Applying narrative to your text - Music video

Applying narrative to your text - Music video


The song from the music video lyrically tells a narrative, which in this case is centred around the subject of love. The audience is placed in a position in which they are led to admire the singer, as the video consists of continuos images on her and the camera barely comes away from her. This automatically leads the audience to look at her, relate to her both in character and personality.


The narrative is organised and structed in time with the song as her expressions throughout the video compliment the music, making the lyrics one of the main focuses in the song, which reflects the artist professionally as it is the lyrics she wants people to connect with.


In AS I wanted my audience to connect with my artist both musically and in personality. This way I'm able to reach my target audience. I achieved this aim by constructing my character in a way that suited both audiences, for example the confident, assertive hip hop artist with the fashionista, stylistic girly girl side. This leads the audience to not stereotypically take upon their cultured view of a natural hip hop artist and to in fact, connect with the artist more and therefore be intrigued to know more.


In order to portray the narrative of the lyrics effectively I had to ensure I incorporated sound/music, mise en scene, editing and other technical features. Sound/music was literally just the music which consisted of different tempos, fast and slow parts, loud and quiet and a variety of instruments each which supported the lyrics in portraying the narrative and correct meaning. Mise en scene - reflects character. Editing - close up shots throughout, shots of Eve singing lyrics.


Closed narrative - end of lyrics, end of story.


In terms of lyrics, some link to the setting, with the water and the magical feel created within the music. Some lyrics were emphasised such as the high frequent word 'animal' but the main focus was placed upon the artist to create the 'star image'.


Mise en scene


The studio setting may aspire to the audience as they want to be 'like her' and be well known - like most people want to be, however this effect wasn't created purposely, it's merely there to emphasise that Eve T is upcoming and professional; therefore people should take her, and her music seriously without stereotyping.


The lake setting suggests innocence and puts the artist in a vulnerable position as we connote the outdoors with words such as freedom and innocence; however Eve is out on her own, which puts across this vulnerable image of a girl and perhaps reflects the industry she's in and how difficult it is - may reflect her journey into becoming a star - Roland Barthes 'The semantic code' - audience combines the location, artist and song together to create a batch of feelings and perhaps an emotional attachment to the artist even though Eve doesn't actually ask for help, the audience wants to. - Andrew Goodwin - mixture of amplification and disjuncture. - Steve Archer 'Videos tend to only suggest story lines and focus on fragments of the lyrics'.


Objective character identity - one characters point of view and story is shown...if the audience wants to know more about her...listen and watch more of her songs/music videos.


-Narrator and protagonist - she tells the lyrics and story in a way that she is leading and she is dominant - she is the main focus and she will tell her own point of view - reflects her strong character.


-Narrative and perhaps conceptual (Firth 1988)