Category: Music Video

A narrative is a piece of media that aims to tell a story. There are 3 types of narratives; Amplified, Disjunctive, and illustrative. An amplified narrative is when the narrative, is inspired by the song and adds a new element to complement the themes. A disjunctive narrative is when the narrative seems to hold very little relationship to the song and seems quite random. Finally, an illustrative narrative in the video very closely echoes the lyrics & music.

Below is the 3 videos I’ve chosen to represent the structure of a narrative:

Thematic (amplifies the lyrics and illustrate the ideas in visual metaphors)

The music video showcases Ed having feelings for this girl from the very start, but she didn’t seem to pay much attention to him which gave him very little hope of them being together. The group of them went on a skiing trip and he attempts to help her ski and maintain her balance so she doesn’t fall over. When she is skiing or doing karaoke he is always admiring her beauty and bubbly personality from a far until it cuts to a montage of them having a snow ball fight, making snow angles, and eating pizza together. Finally, Ed admits he wrote a song for her and expresses his emotions through the lyrics which makes her come to terms with her feelings as they dance under a candle light in the snow.

Episodic (self contained stories within a story)

This music video is the preparation of creating a music video as you see the directors, performers, and cameras ready in place. As they begin to perform they each have their own bit do to, for example Zayn in the middle of a sumo wresting fight or Liam with a circus crew with acrobats. Near the end they all come together and all have a massive performance to show the talents of the individuals. When the song fades out you see one of the ‘directors’ at the end verbalise “That was alright”.

Linear (beginning, middle and end of a narrative)

This music video begins with her playing cards with a ‘significant other’ but cuts to a scene where the whole fridge is full of beers which has connotations of him being an alcoholic or having more care for alcohol than her. As she is decorating the cake he seems to not care and take some decorations off of it to eat for himself as he isn’t appreciating what she does. As the music video ends you see her coming to terms with her worth and packs a suitcase and leaves him for good.

Below are some of the narratives I have thought of. I created these narratives by doing a task where we randomly selected words and put them together: 

Bitter pills taste of revenge

“I always knew there was something off about the secretary at my hotel, I’ve always been a people watcher but something about her sparked my interest. She wasn’t always secretive about her identity. I’ve always known she was undercover. A detective. She is always lurking around that supply cupboard, aways grasping onto that old book. I always thought I was imagining it but when the unknown identity of the gun was posted in the local newspaper, I realised maybe I wasn’t making it all up. Maybe I should take a look in that supply cupboard…”

Distress signals

In a recent accident along the south-west harbour, flashing siren lights and mounds of detectives were accompanied by the ruckus of distressed civilians as the money-greedy reporters clambered towards the burning boat. The lead piping dripped with a mysterious substance on the boat. “I don’t understand how no one is seeing this body hanging from the rope…”

Return to sender

In an apocalyptic dystopian world where unknown species have taken over a skateboarder’s only mission which is to return a newspaper containing the world’s last hope to the cell. Batting through zombies and on a frightful chase – the only thing getting him to his final destination. A prison cell. Is the power his music holds and what it can accomplish which he is yet to understand.

Reflection

By discovering and creating narratives of our own it will help us as when we begin to create one for our music video. This is because we are familiar with what sort of narratives are used whether that is to amplify, illustrate or disjuncture the lyrics/music. It also lets us be more creative with the piece of work and allows us to connect with the audience on how we choose to represent our star and convey the message we are trying to give off.

Below is a music video done by a previous student which I have completed a self assessment on:

What went well and why?

The video effects have been chosen well and contribute to the overall feel of the video, for example when the character ‘punches the screen’ a comic speech bubble appears in the place he punched. This was a really effective way to ‘show her that I’m a catch’ as it portrays his strength and power.

There was an effective variety of shot distances, specifically in these two snapshots. The close up showcases his emotions as he got rejected, and the long shot portrays what the performer is doing (running).

What could be improved and how?

This clip specifically was the performer playing the drums during an instrumental section. However since it was in slow motion it wasn’t to the beat. Therefore I think the video would have benefited having the drums to the beat of the song.

Some of the clips of the band was slightly shaky and not done with a tripod. However it may represent the overall feel of the video by not having the camera still. They could resolve this by using a tripod of some sort of equipment to get a steadier camera movement.

Why this music video is my favourite?

This music video is my favourite because they display a clear narrative that the audience can encode, but still including some performance parts. For this video they have chosen to amplify the lyrics to allow the audience to also decode some aspects and bring their own ideologies to the video.

The technical conventions were done well, specifically the lip syncing and framing of shots to capture the emotions or actions of the characters. Following on from this, the style of the video and the way it has been designed/filmed/edited conveyed their star as a hopeless romantic as they are attempting to ‘get their ex back’ and listening to his feelings of what he wanted. They also promote the artist as being ordinary (Hall) because he is showing the audience it’s normal to experience such emotions towards someone.

Focus Forward

By doing this task it has developed my knowledge on the skills to create a music video, in particular editing, design and filming movements/angles. For instance, include a variety of shots (close up, middle, long) and creative editing effects to make it more intriguing for my audience and so they decode the overall theme of the video.

Below is a table I filled out to analyse 3 different music videos of different genres; Pop, R&B, and Indie/Alternative

A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Artists may do this in different ways whether that is to produce a video that illustrates, amplifies, or disjuncture’s the song. Illustration is the term used where the narrative in the video closely echoes the lyrics and music, amplification is the narrative, inspired by the song but adds a new element to complement the themes in the song, and finally disjuncture is when the narrative seems to hold very little relationship to the song and appears to be quite random. Music videos are primarily either a narrative, performance or a mixture of both! Performance videos tend to be exclusively a performance in an unusual place, whereas a narrative lacks performance and often tells a socially important story.

I analysed these music videos by considering the following theorists; Dyer, Barthes, and Hall. Dyer’s central idea was that the star image could be described using two key paradoxes; a star is both ordinary & extraordinary and a star is both present & absent. Hall explained how society interacts and how individuals in society have different interpretations and responses to media texts (encoding & decoding). Barthes suggested that texts are open to many possible interpretations (readings) from many different perspectives.

Below is the Taylor Swift music video:

Below is the Beyonce music video:

Below is the Declan Mckenna music video:

Focus Forward

From watching and analysing these music videos, it will influence the way I film and edit my music video, this is because I am aware of some of the conventions of a music video. As well as this I will keep in mind the theorist Hall because when creating my narrative, the audience decodes my video correctly and receive the right message about it.