Narrative analysis of chose genre

Narrative analysis of the music video 'We are never ever getting back together' by Taylor Swift. 

Like our artist Nina Nesbitt, Taylor Swift has a young female target audience. Her image is also very feminine and her lyrics are very romantic similar to Nina Nesbitt.

In the video their is evidence to support Propp's stock character theory. Taylor Swift is presented as the  hero through close ups and narrative focus. This representation is typical in pop music videos. It promotes the artist.



The male love interest in the video is a typical stock character in the pop genre, relating to the romantic lyrics. This visual/ lyrical link appeals to the young female target audience. The presentation of the male character in the video, wearing all black and poorly lit, creates an symbolic code making the audience assume he is the antagonist in the narrative. The idea of symbolic codes in narrative is from Barthes theory. The presentation of Taylor in a very bright and floral outfit further establishes her as the hero, this is also a symbolic code within the video.

According to Levi Strauss' theory there are binary opposites in every media text. In this video there are frequent binary opposites referenced: The contrast between love and hate between the couple (this is connoted in a semantic code (Barthes) through light and dark imagery to represent each side of the couple.) There is also an opposition between reality and fantasy through the entropic images of dancing musicians dressed as animals and the cinematography that jumps and pans through various unrelated sets.

The romantic narrative of the video that depicts an 'on/ off' relationship is a very appealing cultural code for the target audience of the vidoe and is therefore typical of the genre.

The video contains the five stages of Todorov's narrative theory: Original equilibrium, distruption, recognition, attempt to restore and new equilibrium.
The original equilitbrium is the opening image of Taylor presented as a typical teenage girl sat at her window. This is a very relatable image of normality for the target audience. The distruption is the entrance of the male false hero. This representation is again relatable for the audience and typical of the genre. The comical and entropic dancing in the chorus is an attempy to restore. This positive image is very typical of the pop genre. There is also a flash back to what a sign shown in the video labels: 'Happy days', this is also a attempt to restore a happy normality. 

The new equilibrium is found when Taylor returns to her window. This happy ending for the hero is very typical of the genre; pop videos rarely have negative endings.

How we will use similar narrative features in our music video
In order to establish our artist as a hero and likeable character, we are going to use close up head shots, similar to those used in the Taylor Swift video. Presenting our character in this way will make her relatable to the audience.
In the narrative of our video we are going to use numerous, liminal but relatable female characters who will create a narrative appealing to our young target audience. 

Paloma Faith- 'Picking up the pieces' Narrative analysis

                             Like Nina Nesbitt, Paloma Faith's target audience is young females and the themes in her lyrics are very romantic.
The video abides with Propp's stock character theory through the representation of Paloma as a hero character. This is very typical in pop music videos and is suggested through the frequent close ups of Paloma.
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The male love interest is presented as a false hero, a possible villain and an antagonist character through a symbolic code, similarly used in the Taylor Swift video, that presents antagonist characters in dark colours and poor lighting.

The video does in some ways follow Todorov's theory. The video begins with a very solemn and tense equilibrium when Paloma and the male love interest are in a unhappy relationship. The beginning is therefore already an action code (Barthes) that needs to be reslolved. The unhappiness in the relationship is highlighted by long shots showing Paloma alone and unhappy.

The recognition and disruption occur when the male character loses his temper and seems to give up on the relationship; he is seen aggressively hitting the table and leaving. This is again a very negative representation of this stock character.

The attempt to restore is not very clear in the video. After the disruption and recognition the video just sees Paloma singing emotionally until at the very end of the video the male character returns and kisses Paloma. They then drive off happily into the distance. This is the new equilibrium.

In the video there is evidence of Levi Strauss' theory that media texts contain binary opposites through the opposition of colour and darkness; love and hate; unity and isolation.
Similarly to the Taylor Swift video this video uses frequent close ups to establish the female protagonists as hero stock characters. We definitely want to use this effective narrative feature to make our artist relatable to our young female target audience.

Filming schedule

To insure the filming of our music video will be organized and successful, we have created a filming schedule:

Shots to be filmed on Thursday 25th October

- Phone

- Numbers

- Snakes and Ladders

- Glue

- Tap

- Cupcakes

- Back of heads

- Walking on pavement

- Hat

Shots to be filmed Thursday 8th November

- Lyrics on cards

- Guitar

- Jess performing in assembly rooms

Locations

 Here are our chosen filming locations.

The assembly rooms will be used for the performance aspects of the video. Here is an image of the stage where we will film Jess our performer singing and playing guitar.
We want to show our artist performing in order to present her in a live enviroment that suggested that she is a talented live performer. Seeing the artist performing is a vital part of a music video and a huge convention of our genre. We hope that our artist will be appealing to our target audience through filming in this location.

The market place and the streets around Ludlow will be used for the narrative sections of our video, in which the lyrics are seen on card held be the four girls in our video. The number sequence inspired by the olympic countdown will also be performed around Ludlow. we want to use the town in order to create a relatable feel to the video. We don't want to use eloborate glamourous sets for a music video as we want our artist to seem relatable to our audience like she is just like them. We also feel that Ludlow's small street and old buildings will fit in well with our vintage, quirky mise-en-scene that our target audience will really appreciate.

Health and Safety: Risk Assessment

Potential Dangers	Potential Outcomes	Actions to avoid potential outcomes	Further comments
Tripping over pavement in town centre	Twisted ankle Not a serious injury but must be avoided	Wear sensible footwear, and beware of where we are walking at all times
Filming in a public place, bumping into other people due to  over crowded.	This could result in someone falling over which may cause someone to hurt their ankle or have small grazes.	Choose a day to film when the market is not there which means, Ludlow should not be to over crowd.	Generally beware of public walking around Ludlow when filming.
Potential road accidents such as getting hit by car when filming on the pavement.	This could result in a serious injury such as broken bone, if the car is traveling fast it could be very serious.	Make sure we stay far away from the edge of the pavement when filming to prevent getting to close to any passing cars.	We should choose to film in quieter places in Ludlow where there aren’t too many passing cars.
Weather conditions, heavy rain means ground will become slippery so it may be easy for someone to slip. Windy weather conditions means the camera will be less stable.	This could result in someone falling and hurting themselves. Due to the wind we may drop the equipment and filming will not be as clear as it hard to film in bad weather conditions	Check weather forecast before recording. If it is wet underfoot, sensible footwear should be worn to prevent slipping.
When filming in the assembly rooms it may be crowded if there is a performance on, could result in someone tripping.	This may result in someone hurting there ankle or getting a graze.	Choose a day to film in the assembly rooms when its not busy and there isn’t a performance on at the same time.
Falling of stage in the assembly rooms	Could result in a serious injury such as braking a bone, but this not likely to happen.	Make sure everyone is aware of the size of the stage, and don’t perform to close to the edge.	We are only going to do a small amount of filming in the assembly rooms which means we should limit the amount of risks which may occur.

Time Management

  Here is the time management calendar I have created on 'ical'. The calender shows the key tasks that need to be completed for my coursework.

Props

Here is a table showing the props needed for our music video and were we will source them from. The table effectively helps us to organize which member of the group is responsible for which prop. This effective organization will hopefully result in a successful music video.

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard for our music video created on iMovie. The video storyboard shows the shot types and basic editing of our video.

Pitch feedback

After we presented our pitch to the rest of the class, we carried out a feedback questionnaire. Here are the questions we asked; the feedback we recieved and what we have learnt and gained from this feedback.

1. Why do you think our concept is appropriate for our genre?

'The genre is appropriate to you genre as its quite unique and different which that genre normally tends to be'
'Its quite quirky and different'
'The mood board links well with the kind of music- quite quirky'
'Concept is quite quirky/eccentric-fits in with genre conventions'

The response to this question is very positive; the class seem to understand the relationship we have aimed to create between our concept and 'quirky', 'eccentric' genre.


2. What aspects of our concept do you think will appeal to our target audience?

'Style of clothes'
'The style of the video and how its quite eccentric and very feminine'
'The quirkiness, jumpiness (editing) and fashion'
'Quite a girly music video; this appeals to female target audience.'
'Style of clothes'
'I could imagine students listening to this genre of music.'

From the feedback, we can see that the styling and editing ideas for our video are the features that the class feel will appeal to our target audience the most.


3. Do you feel that our concept presents an appropriate brand image for our artist? Why?

'Yes because the concept fits in with the conventions of the genre.'
'Focus on fashion and style, appropriate branding technique for the artist.'
'Appropriate brand image, very entropic therefore relate well with this genre and individuality'

Again the class had fed back the idea that the 'entropic', eccentric and 'individual' features of our planned mise-en-scene will communicate an effective and appropriate brand image.

4. Do you think our locations are appropriate for our song?

'Yes, genre normally set in a rural, quite area.'
'The busyness of the town and the people on the streets will contribute to the jumpy feel of the video.'

As supported by Goodwin's theory that 'music videos demonstrate typical characteristics of the artist's genre' the class agree that our chosen locations will suit the genre of our song.


5. Do you think our lack of narrative is effective and appropriate for our song, genre and target audience?

'The lack of narrative lets you focus more on the song'
'The lack of narrative makes the video clear and simple'
'It ties in with the abstract nature of the genre'
'Yes as most other video of the same genre have little narrative.'
'It's quirky'.

The class feel that the lack of a clear narrative in our video will be a very effective, 'abstract', 'quirky' and 'clear' feature which will suit our genre and target audience.

The overall response from our questionnaire is very positive and has highlighted some of the ideas that the class particularly like e.g. The styling; the editing; the quirky and vintage mise-en-scene.

Pitch

The pitch from GraceGrier

Here is the pitch on our music video ideas that we presented to the rest of our media class.

Audience Profile

Audience Demographic
Age- 16-23
Gender- Female
The young females in our target audience would most likely be in the demographic band E as students.
They will probably be studying for creative/ artistic degrees or qualifications.

I have created a mood board visually representing my target audience with images that show their media and lifestyle interests; their loyalty to particular brands and cultures.