BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Final Music Video

Final CD Digipak

Final CD Digipak

Final Album Advertisement

Final Album Advertisement

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Narrative...


Last week we had a lesson focused on the narrative aspect of promotional music videos (what is narrative and why is it important/significant?) and discussed a few questions that would be neccessary to answer when producing our music video.

Narrative is the structure of a story that takes place in order to draw the consumer into a product. In this way narrative is closely linked with Audience Theory in that it is a way of enticing the audience/selling a product.

Also, diegesis is the fictional space and time implied by the narrative (i.e. the world in which the story takes place).


  • How is the narrative organised and structured?

The narrative is organised and structured by the different techniques used to create a narrative, for example, the mise-en-scene, iconography, etc. It is also usually structured like any story would be, introduction of characters/plot, development of the story and finally the ending.



  • How is the audience positioned in relation to the narrative?

Depending on how the product is directed the audience can be positioned in a variety of ways to the narrative. For example, if dramatic irony is involved then the audience is positioned in a place of authority over the characters as they have gained knowledge regarding the plot that the characters may not know yet. Or if the product was filmed at a point of view angle, that completely changes the audience's position in relation to the narrative as it makes the audience feel as though they are stepping into the character's shoes as the point of view shots force them to experience the plot through the characters.

  • How are characters presented? What is the narrative function? (How are Heroes/Villians created?)

Characters are presented using their dialogue or costumes, etc. but with a music video it is different because there isn't always dialogue in a video so the producers would have to use lighting (high/low key lighting) in order to create impressions of different characters and to subtly hint to the audience what the characters are like.

  • What techniques of identification/alienation are employed?

Depending on the concept of the video/the narrative behind it, the audience members will either become sympathetic to the characters or begin to feel alienated by the characters actions or by the way in which the directors/producers have chosen to represent the characters through mise-en-scene, lighting, camera shots/angles/movements and sound.

  • What is the role of such features as sound/music/iconography/genre/mise-en-scene/editing/etc. within the narrative? (lyrics as narrative?)

Sound is obviously important when thinking about music videos because the producers are trying to sell the band/musician brand so the music is essential and if there is any dialogue at any point of the video it is to add more interest to the music video's narrative, just as any of the other features are there for.




  • What are the major themes of the narrative? What values/ideologies does it embody?
Obviously changes depending on the music video concept, narrative etc.


and in specific relation to our own media product;



  • What is the narrative structure of your product?

Some narrative but mainly performance because from our research we felt as though some of the most successful promotional music videos of the past have been performance based. Our narrative is based around the theme of obsession, with our main character being a girl who is obsessed with trying to seduce either the bands lead singer, or any boy (as it could be easier to seperate the band from the narrative because not many musicians want to act as someone else in their own video).

  • How do the specific elements of your product relate to the narrative structure?

Certain parts of our music video emphasize the narrative, for example the costumes, the iconography of the red lipstick/red dress of the main character, etc.


  • Does your product adhere to or subvert narrative conventions?

In a way our product subverts the narrative conventions because most bands would be happy about all the interest that they get from female fans and there are numerous music videos of male musicians happily trying to push their way through thousands of screaming girls, whereas our music video is the opposite story of that. An obsessive fan who follows them around everywhere (here's a clip from a comedy show I watch that takes a funny look at an obsessive stalker fan of a band;)





  • How does the narrative support the establishment of the chosen genre of your product?

The narrative supports our chosen genre of music because throughout the history of rock music there has always been an obvious reference to how much romantic/sexual attention the musicians get for being in a band, so we thought we would draw on that in our narrative and take it to the extreme. We have also conformed to our genre because the band who's song we are using (Kings Of Leon) had written lyrics that go very well with our narrative idea ("She's always looking at me").



  • How have narrative techniques been used to appeal to the audience?

They are interesting to the bands fanbase because they feel a sense of voyeurism and a curiosity to understand how the band think and how they feel towards their fans (to see if they have any chance of getting to know them!) etc.

0 comments: