Essay feedback

Focus on your main productions rather than preliminary tasks

Be specific- name your example texts and use keywords to pick out conventions that you copied/ challenged

Analyse, don’t just describe what you did

Show progress e.g. guidance to creativity

Section 1(B) 30 minutes

In this question, you focus on your music video. You will be asked to apply one of the following concepts:

• Genre • Narrative• Representation • Audience • Media language

What is narrative?

Narrative is the structure through which films tell stories.

In your groups, read through the narrative theories in the pack and choose at least three that you feel apply to your music video

Give specific examples from your video, referring to technical codes ( camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene, sound) YOU CAN ALSO REFER TO REAL VIDEOS YOU LOOKED AT AS RESEARCH

Narrative theories Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, realisation , resolution and again equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:• 1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)• 2. A disruption of that order by an event.• 3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.• 4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.• 5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

Vernallis:Music Video and Narrative

• The theorist Carol Vernallis is known for her theory based on music editing.

• Carol Vernallis’s theory is based around 4 key concepts that all relate to the way a music video is manufactured, these concepts are:

• Narrative• Editing • Framing• Diegesis

Narrative • The video is a visual response to the lyrics . Therefore whatever is

happening onscreen reflects the choice of lyrics that the artist is singing.

• However, the narrative may not always be completed and can be partial with the video appearing disjointed, disconnected and appear in fragments.

• The video has something driving it forward but this may not necessarily be the narrative, it could be the music itself or other elements in the video.

• Finally, although the video may have a theme or narrative, it is probably displayed in a montage style, rather than in one clear focus.

Editing • A clear convention of music editing is that the video may

disrupt or break the conventions of continuity editing. • The editing may be brought to the foreground, become

visible and not hidden• For example you may see:• Jump Cuts• Cutting with the lyrics• Extreme changes in pace• Juxtaposed Frames• Graphic Matches

Framing

• The artist breaks down the “fourth wall” and engages directly with the audience

• The singer is mostly at the front and centre of the frame but other parts of the body can have equal weight/significance.

• The close-up is a common camera shot in the music video

Diegesis ( The world of the film) • The diegesis may be revealed quite slowly.

- Actions are not necessarily completed - they may be interrupted or disrupted in some way.- Character or object movement may move to the music-There may be gaps in the audience's understanding of the diegesis- in time and space, music, performance, and narrative.- Some frames may be more important than others.- There may be repetitions, e.g. musical phrases, the beat, other musical elements, themes, lyrics, performance, colours, images, camera positions, etc.

Claude Levi- Strauss: Binary Opposites

• Claude Levi Strauss was an anthropologist who studied hundreds of myths and legends all around the world. He proposed that we as humans make sense of the world, people and events by seeing and using binary opposites. He found out that narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites.

Examples of Binary Opposites• Good vs Evil, • Black vs White, • Boy vs Girl,• Peace vs War, Civilised vs Savage,• Democracy vs Dictatorship, • First world vs Third world, • Domestic vs foreign/alien, • Articulate vs inarticulate , • Young vs Old, • Man vs Nature, • Protagonist vs antagonist, • Action vs inaction, • Motivator vs observer, • Empowered vs victim , • Man vs Woman, • Good looking vs Ugly, • Strong vs weak, • Decisive vs indecisive,• East vs West, • Humanity vs technology, • Ignorance vs wisdom

• Levi Strauss believed that narratives were structured around a conflict between binary opposites.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin suggested that music videos can focus on:• Narrative- telling a story • Performance • Concept- exploring an idea visually ( not necessarily

related to the lyrics) • Many videos combine more than one of these aspects • Goodwin also suggested that music videos can

illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics of a song.

Roland Barthes

• Roland Barthes was a literary theorist whanalysed the way that narratives are structured

• He suggested that narratives can be “open” ( allowing a range of interpretations by the audience) or “closed” ( suggesting one fixed meaning)

• He also suggested that many narratives contain an enigma code, where the text sets up questions for the audience to engage them with the narrative.

Apply the concept of narrative to one of your media productions

Narrative is the way in which a story is created though a set of codes and conventions. Our music video had the story of a girl who ate a mysterious cupcake which transformed her into various fantasy worlds. This narrative crossed with the girl performing in her band the song, ‘My Head is a Jungle’. Goodwin says that music videos are an ‘extension of the lyrics’. Having watched real media texts ‘Katy B – ‘Broken Record’, we noted the way the story was told through such things as repeating clips to portray the “broken record”. Our music video expressed the lyrics, for example, the lyric ‘jungle’ was demonstrated through the cross-cutting between different scenes in the narrative to show confusion. This was furthered through repeated close-ups of the girl looking confused over repetition of the word ‘jungle’. Furthermore, the concept of confusion over love was in the lyric ‘in a dark room we fight, make up for our love’. Thus our music video creates disjuncture by showing a high key white room over the ‘dark lyric’ to accentuate the lyrics through stark contrast. The concept of escapism from this ‘love’ is presented through eating this magical cupcake. The cupcake becomes part of the narrative as an indexical sign for escape. The narrative parallels with that of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to use intertextuality to enhance narrative understanding. The concept of escape is furthered through the contrast between dark ordinary performance and the colourful tie dye and the powder paint in the narrative scenes. Thus our music video narrative can be seen as an extension of the lyrics. Vernallis suggests that music videos are often fragmented in narrative. Our music video demonstrates this through fast paced choppy editing, changing scenes between a balloon party and a paint fight with no explanation. Furthermore , Vernallis suggests there will be gaps in audience ‘understanding of diegesis’.This can be applied to our music video as the girl transforms to new worlds within seconds, with no concept of time or space. Furthermore, through making the performance contain the protagonist and contrast with the narrative, the performance becomes part of the narrative furthering a lack of diegesis and the concept of space. The narrative remains fragmented demonstrated through the symmetrical narrative of paralleling the last close up of the girl with the first. This creates confusion over the narrative structure. Despite being seen commonly as a film theory, Todorov’s theory of equilibrium, disruption and new equilibrium can be applied to our music video. The video begins in equilibrium of the girl exploring an ordinary room, and then goes into disruption. This is signified through the use of overlayed clips to present a blurred image. This disruption continues until the ending of returning to normality, having experienced her adventure. This structure helps the audience’s understanding of the otherwise fragmented narrative. However it can only be loosely applied as music video narratives tend to be more complex, and thus the symmetrical narrative is debatable as a new equilibrium. Roland Barthes theory of enigma codes can be applied. Our narrative leaves the question of why this happened and who the song was really about. There is no explanation for transforming between the balloon and paint scenes, thus creating enigma and enhancing the narrative as it raises questions. In addition, the cupcake itself can be seen as an enigma as its presence and abilities remain inexplicable. Having received primary audience feedback (bb 24 females) we found that our narrative could be understood by the audience who could relate to the protagonist, possibly allowing alignment. Therefore I feel we created a successful narrative which allows application of theory, but is also the product of creativity.

Our music video combines elements of performance and narrative, as identified by Andrew Goodwin as conventions of the music video. For example, in our video we fade in and out to signal the transition from narrative to performance. This transition is repeated throughout the video to produce an engaing rhythm for the audience