The narrative portion of a music video is important as to make the audience rewatch the video. It can be one of the following:

• Amplified – The video links to the key themes and messages of the lyrics and aids them.
• Disjunctive – The video and lyrics have very little to do with each other.
• Illustrative – The narrative illustrates the lyrics directly.

In order to prepare for shooting our narrative, we compiled this document of initial planning and ideas for our amplified narrative.

Todorov’s Theory:

• EQUILIBRIUM, DISRUPTION, RESOLUTION AND NEW EQUILIBRIUM

Following terms for music videos:

• Anachronic? (flashbacks, flash-forwards, out of sequence)
• Episodic? (Short self contained scenes usually thematically linked)
• Parallel? (Cross cutting between two scenes that meet at the climax)
• Linear – runs in chronological order

Drama is conflict (the resolution often reveals the theme)

These are the binary oppositions/conflicts in your fairy tale:

• Love v Hate?
• Rich v Poor?
• Greed v Generosity
• Old v young
• Innocence v corruption

The narrative functions the character can have:

• Who is the villain?
• Who is the victim?
• Who is the hero?
• Who is the donor?
• Who is the adviser?

Remember: music video narratives are rarely complete as this does not encourage an audience to revisit it as there is no need to – everything has been said.

Music video narratives are often thematic and have episodic and anachronic elements to make the narrative more challenging and therefore likely to be ‘watched again and again’.