When playwright Martin McDonagh wanted to take his work from stage to screen, he tried his hand at a short film. His effort, “Six Shooter,” earned him his first Oscar. It was the start of his new journey in the film industry, and it showed how a career can blossom with the right short film. And that’s exactly what Taylor Swift is aiming for with her directing career.

Taylor Swift poses with writer/director Martin McDonagh. (Photo: Variety)

Taylor Swift announced last week that she has directed her first feature film and is collaborating with Searchlight Pictures, hoping to “blossom” like screenwriter Martin McDonagh did with just two films.

The name Taylor Swift is no stranger to audiences around the world as the singer has achieved many important milestones in her music career. And having reached the pinnacle of this field, it seems that Taylor still has a lot of ambition. This time, she wants to conquer the mountain of cinema.

Having directed a short film that is over 13 minutes long, All Too Well: The Short Film, inspired by her past love story, the singer born in 1989 has also achieved certain milestones, a milestone that is certainly a new step for her next journey. Fans of the original All Too Well can now immerse themselves in the story of a 21-year-old girl and her pain when facing a relationship with an older man. All Too Well: The Short Film is also the beginning of the path that Taylor Swift is heading towards as a film director.

Image from Taylor Swift’s debut short film “All Too Well: The Short Film.” (Photo: Republic)

Becoming a director wasn’t a sudden decision for the singer. “It was a process of many small steps. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to become a director. I’ve been involved in over 60 music video projects and I’ve learned from that,” Taylor shared.

“I love telling stories. I’ve always loved writing stories, writing poems, writing songs. “I think directing came from my love of storytelling,” Taylor continued. “The more I did it, the more I loved it.”

When it came to making her first short film, Swift threw herself into it, breaking away from the usual music video genre she’d worked in. The first film, as Taylor describes it, was “to show the audience all the pain and despair that I’ve ever felt.”

With All Too Well, the singer got to experience being behind the camera and directing actors: Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien. “I was behind the camera most of the time, directing and watching Sadie become a character. I was clutching my chest watching her,” Taylor Swift shared. “Every time I watched it, it really broke my heart, especially the scenes where she cried. It was really disturbing and sad, but in the best way.”

And while the film focuses most heavily on the female protagonist’s emotions, the short still has a full story. The chapters in the short eventually become chapters in a book the protagonist will one day write. “The film is structured narratively in a way that I find completely different from any music video I’ve ever done. I wanted the audience to live in that world with the two main characters,” Taylor says of her first short film.

But separating short films from music videos doesn’t mean the 1989-born singer has completely separated directing from singing. Every aspect of the music industry has had some influence on how Taylor Swift became a director. For example, Taylor starred in the musical film Cats and gradually learned from it. Although it was only for a short time, the singer realized that she wanted to be a director who “always made people feel comfortable”.

“I’ve been involved in projects where I didn’t even know the script, and no one knew what the story was going to be. I think people should know that up front,” Taylor shared about her experiences as a singer, “And even if I want to keep the projects I’m working on a secret, I need to trust the people who are working on that project. I need to let them know how important that project is.”

That is also the reason why Taylor Swift has kept her upcoming debut film completely secret. Details as well as the content and cast of the film have not been announced yet. However, with Searchlight Film Company acting as the producer, many audiences have also expressed their expectations as this film studio has produced many Oscar-winning films such as The Shape of Water (2017) and Nomadland (2020).

Just like Taylor Swift conquered music, the singer is starting a new path as a director. After a series of prestigious Grammy awards, perhaps Taylor Swift is ready to conquer two other prestigious art awards, the Golden Globe and Oscar.