The 32-year-old singer took a step from directing her own music videos to craft ‘All Too Well: The Short Film’ – a 13-minute promo for the extended version of her song of the same name, which stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien – and she now wants to take her filmmaking career even further.
She said: “It would be so fantastic to write and direct a feature.
“I don’t see it being bigger in terms of scale. I loved making a film that was so intimate with a crew that was relatively small, just a really solid group of people that I trusted.”
During a screening of her short in New York City as part of the Tribeca Festival, the ‘Love Story’ hitmaker reflected on her journey from “meddling” in her music videos to directing the 2019 promo for ‘The Man’.
She told filmmaker Mike Mills: “I was always very curious. I was always looking, and learning, and trying to absorb as much as I possibly could.
“A few music videos [into my career], I just started going into the edit, and making changes.
“It started with meddling, and it went from meddling with the edit to then writing the treatments for the music videos… That was almost ten years ago.”
After writing the treatment for ‘The Man’, she attempted to hire a female director but none she knew were available, so she sought advice from Lana Wilson, who was directing her ‘Miss Americana’ documentary at the time, and took the reigns on the video herself.
She said: “Once I started directing music videos, I didn’t not want to do it.”
However, Taylor admitted she was filled with doubts about her capabilities.
She said: “I think I had this imposter syndrome in my head saying, ‘No, you don’t do that. Other people do that who went to school to [direct],'” explained Swift.
When Mike, 63, told her he hadn’t gone to school to learn to direct, she replied: “Oh! It’s fantastic to know that. That makes me feel better.
“Don’t you feel like it’s an amazing exercise in trusting gut instinct? There are so many decisions you have to make. Saying ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m not sure’ really isn’t an option most of the time.”
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