The Long Pond Studio Sessions

''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' is a 2020 American documentary concert film directed and produced by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on Disney+ on November 25, 2020. The documentary is set at Long Pond Studio, an isolated recording studio in a forested area in Hudson Valley, New York; Swift performs all of the 17 tracks of her eighth studio album, ''Folklore'' (2020), whilst discussing the creative process behind the songs with her collaborators Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. Swift made her debut as a film director with the documentary, which is her fourth film to be released on a streaming service, following the releases of '' The 1989 World Tour Live'' (2015), '' Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour'' (2018), and ''Miss Americana'' (2020).

Receiving widespread critical acclaim, ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' was praised for its music, intimacy, visuals, and insight provided on ''Folklore'', with many critics labeling the film an admirable supplement to the album. It received an approval rating of on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Accompanying the film's premiere, a live album consisting of renditions from the recording sessions, titled ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (From the Disney+ Special)'', was released to music streaming and digital platforms.

Imbued by the sessions, Swift wrote and recorded several new songs off-screen while shooting the documentary. These songs came to be a major portion of Swift's ninth studio album, '' Evermore'' (2020), which was released fifteen days after the documentary. The film received the Gracie Grand Award for Outstanding Special or Variety.

Synopsis

In September 2020, Swift and her co-producers for her eighth studio album, Dessner and Antonoff, assembled together at Long Pond Studio—a secluded, rustic cabin in upstate New York—to play the complete album for the first time in the same room after isolating themselves separately due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The result was the documentary, ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'', where Swift performs the stripped-down renditions of all 17 tracks in order, while revealing the creative process, stories, and inspirations behind the songs through discussions.

The film's premise on Disney+ reads: "Taylor Swift performs every song from her best-selling album, "Folklore", in a truly intimate concert experience. Accompanied by her co-producers, Aaron Dessner ( The National) and Jack Antonoff (Bleachers), along with a guest appearance by Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Taylor filmed the event at the historic Long Pond Studios in upstate New York, a setting that evokes the nostalgic, wistful nature of the album. In between live performances, she and her collaborators discuss the creation and meaning behind each song, and also share the challenges and joys of remotely producing this acclaimed and record-setting collection".

Cast

* Taylor Swift, vocalist and instrumentalist
* Aaron Dessner, instrumentalist
* Jack Antonoff, instrumentalist
* Justin Vernon, vocalist

Production

''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' is a hybrid between a documentary and a concert film. It marked the first time Swift, Dessner and Antonoff had assembled together in person after several months of COVID-19 quarantining. Due to the pandemic, they were filmed not by a film crew, but instead by six Panasonic Lumix S1H mirrorless cameras with Leica lenses embedded in the studio, along with one Arri Alexa LF with an Angénieux 24-290 lens on an Agito Trax modular dolly system with more than 30 feet of curved track that occasionally scans the recording session from the background. A drone camera was also used to capture aerial shots of the studio and the surrounding forested estate. Justin Vernon appeared via video stream from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to perform "Exile" with Swift.

The film is characterized by a casual, small-scale production, and a softly lit, cottagecore aesthetic. Apart from a few videos of Swift at her home studio, the film was entirely recorded at Long Pond Studios in New York's Hudson Valley—one of the places where ''Folklore'' was engineered. The studio, which is located near Dessner's residence and was originally a barn, had been converted into a wooden cabin situated in a waterfront estate besides an elongated pond and surrounded by chairs, string lights and fire pits. The studio is an open room with a church-high ceiling, tall windows, and a woodland view, set up with a variety of Dessner's music instruments. The ambience outside the studio consists of sounds of birds, insects, frogs or the trees swaying in the wind. In the film, Swift performed seated on a couch in an oversized plaid shirt-dress, singing directly into a microphone, with Antonoff and Dessner playing instruments and an engineer in the back of the room. The instruments used in the film include a variety of guitars, keyboards, a Fender bass, a piano, a drum machine and a snare.

Release

Like the release of ''Folklore'', ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' was a surprise release, announced hours before its launch at midnight. It was released on Disney+ on November 25, 2020 and on Hotstar in India and Indonesia on November 26, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' received universal acclaim from film and music critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Andrew Barker of ''Variety'' praised the film's picturesque setting, performances, and ability to recreate ''Folklore'''s "sparse yet carefully textured soundscapes" with fewer instruments, and dubbed Swift's vocals as the film's "most striking element". ''NME'' writer Will Richards named it a perfect "early Christmas present" and praised its editing, especially when Swift and Dessner have a "genuinely touching" discussion on the meaning behind the song "Peace", followed by a performance of the song that "hits right in the gut".

Writing for ''The New York Times'', Jon Pareles. '' i'' newspaper's Sarah Carson defined the film as "artfully crafted, aesthetically gorgeous, cosy cottagecore escapism" with diverse conversations, such as light-hearted "giggly" discussions around the campfire to formal introspection on stiff chairs. Carson opined that it sheds "genuine light" on Swift's work, seeing her at peace with her life, laughing, "publicly relaxed for the first time in a decade". ''Decider'' critic Johnny Loftus found it refreshing to see and hear Swift in the "dressed-down setting" of ''Long Pond Studio Sessions'', calling the film "a balm for the soul as we wind down an extremely not cool year" and an intimate portrait of artists at work, in contrast to the pop persona that dominated Swift's career.

'' Little White Lies'' critic Sydney Urbanek lauded the film as a "triumphant debut" for Swift as a film director, as well as the cast's on-screen presence: Swift's and Antonoff's "captivating" one-on-one chats and Dessner's studio focus. Alex Hudson of ''Exclaim!'' described the film as "an oasis of tranquility in a chaotic time", in which "even the biggest pop star on Earth holed up and got cozy and insular". He admired Swift's rapport with Antonoff—their "laugh-out-loud" jokes—and the discussions that yielded "interesting insights and factoids" about the songwriting of ''Folklore''. ''Junkee'''s Richard He complimented Swift's vocals, emotion, the film's visuals and intimacy, and the cast's instrumental skills; he described the film as a "masterclass" in songcraft and "a rare glimpse inside a genius songwriter's mind". In He's words, "Great popstars embody our times; great songwriters address them. Taylor Swift is doing both".

Rob Sheffield of ''Rolling Stone'' praised the cast's chemistry, and asserted that ''The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' is not a mere footnote to the album, but a "stunning musical statement in its own right, full of stripped-down acoustic warmth". He underlined how Swift moves past vague anecdotes about the tracks by explaining why she felt the need to write such music in the first place. Branding it a "very beautifully done" film, ''The Daily Telegraph''s Kate Solomon called it a "very warm two hours of music that gives the songs a new lease of life", and observed the parallels between the "luscious, remote surroundings" of the studio and how they reflect the "lusciousness and isolation" of the songs. ''Stuff'' critic James Croot compared the special's atmosphere to that of ''MTV Unplugged'', and added that the film's production is slick despite the intimate appeal, similar to Swift's 2020 Netflix documentary, ''Miss Americana''.

Drew Taylor of ''Collider'' labelled the film "a winning examination and celebration" of ''Folklore'', and "a look at one of the world's biggest pop stars at her most vulnerable and artistically ambitious". He picked Antonoff as the more active personality, while Dessner is "terse", except the point where he opens up about his depression—"a moment that is both incredibly vulnerable and also powerful". Ryan Lattanzio of ''IndieWire'' termed the film as "a window into the introspective songwriting" of ''Folklore'', and summarized that the special "isn't going to blow your head off", but is a "fine supplement to one of the year's most beloved albums". ''The Guardian'''s Elle Hunt wrote that the film has Swift at ease, but also at the "peak of her power" with little to prove, while her song-by-song commentary depicts the "shifting emotional tenor" she felt in quarantine. However, Hunt felt that Swift not name-dropping her detractors "seems coy" as it limits the film's personal reflection.

Accolades

Impact

American comedian Jimmy Fallon released a parody of the documentary on YouTube, titled ''Fallonlore: The 30 Rock Sessions'', featuring American hip-hop band the Roots. In the skit, Fallon wrote an album in quarantine, enlisting Questlove and Black Thought to help him finish it remotely. Months later, the trio gather at 30 Rockefeller Center to perform their tracks together for the first time. The setlist included songs titled "Peed My Pants in an Applebee's", "Song About Milk", "Sourdough Heart", and "Fuzzy Wuzzy" featuring Chris Martin of Coldplay.

Most of the songs on '' Evermore''—Swift's ninth studio album and ''Folklore''s sister album—were recorded while filming ''The Long Pond Studio Sessions''.

A still from the film was featured in a 2021 television advertisement by ''The New York Times'', titled "The Truth Is Essential: Life Right Now", showcasing a variety of articles from the publication.

The Department of English of the Queen's University at Kingston, a public research university in Ontario, Canada, offers a fall semester course titled "Taylor Swift's Literary Legacy (Taylor's Version)", with a syllabus requiring students to watch and analyze many of Swift's works, including ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions;'' the course objective is to examine Swift's music, its literary references, and her sociopolitical impact on contemporary culture.

After the release of ''Folklore'', ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' and ''Evermore'', artists such as Maya Hawke, Gracie Abrams, Ed Sheeran, King Princess, and Girl in Red desired to collaborate with Dessner and record songs at his Long Pond Studio. Dessner stated, "After Taylor, it was a bit crazy how many people reached out. And getting to meet and write songs with people you wouldn’t have had access to… I’m so grateful for it." He described the studio as a "creative oasis" for artists.

Live album

''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (From the Disney+ Special)'' is the third live album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It contains the acoustic renditions of ''Folklore'' tracks performed in the ''Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions'' film. The album was released via Republic Records to streaming and digital platforms on November 25, 2020, alongside the film.

Record Store Day

To commemorate the 2023 Record Store Day, a limited vinyl edition of the live album will be released on April 22, 2023, exclusively via record shops participating in the event. ''Variety'' reported that there will be 115,000 vinyl LPs of the album in total available for purchase at independent record shops worldwide.

Track listing

Notes

* All track titles are stylized in all lowercase.
* All tracks on Disc 2 are noted as "The Long Pond Studio Sessions" and produced by Taylor Swift.

See also

* List of Disney+ original films

References

Footnote

Citations

External links

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{{Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift
2020 films
Disney+ original films
Documentary films about singers
Documentary films about women in music
Films shot in New York (state)
Films impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic
2020 documentary films
Concert films
Films directed by Taylor Swift
American documentary films
2020s English-language films
2020s American films