Taylor Swift 'suffered' while filming Out of the Woods in New Zealand

Taylor Swift battles the elements in the Southern Alps. Photo / Screengrab

Taylor Swift suffered for her art while filming Out of the Woods in New Zealand.

The music video sees the singer battle the elements and a pack of wolves as she dreamily flips between fairy tale forests, muddy swamps and freezing mountain tops.

The video's director, Joseph Kahn, tweeted that Swift made sacrifices for her art, and that the shoot in New Zealand was no holiday, with Swift wearing just a flimsy blue dress while filming in freezing conditions on top of the Southern Alps.

He also posted photos of the Alps on Instagram to prove just how cold Swift would have been.

View this post on Instagram

Three helicopters for #OOTWmusicvideo. One for people, one for ground equipment, one for camera.

A post shared by Joseph Kahn (@josephkahn) on Jan 1, 2016 at 11:35am PST

View this post on Instagram

Yeah this looks like a good place to put wolves. #OOTWmusicvideo

A post shared by Joseph Kahn (@josephkahn) on Jan 1, 2016 at 12:21am PST

According to NIWA average temperatures at the Mount Cook village in November are around 11 degrees centigrade. At elevations around 3000 metres this was likely to have dropped to sub-zero temperatures.

Swift's Out of the Woods shoot came under fire from conservationists, who claimed her crew put a rare native bird at risk during filming at Auckland's Bethells Beach.

The production team breached their permit by using up to 12 vehicles on the beach, which is home to endangered baby dotterels. They later apologised.

Out of the Woods is widely thought to be about her past romance with One Direction band member Harry Styles.

In it, Taylor refers to a time date of "last December" citing they "were built to fall apart".

The Guardian reports keen-eyed fans of the singer noticed the dress Swift wears in the music video and the dress she was seen wearing on a boat when she cut short her romance with Styles are quite similar.