- Todorov (theory of equilibrium)
- Laura Mulvey (male gaze)
- Andrew Goodwin (relationship between lyrics and visuals)
- Roland Barthes (action codes, enigma codes)
Narrative - The way in which the story is told
Things to remember when analysing a media text:
- Technical Code (sounds, camera angles, editing, mise-en-scene, colours)
- Verbal Code (how language is used to convey the story)
- Symbolic Codes (Clues in the narrative. e.g. ripping up letter shows distress. Link to mise-en-scene)
- Structure (beginning, middle, end. Todorov, 3 part structure, theory of equilibrium)
- Character (Protagonist - hero, Antagonist - Villain)
- Narrative Conflict ( Levi Strauss - "all narratives are moved forward by conflict". Binary oppositions, one item carries a negative value whilst the other has a positive value)
- Introduce a character
- Establish narrative structure
- Captivate audience interest
- Establish core themes
- Establish sense of enigma
- Establish audience expectations through the use of generic conventions
- Show predominance of action codes
- Introduce inconography
- Structured basedon Todorov's theory
How conflict is established/resolved
- Conflict is established by Andrew Goodwin's suggestion of matching the visuals to the lyrics. We used mid and long shots to show the arguments. The resolution is after the instrumental when we used voyeurism with the girl looking in the mirror.
How we constructed our characters and made them relatable
- Majority of shots contained our star. Her costumes and make-up contained natural colours which connoted the idea of innocence and vulnerability. Eye contact with the camera makes the audience feel more involved and allows here to become more relatable.
Heroes and Villains
- The boy could be the villain in our narrative however there are some shots such as the flashbacks where he doesn't come across as a villain
Importance of mise-en-scene/editing
- We used simple mise-en-scene with simplistic colours to convey our character as innocent. We edited to the song lyrics and, at some parts, we edited to the beat of the music.
How far did you chose to follow the lyrics in your storyboarding?
- We chose to illustrate the events described in the lyrics through our narrative.
Key lines which were given visual dominance
- 'I don't think so' --> we used lyrics on screen to emphasis her emotions
- 'Back up, baby back up...' --> After the instrumental, there is about 15 seconds of the girl singing through the mirror to the camera lens.
"Videos tend to only suggest story lines and focus on fragments of the lyrics" (Steve Archer)
- This is true with our video as the audience don't see the entire narrative, they do not see the events leading up to the break up neither are they given details as to why it happened.
In our video, the artist plays the role of both the narrator and the protagonist. The narrative is objective as opposed to subjective as we only see the story from her point of view; the other side to the story is not shown. We also used voyeurism, as suggested by Andrew Goodwin, when the girl is looking at the audience through the reflection of the mirror.
Firth 1998 - "Videos can be characterised by 3 broad stereotypologies". Our video comes under 'narrative' which means... "Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively react or wait for something to happen" (Schwichtenberg 1992)
"It is the lip synch close up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos" (Steve Archer 2004)
Andrew Goodwin
Illustrative - Images are given literal representation.
Amplifying - repetition of key meaning e.g chorus
