Tuesday 24 September 2013

Narrative Research (Sabrina)

Narrative Research


A narrative (or story) is any account of connected events, presented to a reader or listener in a sequence of written or spoken words, or in a sequence of (moving) pictures. A lot of music videos have a narrative or story usually to go with the lyrics of the song, this is a convention.

A narrative is a cause and effect, constructed through cinematography, mise en scene, editing and sound.

Media narrative theorists – Todorov, Vladimir Propp, Chris Vogler, Levi-Strauss.

 •·Todorov’s theory was equilibrium (everything is balanced) -> disequilibrium (disruption) -> re-equilibrium (new balance).

 •·Propp’s theory was 31 possible stages of functions. He believed there are 7 roles a character can have in a narrative (villain, donor, helper, princess, dispatcher, hero, false hero).

 •·Levi-Strauss’s theory was binary opposites; he figured that narratives rely on the conflict of binary opposites. Eg – Good vs evil, boy vs girl, protagonist vs antagonist etc. Links with our ideological values of how we feel we should perceive the world. Having opposites in a text enables climax and interest.

 •·Vogler’s theory emphasises the importance of mythic structure. 12 stages of a hero’s journey (normal world, call to adventure, refuse call, meeting with mentor, crossing first threshold, tests ((enemies)), approach to cave, fight, reward, way back, resurrection, return with reward).

Todorov theory is the structure that I will base the music video narrative upon -

 
Narrative of my music video in relation to Todorov's structure of a narrative:

Equilibrium = Girl is a geek and unfashionable
Disruption = Decides she wants to be fashionable (pretty) after seeing a fashion magazine
Quest = She searches for the perfect dress with help from fashion experts in hopes to be like the person in the magazine
Resolution = Makes her own dress in an arty abstract way (convention of music videos)
Re-equilibrium = Catwalk, everyone loves her new dress and look and she is happy again.
 

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