Postmodern case study

Narrative

“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”.

Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

As my music video is focused on my artist performing some of the narrative theories do not apply to my video. The first theorist which I found that did not apply was Propp who studied the narrative structures of Russian Folk Tales and said that regardless of the individual differences in terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common structural features. I also found that Todorov who was a Bulgarian structural linguist, interested in the way language is ordered to infer particular meanings and has been very influential in the field of narrative theory.

 

I believe that Roland Barthes is a theorist which supports my music video I am making. Bathes was a French Literary critic who proposed that in any narrative there are 5 ‘codes’ at play in a narrative. I believe that my video follows ‘The Hermeneutic Code’ in which this refers to enigmas or questions that a reposed throughout the narrative. A story will often throw up questions which aren’t immediately answered. Part of the enjoyment of narratives is when the audience is allowed to make assumptions about what could happen.  My video will follow this as the audience will think about what may happen next.

I also found that Andrew Goodwin’s theory applies to my music video. This is because I believe that through the video there is a strong link between the lyrics and the visuals of the song. His theory also discovered that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics where in my video I am able to use location and narrative. Through the locations which I have shown in my video this clearly highlights the genre of music along with the clothing and styling of my artist which reinforces this. The close up shots which I regularly use in my video is also another key feature of Goodwin’s theory of music video.

 

 

 

Genre

My music video for my coursework is performance based which is the most common type which features the artist singing and dancing to the audience. Gow (1992) suggests "the predominance of performance indicates that music video defines itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing songs". The genre of my music video is pop highlighting the happiness and enjoyment that the artist gives to the reader. The video also allows the audience to listen to the song and make assumptions to what may happen next; "Performance oriented visuals cue viewers that the recording of the music is the most significant element." Goodwin’s theory is followed as the music video demonstrates the genre characteristics of a pop video, there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals of the song which allows the audience to follow the video and understand what is happening.

 

 

Analysis of the narrative

Narrative paragraph

For my music video for the A2 coursework I will be using the song Goodness Gracious by Ellie Goulding. At the start the song they are talking about how Ellie loved this person a lot but wasn’t getting the same from him. In the song she is going crazy and having a fun life without him and she knows that if he isn’t coming back she will have to let him go. However she keeps trying to get him back however the people around her don’t agree with it. As the song continues the lyrics tell us how she found what made the man not love her and she decided to stay with him until he stated to act up however in the lyric “shake my head dizzy so I’ll never know” proves how he isn’t worth her time at all. At the end of the song we see how she is trying so hard to stay with him and to make him stay with her yet she doesn’t realize that she’s keeping him away from everyone being selfish and doesn’t even know herself anymore because she is trying so hard and it was just never meant to be. For my coursework I am aiming to create a performance based video where I will have my artist dancing and singing in front of the camera. I believe that this will link in well to the lyrics and will make the audience listen to the lyrics to realise what’s happening. In my video I will be using a range of different shots including plenty of close ups, as well as different locations and costumes.

Modern Vs Postmodern