Narrative Theorists

Andrew Goodwin

• Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
• There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (Illustrative, Amplifying, Contradicting)
• There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (Illustrative, Amplifying, Contradicting)
• The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.
• There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
• The artist may develop motifs or iconography that recur across their work.
• There are often intertextual reference.

When creating my music video I will make sure all features that Andrew Goodwin states will be seen in the final product. My main focus for my music video is the point of the relationship between the music and visuals. The song I have chosen contains a fast tempo with continuous beats, me and the people in my group are going to edit the video to have cuts that fit the beat of the song. By doing this it will make the visuals link with the music and bring the audience's attention to the song. We will also make sure that the music artist, Jessie Lovett, maintains eye contact with the audience by looking straight at the camera whether that's straight on or through reflections e.g. mirror. By doing this not only does it fit the forms and conventions of a typical indie music video but it also builds a connection between her and audience members making them recognise her work and style. We also plan on amplifying certain lyrics of the song by displaying visuals that copy the lyrics. This will be used sparsely as we plan instead on creating an effective narrative that links to the meaning of the song and emphasises the performance scenes.  To make these parts effective we plan on using close ups or extreme close ups which will show the artists facial expression portraying the amount of emotion throughout the music video.

Steve Archer

Steve Archer's theory argues that there should be a strong relationship between the narrative and performance in a music video. The band or artist should cut between the narrative and performance scenes frequently with a choreographed dance used for the performance.

During our music video I plan on making frequent cuts between the narrative and performance to fit the typical forms and conventions of an indie music video. However, we have decided to feature both parts together by showing clips of the music artist, Jessie Lovett, lip synching to the lyrics in the locations used for the narrative scenes. By doing this it links the narrative and performance together making audience members understand the music video more and recognise the meaning behind the song. Although, we plan on having more narrative than performance as we want to emphasise the story more than the lyrics. By doing this we are able to make it relatable for the entire audience as it is targeted at the entire group and not certain individuals. We are also not including a choreographed dance routine as we don't think this particular feature will fit the style of our music video. If we include this I think it will make our product look more pop than indie and so wouldn't engage or involve our target audience. Instead of a dance routine we will contain lip synching as this way it will feature the performance parts but also maintaining the indie/alternative style. We will be able to produce a strong relationship between the narrative and performance as both will be combined together making audience members enjoy the music video but also understand the meaning.

Sven E Carlsson

Sven Carlsson identified two different types of music videos; performance and conceptual. A performance music video include features such as:

• Commercial Exhibitionist - Advertising/selling the artist.
• Televised Bard - Singing storyteller using on screen images instead of inner personal thoughts.
• Electronic Shaman - Voice anchors the video.

A conceptual music video contains features such as:

• Narrative Clip - Understood as an easy to follow, silent movie with no lip synching.
• Art Clip - Contains no perceptual visual narrative.

Our music video consists of both narrative and performance scenes but the majority being narrative. This means depending on Sven Carlsson's theory my video with contain both performance and conceptual features. When looking at the performance features our music video will contain 'Electronic Shaman' within the performance parts meaning the music artist's voice anchors the entirety of the video, which it does. The song has been used in our video to tell a story and direct the target audience in the direction of the meaning, the visuals help with this effect as it encourages audience members to understand the meaning better and link it to the narrative. The conceptual features that we plan on using in our music video are the narrative clips. During the performance scenes we will include lip synching however within the narrative scenes no lip synching has been used. This has been done in order to make these parts as effective as possible so the audience members can understand them and follow the story. However, there are parts where we plan on featuring both the narrative and performance scenes together, our planned music video does contradict certain parts of this theory. By doing this we are able to link both features together making the music video unique and different from others but also fitting the indie style.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes suggested no more than 5 codes can be used to describe the meaning of any text. These include:

• Enigma Code - Mystery
• Action Code - Elements of Action
• Semantic Code - Additional Meanings
• Symbolic Code - Symbolism
• Referential Code - External Body of Knowledge

Throughout the music video I plan on containing some of these codes as suggested by theorist, Roland Barthes, and use them within my product in order to emphasise the narrative parts. The first code we plan on using is the enigma code which refers to mystery within the text, clues will be dropped and hinted but a direct answer will not be given due to the product being about interpretation. As the narrative we plan on creating is about how an individual suffers through the loss of a bad break up with their recent partner we want our target audience to interpret this particular meaning themselves by seeing the visuals we create which links to the reasoning. By doing this it will make the target audience feel more involved with the video and brings their attention to not only the music but also brings the community together by everyone having this situation in common. Another code we plan on using is the symbolic code which refers to symbolism that may be used within the music video. We plan on using this to symbolise the bad break up linking it in with the mystery code by hinting the signs of an ended relationship. The other codes suggested by Roland Barthes will not be used in our music video as they don't link to the indie style or the particular text we are creating. For example, no action is used in the music video due to it not fitting with the indie styling especially when it's not linked to the narrative or performance scenes, it also doesn't fit the forms and conventions of a typical music video.