Narrative Theory

OCR will expect candidates to be able to utilise narrative theory with regard to case studies/films/TV texts and production.

• Narrative is the order in which a story is told or plot untangled. It also refers to the style with use of specific archetypes and representations.
• The story is what happens, the substance or content.

Films that use a diverse or non-linear narrative include: Memento, Pulp Fiction, Slumdog Millionaire and Vantage Point. There are also texts like Tom's Midnight Garden and Handmaids Tale.

Films or texts like these bring in a large audience because audiences can relate, engage and escape. Humans dream, imagine and remember. Part of the human condition is that we don't dream nor remember or imagine events in linear order. 'The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts.' Audiences use intertextuality, constantly relating and comparing films or media texts.

Having learned this, we have experimented more in our music video, with a non-linear narrative, using flashbacks and preempting later events early on. This makes it more interesting to watch, and relatable to the audience.

Barthes' Codes - Open and Closed Texts

Barthes was a semiotics professor in the 1950s and 1960s who got paid to spend all day unravelling little bits of texts and then writing about the process of doing so.

He said that 'a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can seperate out the colours. He decided that the threads you pull on and try to unravel meaning from are called Narrative Codes.'

Audiences bring psychological, sociological and cultural baggage to a text, so everyone reads it differently. Ambiguity in a text suggests different interpretations or meanings. How and where, or the context of a text, is important too.

Barthes proposed that texts may be 'open' (ie unravelled in a lot of different ways) or 'closed' (there is only one obvious thread to pull on). eg Action Adventure
He decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following ways:

-Simple description/reproduction
-Action Code and Enigma Code(ie Answers & Questions)
-Symbols & Signs
-Points of Cultural Reference

Tvzetan Todorov - equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium

Tvzetan Todorov's conventional narrative structure has five stages:

1. A state of equilibrium is defined

2. Disruption to the equilibrium by a crisis/action

3. The characters recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve problem

4. The characters attempt to repair the disruption

5. Reinstatement to the equilibrium, situation resolved, conclusion announced.

For example “The Piano” has a linear narrative. The equilibrium is before Ada goes to New Zealand the audience assume that there is an order, the whites are taking control of the Maoris and taking the land, Stewart has the land and Baines has gone native and is unconventional. The disequilibrium comes with Ada's arrival in New Zealand with her daughter, being uprooted and moved and problems with the piano - a metaphor for art, the imagination and Ada's voice. The new equilibrium is when the audience assume order is restored, Baines is gone, Stewart has more land, Ada and her daughter have left, Stewarts attitude to marriage has changed but the piano is at the bottom of the sea.

Claude Levi-Strauss

After studying hundreds of myths and legends from around the world, Levi-Strauss found that we make sense of the world, people and events by seeing and using binary oppositions everywhere. He proposed that all narratives are organised around the conflict between binary opposites.

Examples of binary opposites include: good vs evil; black vs white; boy vs girl; young vs old; protagonist vs antagonist; strong vs weak; first world vs third world; humanity vs technology etc..

Levi-Strauss observed that narrative can only end on a resolution of conflicts between opposition.

Male Gaze in Anchorman

Music Video; First Draft

The Male Gaze

The male gaze is a feminist theory proposed by Laura Mulvey, known for writing the seminal essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" in 1973. In this essay Mulvey wrote about the objectification of women within media and that due to the high amount of male workers within the media, women are repeatedly being perceived and shown as objects of sexual fantasy. She argues that the passive role of women in films provides visual pleasure through scopophilia - 'voyeurism as the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity'.

She writes: "In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness," and as a result contends that in film a woman is the "bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning."

Whilst Laura Mulvey's paper is an important feminist film theory, she also looks at voyeuristic ideas and ways of watching the cinema and identifying with actors on screen.
She identifies three "looks" or perspectives that occur in film which serve to sexually objectify women. 'The first is the perspective of the male character on screen and how he perceives the female character. The second is the perspective of the spectator as they see the female character on screen. The third "look" joins the first two looks together: it is the male audience member's perspective of the male character in the film. This third perspective allows the male audience to take the female character as his own personal sex object because he can relate himself, through looking, to the male character in the film.'

Mulvey's 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' was written during the time of second-wave feminism, concerned with achieving equality between gender in the workplace and eliminating stereotypes and traditional gender roles. Mulvey argues that in order to achieve equal representation for women in the workplace, women must be portrayed as men are, lacking sexual objectification. She therefore calls for destruction of modern film structure as a way to free women from their sexual objectification in film, by creating distance between the female character and the male spectator.

The male gaze can be seen in some films we've looked at, such as Sin City, American Beauty, Casino Royale, Fast and the Furious and The Piano.

How Contemporary Media Issues Are Changing The Music Industry

How Contemporary Media Issues Are Changing The Music

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Music Video; Shooting Schedules

Audience Research

For my audience research, I have looked at consumption of music and popular culture today; I decided to focus on the younger demographic of people aged between 16 and 25 as this is who my target audience is for the music video. By finding out any trends or popular developments I can then aim my music video towards my target audience even more. The research method I used was in the form of a questionnaire:

QUESTIONNAIRE

Age: (16-20) (21- 25) (26-30) (31-35) (40+)

Gender: M/F

Occupation: (Student) (Employed) (Self-Employed) (Unemployed)Which genre of music do you listen to the most?
How do you consume this music genre?

- TV
- Radio
- Online (Spotify etc)
- iPod/MP3 player
- Computer (iTunes/Windows Media Player)
- Other

What do you think the most popular music genre is among young people today?

How often do you attend gigs/concerts?

Would you describe the music you listen to as mostly mainstream or mostly independent/niche artists?

Does the music you listen to affect your style?

How would you describe your style?

Do you often read/purchase music magazines? (NME/Kerrang)

How do you find out about new music?

- Internet
- Radio
- Friends
- Gigs
- Magazines
- Other

How do your purchase your music?

- CD- Internet downloads
- File sharing sites- Vinyl- TapeIf other please specify:

Do you think illegal downloading is a problem today, and if so why?

How often, if ever, do you watch music videos?

- Everyday
- Four times a week
- Twice a week
- Weekly
- Occasionally
- Rarely

How do you consume music videos? (Youtube, Music Channels etc)

What do you find attracts you to a music video?

- The song
- The artist
- The theme/genre
- The editing
- The narrative
- Surrealism
- Other

Do you have a favourite music video? If so, which is it and why?

Have you heard of local indie band, Blighters?

I distributed the questionnaire on social networking site, ‘facebook’ as this is a website that many young people within my target demographic use today. I managed to receive 8 replies to this questionnaire, which is less than I’d hoped. I think handing out questionnaires by hand would ensure more replies. These were my findings:

Male: 4
Female: 4

16-20: 6
21-25: 2

All Students

As I am aiming at this demographic, I didn’t need to distribute my questionnaire to older people unless I wanted to compare results, which I don’t. Distributing it on ‘facebook’ gives me a slimmer range, which could prove useful for my research as it is more focused. Using only students doesn’t really affect my results, as my target audience would be mostly students because of their age group.

From this I can see that indie/alternative music is most popular in my interviewees, followed closely by rock music. The unsigned band that I am using, Blighters, describe themselves as new wave/reggae/indie, which would come as a sub genre of indie. Therefore our video could be quite successful due to the popularity of the musical genre of the song we are using, as people may be attracted to this. When asked, which they thought was the most popular genre today, people also mostly answered ‘indie/alternative’.

I found that consumption of music in this group is mainly through iPod or MP3 players and is now much less popular by radio or online, even with the proliferation of software like Spotify and iTunes Store.

I wanted to find out about popular culture as well as the music side of my target audience, therefore I asked questions about gigs and concerts, music magazines and fashion styles that could be affected by music listened to. I could use this information to influence any themes or costumes used in my music video, if there are close links, to appeal to my audience and relate with them more.



Only 5 out of the 10 people read music magazines, like NME. There were also only 3 of them who regularly attended gigs, local and mainstream bands and this is how they often discovered new music. The majority of people said they discovered new music through radio and magazines rather than through people. One person said they watched music channels to find it, this shows that music videos can have a positive public effect on sharing unsigned music and bands. Many people said that music taste did not at all affect their style, although they could understand how it would affect certain groups.


As you can see, most music is purchased, or consumed through internet downloads and filesharing, which isn’t always legal. People don’t seem to have a problem with this however and continue to do so. When asked if they thought illegal downloading was a problem, everyone answered ‘yes’, with reasons like ‘it loses the music industry money’ and ‘it’s getting more widespread as more people do it’.

Another aspect I wanted to investigate was how popular music videos are today, and what it is that people expect from them. This information can help when creating my own music video, as I will know what my audience are looking for and can perhaps conform to or twist some of these expectations.

I found that in this group, only half watched music videos quite regularly. This shows that they are popular with youth, although not everyone watches them often. I found that these music videos were consumed mostly on YouTube, rather than music channels like MTV and NME TV, showing the increase in web use amongst teens.
Finally I asked if anyone had heard of the unsigned band we’re using, Blighters. One person had which surprised me as they are not a huge band! They had also seen them live at a local gig.

This information has all helped to create a demographic profile for my potential target audience.

AUDIENCE PROFILE

My target audience would be between the ages of 16 and 24 and in higher education - sixth form/college/university or working. Considering the band are British and the music video is filmed in the UK, it would be aimed at a UK audience.

The genre of the band is defined as indie-pop/alternative, this appeals to people who want to listen to music that noone else listens to and therefore often look for unsigned or niche bands, rather than listening to mainstream artists. The indie genre is wide and increasingly popular, as found in my research, closely followed by rock. My target audience's media interests would include watching music channels like MTV TWO and NME, they enjoy reading music magazines, local ones like Outline and some more mainstream like Kerrang and NME. My target audience would be regular gig attendees, mostly local gigs of small and unknown bands although some slightly bigger artists too. For example in Norwich, they would attend gigs at venues like Norwich Arts Centre, The Marquee and Karma Kafe. They would enjoy arty, niche things like photography, getting involved at local radio shows and hanging out in coffee shops. They would also be part of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace and may also write their own blog on sites such as blogger or tumblr.com. Their fashion would be quite individual, shopping in places like Topshop, H&M and smaller vintage stores or boutiques.

Similar bands my target audience would like include: Maccabees, Metronomy, Mumford and Sons, Hockey, Foals, Wild Beasts and Animal Collective.

Music Video; Costumes

Below are some ideas of what our characters will wear in the video, they aren't necessarily the same but it gives an idea.

As the band we're using has quite an indie, city style, we decided to follow it, keeping with the genre of the music and any expectations people would have. With our target audience also being listeners of indie/alternative music, they will be able to relate with these styles, if followed, although this is quite stereotypical. It also reflects the style of artists like Jack Penate and Hockey.

Our main male character will be dressed in quite casual clothes for the classroom scene, a checked shirt - which the audience can relate to as it is still a contemporary and popular style-, jeans and plimsolls. The shirt could also mimick school uniform, as they are in an exam setting.




Our female character will have a similar, indie style, wearing a dress and cardigan and some pumps. This creates a casual look, as would be worn to college/sixth form. It has less of a 'uniform' feel. This would also appeal to the audience, as it is a current fashion item, making the characters more relatable to the audience. Artists like Those Dancing Days and Pixie Lott like also use these styles as they are current and contemporary.

Our teacher character we want to resemble the new 'geek is chic' kind of trend. With big glasses coming back into fashion alongside blazers and shirts, we can recreate an old geeky teacher character but keep him with current fashion trends. Ironic.

Music Video; Storyboards

(These are the first two storyboards, the final two will be posted up shortly, as I seem to have misplaced them in my computer files!)

Music Video; Locations, Characters, Props

Initially we were planning to only use one location in our music video, which would be the classroom. However, this could become extremely tedious and repetitive so we've decided to use a gig venue, for performance shots of a band playing, a crowd mingling and maybe even dancing. And we can also take the narrative outside the classroom, taking the main boy and girl to the gig venue therefore interweaving our performance and narrative footage. We want to use an old classroom to create a sense of nostaglia and to play with idea of old styles returning to the 21st century, like with fashion and culture. Indie styles today often replicate those of the 80's and 90's with a modern twist. Music videos by bands like Golden Silvers and Taylor Swift also use this idea. We are also following the 'exam' focus of the lyrics. We also found performance footage makes a good video, and helps promote the band well which is why we want to use a gig venue. It also fits in the narrative of the guy and girl dating, as many couples or potential partners go and dates to gigs or concerts today.

Our locations include:

• an old style classroom. It has been very difficult to find a classroom exactly like this one, because so many of them have been refurbished and modernised nowadays. We've found a classroom within CNS, Room 21, which isn't as modern as most of the other ones. It has single desks which can replicate the exam desks, however doesn't have a blackboard but we will either use the whiteboard or cover it up, and bring in a blackboard on an easel. Filming at school will be much easier and more accessible, and also much easier to organise.

These are pictures of Room 21 at CNS, the oldest looking, accessible classroom we could find, with posters covering the walls, bookshelves and the lack of an interactive whiteboard.

• and a gig venue, either: The Marquee/The Birdcage or Norwich Arts Centre. Gig venues can be really difficult to film in, because of the lack of decent lighting for filming and also getting permission. This is why we're not using main ones like The Waterfront or LCR. We decided a low key pub venue or somewhere like the arts centre would be much better, as they tend to use less effects and just have better lighting within the venue. It would also be easier to film the narrative without huge crowds getting in the way which is why we're attending an low key, local gig.
  

Our gig venue soon changed to us getting footage at our church, as we managed to use footage which mostly made it look like a lively gig/concert, rather than a church service, however the perfomance doesn't quite fit in with the genre as well as we'd hoped.

Characters:

- Main guy.
- Main girl
- Teacher
- Rest of Class in exam, 7/8 students
- Band, 3 members?

Casting on seperate post.

Props:
- Blackboard
- Chalk
- Paper and pens
- Instruments: electric guitar, drum kit, bass guitar, microphone and stand, speaker/amp.

The instruments are needed to film close ups of at the start, as if the band are preparing for the gig, getting ready to start - like drum sticks being picked up, leads being plugged in. We can access all of these instruments in a rehearsal room, and film it seperately to the perfomance footage. A similar idea is used at the start of the video, 4ever - The Veronicas as we discovered afterwards! It gives a look in at the instruments involved which in turn, introduces the genre of the song.

The blackboard, chalk, paper and pens are all to add to the old classroom style. Paper and pens on the desks will help make the 'exam' or lesson seem more realistic. We can have writing on them too. The blackboard and chalk, we want to use to write some of the lyrics on using stopmotion animation, or perhaps showing some of the teachers thoughts, using effects like in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8blXgmUXvI - Chalkboard Animation.

Music Video Analysis Ideas

Music Video; Annotated Lyrics

Music Video; Shooting Maps

Rehearsal Room:

Classroom:

Gig Venue:

Music Video; Casting

ORIGINAL:
Our characters for the music video go as follows:

Guy- Jesse
Girl - Harri
Girl's friend - Matt
Teacher -
7 Students - Rebekah Watts, Matt Northwood, Guy Walker, Catherine Riley, Justin Pryce, Louise Stagg, Freya Lincoln.
Band (only used for close up of instrument shots) - Matt, Mark, Sam.

We have decided on these characters because they are friends and are all reliable.
We still need to upload pictures, but our main characters are chosen to fit in with the indie/edgy scene as this is their style.

CHANGES:
Our cast for the music video completely changed due to unreliability in our chosen actors, they instead went as:

Guy - Josh Waterman
We chose Josh as our lead male role as he is reliable and was free to film when we needed to, he fits the role well as he has quite an average, indie style, wearing cardigans and jeans, although we would have liked to use someone a little edgier, like the style of the Blighters. It was also a good idea to use Josh as the male role as him and Yasmine are dating so there is perhaps some chemistry between them which the camera could pick up on, it is more natural between them.

Girl - Yasmine Galt
Yasmine was chosen as our second female role as she has quite a similar style to Josh, simple and individual. She is also good at acting and very reliable too!





Other girl - Gillian Mee
Gillian has a slightly different look to Josh and Yas and was chosen as our second female as she was very responsive and fitted the role well, she has a good style and can pull off the 'hot girl' character that Josh's character also dates.





Teacher - Mr Bloomfield.

Classroom students: Justin Pryce, Ben Pant, Theo Elliot, Emma Wilson, Sally Bailey, Sarah Pooley. We used different people from our sixth form who were available to film, to make it look as natural as possible. They didn't need to have many acting skills, simply acting like they were in an exam!

Music Video; Lyrics

Blighters – The Exam

Hello
Sit down
In your seat
Don’t look; don’t speak; don’t cheat
Who’s that sitting down,
Sitting next to me
I want her
And she can say
Examine -oooh-


Examine me
I’ll examine you
I like you too
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me

It’s what I do


Little dress, little desk, I’m impressed
So cool, so calm, so not stressed
I wish I was your pen
You can chew me again and again

Examine –oooh-

Examine me
I’ll examine you
I like you too
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me

Your time is up
Your time is up
(Your time is up, your time is up)
Your time is up
Your time is up
(Your time is up, your time is up)

Don’t go
This is just the beginning

Examine me
I’ll examine you
I like you too
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me
Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me


It’s what I do

Don’t look; don’t talk; don’t cheat on me (x4)

It’s not what we do

Sitting at your little desk
Sitting at your little desk
Sitting at your little desk
Sitting at your little desk

Examine.

Music Video; Ideas

Our initial idea involves flicking between performance scenes and a narrative, and perhaps interlinking the two at some point.

• The performance footage would be shot in vivid colour, to tie in with the 80's indie-pop genre of the music. This would contrast with some of the narrative, shot in sepia or black and white, in an old style classroom.


• The narrative would bascially be following the lyrics, a guy trying to get a girl's attention. However towards the end there would be some kind of twist, to do with the girl cheating on him, but in an unpredictable way so it's not too cliché.


• The performance side would include shots of the crowd, at a gig and close up's of instruments being played. We thought of starting the song with close ups of speakers/amps being plugged in, guitars being plugged in, drum sticks being picked up etc, and on the last beat of the song, a shot of a lead being pulled out, before fading to black.


• We also decided to have the titles and some lyrics, on a blackboard, in the classroom. Perhaps appearing using stop motion, or using a teacher character to write them on the blackboard.


• To link the performance and narrative, we thought of showing the guy and girl attending the gig where the band are playing, so that we can use other locations outside the classroom.

Music Video; Our Song

The song we've chosen is The Exam by a local band called Blighters.
The song can be found here: www.myspace.com/blighters

Media Investigation: Research

As part of my research, I decided to formulate a questionnaire to find out young people's opinions of the 'emo' stereotype and how it is linked to the music genre. This will give me a better idea of the youth culture and the stereotypes they form. I distributed this questionnaire on social networking site 'Facebook', as this is what many young people spend their time on.



Media Questionnaire

Age:
Gender:

Which genre of music do you listen to the most?

How do you consume this music genre? (tv, radio, iPod, online)

What common youth cultures/stereotypes can be linked to particular music genres?

Which of these do you find is the most common in today’s society?

How would you describe the ‘emo’ stereotype, through:

Culture:
Image/Fashion:
Music:
Lifestyle/Behaviour:

Do you find that it is a positive or negative stereotype? Why?

How is this stereotype portrayed in the media today? (through television, radio, film etc)

Do you think the media shapes this genre and stereotype or vice versa?

Can you name any ‘emo’ bands or artists, why are they in this genre?

Can you name any ‘emo’ magazines, films, clothing brands etc?

Media Investigation: Proposal

To what extent are emo/indie stereotypes shaped by the music industry today and what are the reasons for this?

Reason for choosing this topic:
I have chosen this topic because I find conformity to stereotypes and it's constant change, really interesting. I like seeing how different identities are affected by the media, and just how influential the media can be.

What do you expect to find out?
How the media affects identity and the common emo/indie stereotype and on what scale.

How will you express your findings?
Through a blog entry.

What research will you carry out?

1. Questionnaires- to gauge how people link music and stereotypes.
2. Research on individual bands/artists and how they conform.
3. Internet research on marketing and revenues.
4. Analysis of CD covers/magazine ads/gigs and merchandise.
5. Video Interviews - to find out what people think the emo/indie stereotype is and how it is linked to that genre of music.

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