Music video narrative coursework

Narrative devices

1) Flashbacks

At 0.22 the camera circles over Polaroid photos to hint to the audience that narrative will be centered around past memories; this is confirmed as the flashbacks of when these photos were taken were shown at 0.36-0.40. This makes the audience feel much more emotionally involved with the song as they begin to sympathise with the protagonists point of view. The use of flashbacks enables the audience to feel personal identity with the protagonist as perhaps they had the same memories.

2) Pathetic fallacy

To highlight the somber atmosphere of the song,the lighting is very low key and the colour palette is predominately black and white. As pathetic fallacy, the background actors are all using umbrellas at 1.44 to illustrate the rain and gloom with the emotional lyrics. This creates a sense of feeling for the audience so they can mirror the mood of the lyrics and perhaps relate to it much better when they are feeling like this. You know what they say about listening to mood songs when you're having a tough or rather emotional time.

3) Ticking clock scenario

                                         

At the very beginning of the music video, we can denote Timberland standing infront of a timer that says 4 minutes. This signifies how the narrative is being created to fit a given time frame. The lyrics themself also further connotes this , such as , "We only got four minutes to save the world". 4 minutes is also the usual allocated time for a music video so this narrative device also adds a sense of humour as it claims this music video would save the world. The sense of a clicking clock also engages the audience as  it makes them feel tension, questioning whether they would make it time. This is a great device to use if you want the audience to watch the music video right to the very end as they have something to be excited for.

Structure driven

A music video that I found particularly structure driven , was Michael Jackson's Thriller. The music video followed Todorov's approach to narrative in the following ways: \

 Equilibrium - The narrative shows normality - The very beginning of the music video shows an equilibrium by using a cold opening. It starts of as normal as Michael and his girlfriend are in the cinema watching a horror film - which seems to be a normal date. Once they reach outside, Michael begins singing to her...

 Disruption - A piece of action or character causes a disruption of the tranquility previous -

At 6:37 we witness a zombie climbing out of its grave as Michael and Ola are walking past.Soon there are several zombies awakening as it is midnight...this is the first hint at a disruption, the much more intense disruption is at 8:25 when as an audience, we realise Michael has turned into a zombie!

This also signals the recognition of the equilibrium being disrupted (when the protagonist[s] grow are of the disruption) as Jackson's girlfriend runs away and he grows aware of his state.

Restored equilibrium- When the disruption is conquered - At 11:46 Ola screams as the zombies have followed her and she fears she is going to die, but as she scream, Michael puts his arm on here to see if she is okay and she realises it was all a dream - this restores the problem and a new equilibrium (back to normality) is introduced as Michael offers to drive her home...however,..at the very end of the video, the shot goes to a standstill around 11:56-2.04 , illustrating how he is infact a zombie which represents a coda (when the narrative ends with a possible cliffhanger).

Character driven

Narrative - Girl comes home from school and gets dressed up, her boyfriend comes through her window to hang out in her room but her dad catches them, the boy runs away and the girlfriend gives him a badge to show him she still wants him to be with her and to come back again.

I believe the girl is actually the hero archetype as she stops her dad , who is the villian, from hurting her boyfriend and getting angry. She is the one who stops her dad from being further aggressive, and her dad is the villian because he stops them from hanging out and gets angry. The boyfriend is the princess character because he is the one who gets saved from the dad and the girls goal in the beginning of the music video, was spending time with him. 

Cause and Effect

The binary opposite in this video is centered around young thugs vs authority

At 0:58 we denote an interview room with one person on one end and two police officers on the other, behind the police officers is a the same criminal but hes an illusion. This is connoting how criminals cause trouble with the police force as they often lie in their interviews. We denote the interviewee looking reluctant to answer anything and his illusion is putting his middle fingers up.

At 1;42 we denote the criminal holding a gun after messing around in the alley way, the authority he is fighting against is an older respect man (Harry Brown) and from there to 1:51 we watch the shooting between the two binary opposites - fighting against who sets the rules.

At 2:33 we witness a riot of teenage thugs throwing objects and starting fires, and they are opposing legal force which we can see from the police cars in the background and the police using their shields prior to this shot at 2:28.