Narrative, Illustration, amplification and disjuncture notes

Narrative, Illustration, amplification and disjuncture notes Advert for the band/artist – that is what a music video is – promotion

Cutting to the beat of the music

Setting reflects the song – happy music, creates that emotion for people about the BMW

Selling an image as well as a product

Narrative

Traditional/Classical, tends to be linear (means chronological order) – exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement

Non-linear = non chronological (time lapse, ellipsis, montage, flashback, flash forward)

Closed ended narrative – has closer at the end (happy or an ending is given by director)

Open ended narrative – ends on some form of cliff hanger or imagination can be used to create an ending (inception)

Circular narrative - narrative finishes where it starts (weapon of choice, fat boy slim) 

Singular-stranded and multi-strand – multi means different number of stories at once and single stranded means one single story line such as one family/actor

Todorov narrative -

Synaesthia – A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualisation of a colour. In music videos what sort of emotions do the lyrics remind people of?

As an audience we look for a start, middle and end – some music videos don’t always follow these, and this means the narrative is never complete which is known as a fragmentary narrative – repeatability of promos.

Andrew Goodwin theory – suggests that music promos can interpret/use the meanings created in the song lyric in one of the following ways:

Illustration – the promo basically illustrates the ideas/narrative in the song lyrics

Amplification – Uses a key idea/image from the lyrics and develops it into a concept within the promo. A link remains between the lyric and the promo – a key theme

Disjuncture – The promo bears no resemblance to the lyric or its meaning, abstract, often seen as unconventional, arty videos – creates a new range of meaning to the song