Planning: Outline of narrative

What was the task? Why did you do it?

As a duo, we analysed the lyrics, and identified how the narrative will develop according to each line and beat and we applied our idea to the theories we previously learnt. This allowed us to identify how we wanted each scenario to form, and what part each one should come in.

Themes

• Self- Disruption
• Youth
• Love
• Morality
• Addiction
• Consumerism
• Happiness

Apply idea to theory

Goodwin's theory:

Our idea will be associated with Goodwin's theory as we will follow the features he has identified which include: genre characteristics, a relationship between lyrics and visuals, intertextual reference, and star image motif, performance, narrative or concept.

• Genre characteristics:  Alternative/ Blues genre: The female artist will have a light makeup to portray her as a sophisticated woman and also to attract the male audience and make her relatable to the female audience. The themes, including love and mystery, the hair and makeup, the iconography of alcohol and cigarettes will be the main focus as well as the bracelet that the main artist will throw in to the river. The setting we will use are conventional for the narrative and genre of the music video.

• Relationship between lyrics and visuals: The visuals will reflect the lyrics as the song repeats ‘Spend your time on me', which will be reflected through the visuals as there will be a shot of a clock overlaid into the main character when she lips sync. The lyrics and the visuals will match as the singer will discuss love and wanting to have someone by her side while she looks for it around the city. The music and the visuals will match too as the song has a slow pace and we intend on making the music video slow too in order to let the audience absorb the narrative and concept behind the visuals.

• Intertextual reference: We intend on having an intertextual reference to Titanic. In one of our shots the female artist will throw a bracelet into the river which references the last scene of Titanic. We believe that using intertextual reference will make the video have a deeper meaning and attract a wider audience.

• Star image: During the scenes, there will be close ups of the artist as she performs. As the main character is a young female, this will engage the viewers more, because they can relate to her and her addiction issues. They will also feel pity as they see someone who is clearly struggling. 

• Performance, narrative, concept: The narrative is quite conventional and common, however we made sure that the lyrics relate to the narrative and some aspects to people in everyday life such as self-destructive behaviour and looking for affection. Throughout the video we will ensure that the artist will lip sync. The concept of the video will address the issue of troubled adults, which the audience can understand and perhaps relate to.

Dyer's theory:

Our artist will be portrayed as a star although she will promote her moral ideologies throughout the music video. As suggested by Dyer ‘A star should be ordinary and extraordinary’, meaning that we will portray our artist as someone you can relate to, for example her drug addiction and emotional issues, but extraordinary because she will be a talented singer.

 Adorno’s popular culture/true art theory:

Our music video will represent our artist as original like the actual artist of the song, who has her own style of performing. Our artist will go against hegemony by looking and behaving differently to other mainstream artists. However, the narrative of my music video will be conventional and will be understandable to the audience. Therefore, I will ensure that I follow the popular culture theory by making my music video conventional and appealing to the working and middle class audience.

Aristotle

The themes of youth, morality and consumerism are very common within todays society and people will be able to identify with it. The theme of youth will evoke audience’s emotion as they will feel nostalgic about their own past, which will gain the artist a sympathetic response. The idea of morality will engage the audience as they will be able to judge the decisions the artist takes and actively respond to the product. Lastly the theme of consumerism is very applicable to today’s society. Clearly the artist is rejecting all her possessions and shows that products are not important and don’t give you happiness.

Video Narration

When we analyzed the lyrics of our song we realized that the theme of youth and consumerism is widely prominent within our video and is subtly portrayed through small hints. These will be portrayed throughout the narrative.

The opening shot of the video will be an establishing shot of Westminster, London to introduce the setting and straight away propose wealth as the place is full of rich historical landmarks and attractions. The camera then pans across to introduce the artist who walks in to start singing. At first it will be a long shot in order to show her sophisticated costume but as she approaches a mid-shot will capture her lip syncing. Her costume, body language, make up and elegant setting will imply her financial success and career success which can imply to the audience that she is satisfied with her life and happy with herself, especially at such a young age. During the singing the audience will be able to sense that something is wrong. The artist will have a worried/ fed up facial expression which will leave the audience in apprehension as they are not yet aware why she is unhappy.

At the middle of the first verse the artist sings “Because we’ve got our love”. At that time, she approaches a bridge, which is captured by a long shot. A close up then captures her doubtful facial expression and a bracelet which she throws away. The iconography of a bracelet is clearly significant to her and plays a possible representation of someone important in her life. However, by throwing it into the river she actively rejects the feeling and shows that she lacks any emotions at that particular time. it also contrasts the lyrics as the love seemed to be thrown away by her. This action is an intertextual reference to the ending scene of Titanic and we plan to use a similar long shot of the artist back to refer to the love story in the film. After she throws the bracelet away, the artist walks away clearly showing that she has moved on and has no attachments to anyone. As she leaves the bridge a close up captures her inert facial expression while she sings. This helps to convey her lack of feeling and a sense of hopelessness which will evoke pity from the audience and anxiety as the viewer is unaware what she is going to do.

The image cuts into a medium shot of an alley way where the artist stands under a street lamp.  Straight away this hints towards adventurous sexual encounters or even prostitution which shows an insight into the character’s self-disruptive behavior. During that she sings “Because I need your love” to show her desperation and longing for someone to love and nurture but also help her get out of her addictions. As the artist looks up a close ups captures her face with a top light to connote possible hope inside of her or looking up to religion.  She smudges up her make up to show her rejection of the ‘standard beauty’ image and show that she is sick of dominant beauty values or looks. The artist reaches for a bottle of wine and ‘downs’ it from the bottle. In addition to that she starts smoking and a close up captures her lips and smoke escaping her mouth to connote toxic behavior.

During the last verse the artist is lying down on the ground and an aerial shot captures her from above to represent her as a subordinate character and the audience can pity her. The shot will be overlaid with a large clock ticking. Straight away this can imply that her time is running out and that her life is at jeopardy. The frame dissolves into a close up of the female’s back who is walking away from the camera and slowly disappearing until she vanishes and the song comes to an end. This will leave the audience in apprehension as they’re unaware whether she leaves, commits suicide or if she was ever existing. After the screen blacks out we intend to use a quote “I’m not as fine as I seem…” to raise awareness about addictions and touch upon overall issue of people who are fighting with addictions or mental health. 

Conclusion:

Overall, doing this post was highly beneficial for me and my partner because it allowed us to decide on our final narrative. We also spoke about the structure of the song and how we will be shooting different scenes. By planning the narrative, according to the lyrics, we have increased our knowledge regarding the stages our plot will follow. This task also allowed us to think about our idea in more detail, allowing us to remove the small parts that were irrelevant. As a result, as a pair we are now more confident about how our idea and narrative will form itself, and how it will come together at a steady pace. Without planning the narrative, according to the lyrics, we would be unsure of how well our idea would be and whether we would have enough or not enough content to film. We are now aware of the locations we need and how we will film according to the content.