light.

• An enthusiastic Charlie welcoming someone to follow her.

• Husk and AngelDust singing a duet.(Huskerdust fans rejoice)

•Vox laughing with electricity around him

• An overlord meeting(you can see the two overlords from the Pilot at the head of the table) We also have Velvet, Lab coat demon from the pilot, Alastor, Rosie, Flaming skull demon, and two unknown demons.

•Charlie giving a glowing thumbs up standing next to Niffty, Husk, AngelDust, and Sir Pentious.

•And lastly Charlie waving shyly at video camera with AngelDust giving her double rabbit ears behind her.

[littlemixnet]

Little Mix - “Go on Leigh-Anne, tell your story” (Video Breakdown Trailer 2)

[littlemixlove]

Little Mix - “Go on Leigh-Anne, tell your story” (Video Breakdown Trailer 2)

[oceluna]

The Philosophy of True Detective – Wisecrack Edition

[dotmarz]

We Need To Talk: Video Breakdown

So this going to be my interpretation of the We Need To Talk video. I am going to focus on the parallels and what I think the video is trying to say.

So I do believe that the 3 videos (Lucky People, Not Warriors/Crybaby, and We Need To Talk) are connected. Lucky People there’s the fairy lights that Awsten puts around himself. There’s also fairy lights in the girl’s apartment in the We Need To Talk music video.

The Lucky People video happened shorty after C***a and Awsten’s break up, which means he was probably still getting over her at the time. So he is surrounding himself with lights since they could remind him of her.

So then Awstem and the girl are fighting. During Awsten and C***a’s relationship they have had a few breakups. So after the two in the video are done fighting he jumps out the window and kills himself. Now at first I was joking that “Oh he fakes his death” which now is kind dumb, it was funny okay. But maybe after they’d fight Awsten would die inside and get really depressed, and maybe contemplate suicide. So seeing Awsten so down probably made C***a feel guilt in a way, so she brings him back to her, bringing him back to life. Making him happy again, hence the lyric “I think you saved my life.”

More parallels were the VHSs. In the Not Warriors video they are broken apart. While in the We Need to Talk video they still look new and undamaged. So Maybe the VHSs represent their favorite memories together, since with VHSs you only put important moments on them. In my theory the Not Warriors/Crybaby video is Awsten trying to get over his breakup, so all the memories the two shared are damaged and worthless. These memories are taking over him, though he was trying to get better, but they are scattered everywhere.

Another parallel is the door of flowers. I think this could possible represent bad memories or maybe even betrayal. The three flowers in the door ar; Sunflowers, Light Pink Roses, and Red Roses. Each flower symbolizes something different. Sunflowers symbolize: Loyalty, Light Pink Roses symbolize: Admiration, and Red Roses symbolize: Love. So the girl avoids the closest filled with these flowers, so maybe she knows that all these feelings were secured with Awsten, since she knew that he felt all of those for her. While Awsten opens it and is immediately attacked. So maybe he’s realizing that she didn’t feel this towards Awsten or is questioning if she felt the same way and it’s literally hitting him hard.

Now the bathroom scene. This is also a parallel here. They are both staring into the mirror. This could be them reflecting on themselves. Also they both taking medication. The girls has 7 different bottles that spell out “FUCK YOU” with clovers surrounding it. 4 leaf clovers are rare, which is why they are “lucky.” So Awsten calling C***a his “Four Leaf Clover” he’s saying she is rare and that he’s lucky to have her. So this could be her reminder, what keeps her going. In Awsten’s cabinet there’s another VHS that says “Friendly Reminder.” Maybe that memory kept him going, and acted like a medicine, that’s why it was his medicine cabinet. In the chorus of Not Warriors says “There’s nothing in my system so I’m feeling what I feel for you.” So he wasn’t taking his medication. He was only feeling was what he felt for her, and that was enough to keep him going. So when they fought, he would turn very depressed since he was getting his happiness from her. Also the lighting in these scenes are very different. In the girl’s it’s purple and very bright and clear. While in Awsten’s it’s very dark, almost ghostly, and I will touch back on this in a bit. This could also be symbolizing there mental health. The girl is able to think clearly and happily, while Awsten is kind of foggy and unclear.

After she take her medicine, she gets an idea how to bring him back. So maye taking the medicine clears her head. The lighting in the...pentagram scene, matches the lighting in the countdown scene in the NW/C video. So maybe he was counting down the day’s he’d come back to her, because I have no clue what the relation between these two scenes are.

She brings him “back to life,” which mean she makes him happy, full of life. Printed on the book she is reading off of is the word Necromancy meaning; the supposed practice of communicating with the dead.

When she opens the door to him, they are both wearing white, which they are both equal since they are wearing similar outfits. White also represent purity, which is ironic since the cross turned upside down and that Awsten came back from hell. Also the cross turning upside down makes me think of the line “I brought my hell to you” from Gloom Boys, maybe that was a reference...idk.

Even though she brought him back, he’s still unresponsive. This could mean he changed and was done always going back to her. He couldn’t feel anything, even though he was with her. So when she leaves, Awsten begins to move again. Then she calls the priest, and I think this was supposed to resemble her trying to change him back to what he used to be. So Awsten does not want that, so he leaves he, and everything turns back to normal in her apartment.

Now back to the bathroom scene. Maybe after remembering everything in there relationship, he kind of starts to change back. Since the lighting in was kind of foggy it could have represented Awsten reflecting on the dark times of his relationship and how he used to be. So at the end, when I transitioned to the Not Warriors Video, I think it resembles a new beginning and Awsten starting over.

A/N: This is not true at all. This is what I am analyzing, and is not meant to be accurate.