Narrative Structure

The basic story line to music video starts with our main character entering a house party, at the party she encounters a different story within every room, but things go from bad to worse. However, part way through the video, a modulation occurs and at that point everything is reversed so all damage is undone.

Themes we counter in our narrative include drinking, drug taking, relationships, and being isolated/alienated. All of these are important in our 21st century society so for instance, it is common for people to go out on weekends (or even weekdays) and drink, some may even take some form of illegal substances, some may be drinking to forget whilst others maybe drinking for the social occasion. These issues are key for the audience we are aiming this at (18-24 year olds), and the idea is not to glamorise drink/drugs, but rather raise awareness the implications that both these things may cause. While a house party may look good on the outside, what's happening inside is another story and that is what we're trying to covey. Relationships are also prominent with 18-24 year olds, and so is the feeling of being isolated, often youths may feel forgotten about, like the weight of the world is on their shoulders, so it is an important topic to review. Essentially, the messages and values we are trying to put across are do not take drugs, drink only to your limit (not excessively) because unlike our music video, you cannot un-do what has been done.

Our music video contains equilibrium in accordance with theorist Todorov who suggested that there are five stages in a narratives progression;
1) Equilibrium
2) A Disruption
3) A Recognition of the disruption
4) An attempt at repairing the disruption
5) A new equilibrium
In apply Todorov's theory to our music video, it is clear the music video starts with an equilibrium, a female guest has arrived at a party alone and merely walks through different rooms to meet other acquaintances, so everything is neutral and peaceful, However, people start drinking, a relationship breaks down and it is hinted that somebody has died; This is our disruption. Suddenly, there is no more equilibrium, everything is unsettled and out of balance, it is disrupted. Our main character recognises a disruption and this is signaled to the audience at the point in which the bottle is dropped from the suspected dead character. The repairing of the disruption follows when the reversal starts, this then undoes everything that has happened, the deceased character comes back to life, the couple's relationship goes back to the way it was and most importantly all of the alcohol returns back into its original cups/bottles. Therefore, after this when everything has been undone, a new equilibrium is formed and all of the damage done has been reversed, but there is still a feeling of uncertainty lurking when the main character leaves the party, so the equilibrium differs slightly from the beginning. The five stages could only be possible by using a circular narrative; that is starting and ending in the same way, so it comes about in a full circle. Our production starts with our main character entering the house and it ends with the same character leaving the house through the same door in which she entered.

Moreover, the music video contains codes which were developed by Ronald Barthes and he stated there are five important codes;
1) Enigma code - Setting up puzzles
2) Action code - Making actions understandable through microscopic detail
3) Semic Code - Connotations
4) Symbolic code - things that represent a wider theme/idea
5) Cultural code - Historical Context
In our video, we have used the action code, symbolic code and cultural code. Firstly, the action code; We have used jump cuts in the edit to infer things to the audience such as travelling, so for instance if a character is walking up the stair case we have jump cut this as to infer that the character has walked up the stair case rather than showing it. For us, this saved a lot of time as there were many walking shots to transition between the rooms, and the audience interpret to understand that a character has done the transition without having to fully show it. The symbolic code mainly comes from the costumes, by way of example the main character is wearing a lightly coloured fur coat, suggesting she is innocent, whereas if this had been a red or black coat the connotation would have been the opposite. Lastly, the cultural code is very dominant in our video, as an audience member, you can tell by the costumes, the technology (phones), and the interior of the house that this is from a modern 21st century.

Binary opposition is a key feature of our video and were developed by a theorist named Claude Levi-Strauss. The biggest opposition is between our main character and everyone else she encounters. We always see the main character rather isolated whilst everyone else is socialising/interacting with one another, it is almost as though she is not wanted there, like she is a social outcast. This is made very apparent at the end of the video when she leaves via a hallway and everyone is in her way, she is made to feel intimidated by everyone starring at her. We only ever see things from this characters perspective and from what we see all the other characters are with somebody, but she isn't; she arrives by herself and similarly leaves by herself. The binary opposition is also reinforced through the camera work; We follow the main character through point of view or over the shoulder shots, so to immerse the audience to see everything from her perspective, so we as an audience member are made to feel as though the other characters are constantly looking at her. The fact that we never see her face also contributes to the opposition and enigma.

Moreover, the video is a linear structure meaning it is in chronological order. We would not have been able to have completed this project in a non-linear structure as the story has to be told in order for the reversal to work and make sense, if not the story would be confusing and much harder to follow. The narrative is multi-stranded as there are different stories that happen at the same time. We chose this because it keeps the audiences interests, and there is more to follow and these stories all come together for a conclusive ending. We have incorporated a filmic scene at the beginning of the video whereby our main character walks to the door before the music plays, we decided this so we could get shots of her walking to the door showing of her costume so the audience build up their judgement before the music has even begun.

Overall, we have used many narrative techniques in our production to help our characters develop and for the audience to have a better understanding of them. I also feel that this gave us a better understanding of how to use the different techniques and what they do.