Todorov’s Tripartite Narrative Structure:

The Scientist by Coldplay

• Beginning Equilibrium = protagonist is laying down on a mattress in a rural part of the UK (London and Surrey). It is apparent it is in the rural areas, as identified by the multiple spray painted/graffiti art on the walls. The protagonist next flips off the mattress and begins walking in a town. The protagonist walks backwards and the background characters are also reversed. (Fun fact – Chris Martin had to learnt to sing backwards so while he’s walking backwards, he isn’t singing the song backwards!)
• Disruption = the protagonist walks past people living their everyday lives (shopping in the town centre, playing basketball. The protagonist then walks to an abandoned train track and then walks backwards through loads of woodlands. He sees a child asleep in the woods and the camera focuses on the child
• New equilibrium = from being in the woods, the protagonist puts on his jacket and flies through back into the car, he is then driving on the roads and is with what I presume to be either his girlfriend or his wife.

Because this music video is backwards, it is basically back to front, so isn’t in chronological order, instead it is in a reverse-chronological order!

Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars

• Beginning Equilibrium = the female character begins by listening to music, wearing a pair of headphones. The singer (Bruno Mars) then takes the tape out of the MP3 player. The female looks confused, however the singer pulls the tape and the music starts. He opens up with his name and the name of the song, which has been spelt out using a cassette tape.
• Disruption: the music video is now focused on the cassette tape and Bruno Mars draws out what he’s singing about with the cassette tape. For example, when he says “her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they’re not shining”, the cassette tape wire transforms into an animation of the female with her eyes blinking. Occasionally, throughout the music video, the camera focuses on Bruno Mars singing and then the female blushing, making it apparent that Bruno Mars is trying to flirt with her. When Bruno Mars makes the cassette animation of the female smile, the female changes it to be a neutral mouth, however, Bruno Mars changes it so the cassette animation is of the female smiling.
• New equilibrium = the female moves over and sits next to Bruno Mars. The animation continues to play and occasionally we see an over the shoulder shot of Bruno Mars and the female looking at the table. The song ends with a point of view shot of the female sat on the sofa, while Bruno mars is sat at the piano, playing the song for her on his piano. During Bruno Mars playing the piano, there are occasional close-ups of him and the female being flirtatious and Bruno Mars stroking her face, thus indicating they have fallen in love.

Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee

• Beginning equilibrium = a record player is turned on and what looks like a drone shot is done over an animated city, with an introduction to the song, by the title and the artists appearing on the drone shot of the city. The music video is possibly animated since the song was used in the film “Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse” and it is stereotypical that superhero films are animated. The protagonist (a young teenage boy) is living his day-to-day life, with shots of him going on the subway station, in school, at home in his bedroom, etc. At 0:46, the parents go off to work and the protagonist goes off to school, which is followed by a close up of the mother kissing her son goodbye before they go off to work/school.
• Disruption = The protagonist next is sat in his bedroom and falls out of his window, however, he is saved by standing on the side of the wall (reference to how Spiderman can attach himself to walls). The protagonist tells his parents about his ability and runs away. He takes off his mask and puts it back on when he sees someone walk toward him. The protagonist is then snatched by an enemy with what looks like their powers and the protagonist and the enemy fight on the streets.
• New Equilibrium = At 2.09 the protagonist has become and adult there is a close up of a photo of a the female all grown up and next a female superhero jumps onto the ground out of nowhere. The superhero female takes off her mask and it happens to be the female the protagonist was friends with at school. They team up and defeat the enemy and the ending shot is of the protagonist realising his powers and then attaching to buildings and he places a sticker on a statue which says “Spiderman”.

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The scene is first introduced by a long shot from a drone of a beach zooming in,followed by a birds eye view of the shoreline panning along. Shortly after the main character is introduced by showing him swim up to the shore, his clothing and dynamics imply that he is stranded. A mid shot is projected on the screen soon after showing the man lift his face up from the sand after falling into it face first, he is clearly fatigued. The scene dissolves and shows the man walking up to some palm trees (after seemingly gaining some energy back) and throwing objects at them in order to get some fruit. Some close up shots and mid shots follow showing him sitting on a fallen tree staring at the water, implying that he has internal conflicts or some sort of problem. A flash back is shown of him in a car with another female in what seems to be a rather run down and poor village.More flashbacks are shown on screen showing him visiting landmarks and taking photos with his partner. Followed by a mid shot of the man again sitting and staring at the water. The next shot shows the man walking through a highly tree concentrated area, in which his female partner momentarily is shown walking along side him, then disappearing (implying that his mental state is changing and that he is experiencing hallucinations). More flashbacks are shown with some sort of conflict being introduced between him and the female with a series of mid shots in a tropical bedroom. As the male is walking through the palm trees he sees more flashbacks of him at a bar, where his female partner is shown to be picking up interests in other men.The music video goes back to showing the man sitting at a campfire resting, and seeing more hallucinations of his partner through the other side of the fire (implying that he misses her). Another flashback is shown where the male and female are evidently arguing, resulting in the female walking away from him. The shot changes to a mid shot of the man sitting at a Jacuzzi with a bottle of alcohol. the shots keep changing and showing him drink more and more, until he submerges himself underwater. The shot changes to him washing up on the beach again, creating an enigma.

The scene is introduced in a dark lighted setting with multiple people standing by a fire in the background with a man squatting with his head resting in his hands listening to music. The scene is followed by a shot of the moon being veiled by some dark clouds (zooming ). The male is shown to be acting rather antisocially with other people near the fire as he is still seated a distance further away from them, still listening to music. He is then shown standing up and moving into the crowd, laughing and smiling at what the others are doing, while still walking through the big group of people. None of them seem to be noticing him. The shots alternate from mid shots of him walking through the crowd and him still sitting far away from the people. The song begins to fade away as he is still crouching and looking at his phone (moving his head to the music he is still listening to). The last shot is a close up of him looking at the people dancing and laughing by the fire as the scene fades to black.

The video begins with a mid shot of a man walking with a suitcase , implying that he is moving to a new place. The scene fades and shows a small white van filled with black men, where the man with the suitcase is staring out the window singing (mid shot). Another black man is shown walking around a rural area with an old fashioned TV, trying to point the antennas to find signal for it. The two black men have multiple scenes in which the travel to try and find signal for the TV. The men are shown to have flown to multiple locations with the TV’s still at their side. Trying to hitchhike to other locations (implying they are trying to find a new home). The men are shown to be frustrated by not being able to catch any signal, running through forests and car parks to try and get signal (shows they are resilient). The men unite on a dried up piece of land where their TVs start working when standing next to each other ( implying that they feel at home when they’re near each other).

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I liked this music video because it told a story in chronological order with a clear transition from equilibrium, disruption and then new equilibrium. I also like how the story is told in flashbacks and it’s interesting to see how a trivial matter such as shoes can lead to so many issues and problems.

I also liked this music video because it also clearly tells a story in chronological order. I also like the fact there is also a clear exposition, climax and denouement, the music video also links to Propp’s character type theory as we see a hero, false hero, villain, victim and princess and I like how some of the characters are more than just one type of character ie the protagonist is the hero, false hero and victim.

In this video I would say it features many stock characters in individual stories that are all some how connected in some way. For example The black man being arrested would be seen as the victim and the police man the villain in this scenario. I would also so say that the majority of the characters are victims of the society we live in. I would also say the running in the video (3:07) is the climax of the story.

In this video I think binary oppositions are used, the video shows a disagreement between two groups (white & orange) which represent a male & female in a relationship. It could also be seen as a fight between peace and unrest (white seen as pure where as orange seen criminalised)

In this video stock characters can also be seen, the one girl who is seen to be distressed and commit sucide can be seen as the victim/princess that needed saving and Lana del Rey can be seen as the hero for trying to save her however not being able to save her. the victim is also seen in red which could represent blood/death where as Lana’s in white representing her being pure/ angle like.