Narrative exam question

“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.

I am going to discuss theories of narrative in relation to my advanced portfolio. I plan to create a music video for Marina and The Diamond’spopsong ‘Primadonna’.

I am going to draw conventions from real media texted to mine, in order to understand ways in which they conveyed certain concepts to their audiences. I have looked at Alex Winston’s music video for ‘Velvet Elvis’, where the girl refers to her boyfriend as her velvet Elvis; this song is literally about a velvet Elvis. This is an old fad; it was a framed painting of Elvis painted on black velvet. She's literally singing about a picture of Elvis that she is in love with, and seems to believe is real/alive ("Kill the bitch that bats at eye at Elvis"). To look at the video in depth, I compared it to Vernallis’ theory of how music videos are constructed around four concepts – Narrative, Editing, Camera Movement, and Diegesis. The video complies with bits of Vernallis’ theory of however does also challenge it. I really liked the way the video was fragmented, but still had a sense of flow and the shots that were used which I plan to incorporate into my own music video.

Whilst I createmy version of ‘Primadonna’, I will look at Vernallis also. Once analysing the lyrics of the song, I found that it was about a very temperamental woman with an inflated view of her own talent and importance; it’s about asserting dominance and living a certain lifestyle. Therefore, I have decided to create a narrative and performance video of the artist. Based on Goldilocks, the protagonist will pick a persona,  a man and an accessory until she finds what is ‘just right’ -  creating the modern Goldilocks in comparison to the traditional version where she chooses between chairs, beds and bowls. I will also be featuring intertextual references to huge celebrities from around the 1950s’ – Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean and James Bond.

The narrative in my video will befragmented, keeping the structure of the video disjointed which supported Vernallis’ theory that ‘the narrative is not always complete’. It also complies with Vernallis’ theory that ‘there is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance’, as I plan to spend more time on the performance of the artist, whilst the narrative is almost hidden and can only be noticed once it has been stated –so I will still have an element of narrative. This is a convention of pop music videos, which Ihope to stick to as I wantthe audience to associate it with the correct genre.

I have also looked at a theorist called Andrew Goodwin who believed there was a relationship between the music and visuals. My music video will support this, as it is quite heavily performance based I will make sure that the artist sings in time with the music whilst illustrating what’s being sung on the screen. A lyric that I plan to use includes “Would you get down on your knees for me?” and “I’m sad to the core, core, core.”

On the other hand, although Ido not planto includea strong narrative story line in my music video, the different shots of the artist performing and the heavy Goldilocks themeshould still be able to drive the music video forward. This supports Vernallis’ theory that ‘Something drives the video forward, but often it is not the narrative.’

Another theory that supports my music video is Roland Barthes semantic code. As I will be using the conventions of the original Goldilocks in order to create the modern one,  there will be a deep meaning behind the decisions that the protagonist chooses to take therefore the audience will be able to link the protagonist with Goldilocks.

 

My narrative will go against Todorov’s five stage narrative structure. His first stage is ‘equilibrium’ which is essentially where everything is good, however my music video starts with the artist being completely neutral and not knowing who she is, challenging what Todorov says. He then goes on to say that there is a something happens that ‘disrupts the equilibrium’.   My music video will not involve any kind of disruption, but a solution to the artist being neutral – she will find herself and become the ultimate primadonna.

To conclude, I am able to create a music video that is primarily performance based, however still involving elements of narrative. My video supports most of Vernallis’ theory on narrative, as well as Barthes, but goes against Todorov’s theory on narrative structure.