Narrative Essay

“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 deliberate theories of narrative in relation to my advanced portfolio. I plan to produce a music video for Ed Sheeran’s song ‘Autumn Leaves’.

During the creation of my version of ‘Autumn Leaves’, I will look at Vernallis’ theory that music videos are constructed around four concepts – Narrative, Editing, Camera Movement, and Diegesis. After evaluating the lyrics of the song, I discovered that it was a melancholic song about loosing someone close to you, and experiencing life without them. It also suggests that we think life is plain and simple until it is shaken up by something unexpected and sudden, such as a death. Therefore, I have decided to create a narrative video as it will allow me to tell a story based on the performer’s struggle coming to terms with the loss of a loved one. The story will highlight the memories of two best friends and therefore will include a variety of flashbacks, however the main focus will be on the protagonist’s adaption to a life without them. The camera movement in my video will be an important aspect as I will need to capture the performer’s emotions correctly. I plan to use high angle shots on the performer by herself, as it will connote the idea that she feels less powerful without her best friend by her side.

 

However, I will go against Vernallis’ theory that ‘there is not necessarily a balance between narrative and performance’ as I do not plan to use a huge aspect of performance as I will that it would take away the heavy emotion in the narrative, and would also harden the audience’s ability to connect with the story if I kept jump cutting to an artist performing the song. However, there may be some points in the video where the performer will mime a sentence or two from the song as if she is saying it to herself. For example ‘Do you ever wonder if the stars shine out for you?’ as this will further highlight what she is feeling following the loss.

 

Andrew Goodwin is another theorist of whom I have researched, and he believed there was a relationship between the music and visuals. My music video will support this, as there will be points in the video where what is happening on screen will match the lyrics of the song. For example, the lyrics ‘yesterday you were here with me’ will play over a flashback of the two best friends to emphasise the loss in the performer’s life, but also accentuate much happier times which is how the performer is choosing to remember her friend.

 

I am choosing to ignore Vernallis’ theory that ‘Something drives the video forward, but often it is not the narrative’ as I feel that the ability to tell a story simply through the narrative will connect more with my ‘indie’ target audience as they prefer things to be modest and meaningful rather than over the top performances which are generically used in ‘pop’ videos.

 

My narrative will not comply with Todorov’s five stage narrative structure. His first stage is ‘equilibrium’ which is essentially where everything is good, however my music video will start with a close up of the performers face, in order to capture the sadness she is feeling, which therefore disagrees with his theory. He then goes on to say that there is a something happens that ‘disrupts the equilibrium’ however my video will not include a disturbance of any kind as it is about the performer being able to progress with her life and to always remember her friend in a cheerful and blissful way, eventually leading to a kind of resolution where she is able to move forward with her life.

To conclude, I will be creating a music video mostly based on a narrative structure, which will support Vernallis’ theory of the four concepts and Andrew Goodwin’s linking visuals to lyrics, but goes against Todorov’s theory on narrative structure and another of Vernalls’ theories about performance driving the video forward.