Daily Archives: 09/10/2020

Filters

Author:
Category:
Uncategorized

Narrative essay

Leave a comment

Narrative means a story that has a beginning middle and end, in moving images (such as music videos) the narrative can either tell the same thing as the lyrics/words or it can tell a completely different story through the moving images. Narratives don’t have to be in chronological order and make sense, they can go back and forth between shots and show flashbacks and flashforward’s.

There are 5 main narrative theorists: Todorov proposed that there was an equilibrium, disruption that then balances to make a new equilibrium. Freytag proposed that you can draw your narrative (almost like a rollercoaster). Propp proposed that each story has a set of stock characters eg the villain and the hero. Levi-Strauss proposed that narratives play out binary opposition. Chatman proposed that everything in a narrative works together so if you take one thing out then the story wouldn’t work / play out the same.

You can use Todorov’s theory to analyse narrative in music videos because the narratives in music videos always have a conflict and a resolution. For example in common’s letter to the free (soundtrack to the 13th about the abolishment of slavery) The black square is a metaphor showing how the black community is trapped in an ideology that is widely believed by the majority of white Americans, at the end of the video the solution is the square being outside and not being trapped in that building any more. Freytag’s theory can be used to analyse Ghost town, for example you can draw where there’s a climax in the piece, eg when you see everyone in the car cramped together.

Another example to use to describe narrative theory is the film Momento, you can use freytag’s theory to analyse this film, you can say that you can draw Momento as a hair pin (present and past), parallel to each other, so the narrative is fragmented switching between the 2 time frames, making a very confusing story for the audience. The film starts with the ending almost like a circular narrative, however, part of the story is behind the hair pin shape not being shown, and the 2 parallels come together at the end showing the connection between the two, leaving the audience to fill in the the gaps and take what they have found out to be the alleged ‘truth’ and make their own ending in their head for what makes sense to them.

To conclude ideas about narrative are useful in analysing music videos because you can see why a video was carried out in a certain way and why it was made how it was made, you can see how they put it together so it follows a story rather than just looking like a lot of shots just pieced together. It’s important for moving image to tell a story and be smooth unless the purpose is to look crazy and out of place to get the audience thinking about why it was done like that.

Uncategorized

Momento and postmodernism

Leave a comment
  • what life is like now
  • linked to media, film ,communication studies etc…
  • memento – complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships
  • momento – pastiche (detective story), postmodernism does this as a new version so it’s different to similar stories
  • preoccupation with visual style
  • loss of metanarrative (we don’t know the full story of leonard/momento)
  • momento – leonard isn’t able to distinguish fiction form reality

Audience Theory, Language

HOW USEFUL ARE IDEAS ABOUT NARRATIVE IN ANALYSING MUSIC VIDEOS? REFER TO ‘GHOST TOWN’ AND ‘LETTER TO THE FREE’ IN YOUR ANSWER

Leave a comment

Within the Narrative theory, there are many theorists we can apply. An example is Todorov’s Tripartite which explores how all narratives should follow a structure of beginning equilibrium, disruption and ends with a new equilibrium. Another narrative theorist that can be explored is Levi-Strauss and his theory of binary opposites and Vladamir Propp, with his theory of media have 7 different character types, the hero, helper, princess, victim, dispatcher, father and false hero.

Each of the CSPs (both “Letter to the Free” and “Ghost Town”) clearly follow Todorov’s Triparite Narrative Theory, and therefore have a clear beginning equilibrium, disruption and new equilibrium. For example, this is shown in Ghost Town with the opening being the initial equilibrium of driving through the streets of the East End of London, showing how London has become a “ghost town”. The disruption is when the car that is being driven swerves out of control, which could be a message how the unemployment rates in the UK were rising upwards out of control and thus emphasising how the whole economy of the UK was out of control. However, the new equilibrium is found and that is when the band return to the car and are seen at the end skimming rocks on a beach, which could be a symbol of things returning back to normal, since previously the car was out of control, whereas now everything has been returned to normal.

Similarly, “Letter to the Free” also follows a tripartite narrative theory. The music video begins with a shot of the setting and then the focus on the black box, which could be interpreted as an infinite symbol of black lives and a constant reminder of the symbol behind the message that “black lives matter”. The disruption can be determined by Common being seen in a prison, playing music, demanding form “freedom”. It can be argued that the disruption of this music video can be the imprisonment of black lives. This also applies Levi-Stauss’ theory of binary oppositions because Common is singing about freedom, however in the music video, he appears to have no freedom because he is trapped in a prison. Finally, the new equilibrium of the music video is the empty shots of the prison and a zooming out close-up of a house, possibly Common’s house, with the outdoor shot symbolising freedom and the freedom he has finally got. Once again, the black box appears to once again remind us of the message of the song that black lives are infinite and are equal to any other skin colour.

However, in some cases while most media products are told in a linear sequence, the film Memento by Christopher Nolan has been told in both chronological and non-chronological order, with the colour scenes being non-chronological and the black and white scenes being in a chronological sequence. In a video, Christopher Nolan explained this as being like a “hairpin”. This differentiates from other films and having the plot alternate from chronological order (black and white scenes) to non-chronological order (colour scenes) keeps the attention of the viewer and makes them want to watch on because they are about to get to the climax and then it reverses.

Another theorist that can be used within narrative and moving image products is the Satellites and Kernels theory by Seymour Chatman. Chatman explains that every narrative should have satellites and kernels. The satellites are regarded as embellishments, developments and aesthetics (minor elements) just like the satellites in space which are just there and don’t really mean anything, whereas the kernels are regarded as the key developments of the narrative and the overall narrative structure. If you remove an element regarded as a satellite from a narrative, it may not affect it, however, if you remove a kernel from a narrative, it could change the whole plot and overall meaning of the narrative.

Overall, it is very useful for music videos to follow Todorov’s tripartite narrative theory. Not only does following a narrative theory make the music video and context of the song more easier to follow, applying a narrative theory also means that you are able to capture perceptions and messages which can’t be expressed by people personally. For example, Ghost Town is talking about the economic crisis of London during the 80s, however, without the narrative theory of the music video, people could misinterpret the song and see Ghost Town as a place where nobody lives, which is the complete opposite (linking to Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposites) since people were living in London, it wasn’t a ghost town with no people, it was a ghost town because everyone was in their homes and not going out to work. Finally, narrative is important due to the old saying of “pictures paint a thousand words”. It can be very hard to convey a message by speaking it, however, using a music video can be a visual way to help convey a message, which is why applying narrative to music videos is an important thing to do. Finally, Chatman’s theory of Satellites and Kernels are important within moving image products because if you change elements regarded as kernels, the whole narrative of the plot can change, yet if you remove elements known as satellites, there can create a minor change to the narrative and plot.

Uncategorized

memento and postmordernism

Leave a comment

Postmodernism can be understood as a philosophy that is characterised by concepts such as RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE. It’s an approach towards understanding, knowledge, life, being, art, technology, culture, sociology, philosophy, politics and history that is REFERENTIAL – in that it often refers to and often copies other things in order to understand itself.

Parody v Pastiche 

pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist

this is your standard thriller/detective

parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

surface signs, gestures & play

A good place to look for illustrations of postmodern culture, in terms of media studies, is the music video. As Shuker notes, two points are frequently made about music videos: ‘their preoccupation with visual style, and associated with this, their status as key exemplars of ‘postmodern’ texts.’ (2001:167). Shuker refers Fredric Jameson’s (1984) notion of the ‘metanarrative’ (discussed in more detail below) that ’embody the postmodern condition’ (168). For example, the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’, part of the postmodern condition’ (ibid). Alongside their similarity to adverts (essentially the music video is a commercial tool to sell music products) ‘making them part of a blatantly consumerist culture‘ (ibid). And of course, the ‘considerable evidence of pastiche, intertextuality and eclecticism‘ (ibid) which is the focus of this next section.

because there’s so much surface there is worry for the overall meta narrative

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a way of thinking about culture, philosophy, art and many other things. The term has been used in many different ways at different times, but there are some things in common. Postmodernism says that there is no real truth people can know.

Postmodernism can be seen as a philosophy that is characterised by concepts such as RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE. or as the dictionary describes it as a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

postmodernism its fragmentry,dentred nature of music video

postmodernism say that we cant tell the difference between fiction and relaity

we live in this part of a blatantly consumerist culture

bricolage relates to the film as its involves the rearrangement of sign

Postmodernism typically criticizes long-held beliefs regarding objective reality, value systems, human nature, and social progress, among other things. For example, Pulp Fiction is a postmodern film for the way it tells the story out of the ordinary, upending our beliefs of how a film should be structured.

Surface and style over substance

 if the main focus is the idea of just connecting one product to another, then the focus is superficial, shallow, lacking depth, so ‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining features of the mass media and popular culture‘ (Strinati: 234)