Further Narrative study.

Narrative based videos attempt to tell a story. 

• They generally involve a main actor(s) and extras, to portray this story. 
• There is a tendency for a relationship between lyrics and visuals to develop across the video.
• They tend to be set out as a Mini Film - a structure of a Beginning, Middle and End. 
• A certain film can be promoted through Narrative Music video. 

FOUR key theorists studied the way music videos and other media stories are constructed.

Todorov Narrative is structured into five different stages;
 Equilibrium -> Disequilibrium -> Recognition -> Reparation -> New Equilibrium

Any example of this narrative structure is 'Jack and the Beanstalk':
- Jack and his mother are living happily (Equilibrium).
- They are forced to sell their family cow which Jack sells for five magic beans (Disequilibrium).
- Jack knows that he has done wrong but decides to climb to the top of the giant beanstalk (Recognition).
- Jack takes the gold coins from the ogre and defeats him by cutting down the beanstalk (Reparation). 
- Jack and his mother are now rich and live happily ever after (New Equilibrium).

Levi Strauss Narrative is motivated by a struggle between Binary Oppositions. The audience is able to distinguish the 'morally right' side from the 'corrupt and bad'. Any example of this are any Superhero films such as Spiderman. Here we can distinguish the good (Heroes) from the bad (Villains). Heroes are always shown in a favorable light e.g. low camera angles and a combination of close ups and longer shots in order to allow the audience to identify with them and essentially side with them.

Propp Narrative is motivated by a variety of character functions. Typically there will be a hero who is sent on a quest by the sender. The hero has to overcome the villain usually with the aid of an assistant (helper) and in doing so gains a reward (a princess?). If the audience can spot these narrative character functions, the plot is easily predictable, which is why it is often used in children's films with a U or PG Rating, so the younger audience can follow the story.
Any example of this story structure would be 'Shrek': 
- (Hero) Shrek is sent on a quest.
- (Sender) He is sent by the king. 
- (Villain) His quest involves overcoming a dragon.
- (Helper) 'donkey' accompanies him. 
- (Reward) He gains Princess Fiona. 

Roland Barthes identified 5 different codes which a narratives engages the audience with:

• THE ENIGMATIC CODE - The audience is intrigued by the need to solve a problem.
• THE ACTION CODE – The audience is excited by the need to resolve a problem.
• THE SEMANTIC CODE – The audience is directed towards an additional meaning by connotations.
• THE SYMBOLIC CODE – The audience assumes that a character dressed in black is evil and this creates an expectation of their character. 
• THE CULTURAL CODE – The audience derives meaning in a text from shared cultural knowledge about the world.

EXAMPLES OF NARRATIVE MUSIC VIDEOS:



In the first half of this narrative the showing of Beyonce in a negative light and her loving husband in a positive, reinforces the idea he is the faithful one in the relationship. The relationship between the visuals and lyrics is interesting, because the negative lyrics reflect Beyonce's character. Here the director has chosen to go against typical gender conventions. Stereotypically, you would expect the male to be cheating on the woman and this is what the artist is trying to get across by doing this interesting parallel. 

The reverse situation later in the video reflects on the situation that the woman is the one who had the cheating partner, but reflects on how he would feel if it was her who was not being faithful. This is a contradiction of the lyrics and is cleverly done towards the end of the video, leaving the audience realizing that the artist isn't a bad person, only heart-broken.