Narrative Terminology

Narrative

'Narrative is defined as "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time" (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980)

Diegesis - The 'world' the narrative is set in that the characters experience and respond to etc.

Story & Plot

Story - all events both referenced both explicitly in a narrative and inferred/suggested through the text

Plot - the events directly incorporated into the presented text and the order in which they occur in

Narrative Range

Unrestricted Narration - A narrative form in which there is no limit to what the piece could be presenting, inferring or informing the audience (most applicable in message pieces such as a feminist supporting media text in which it's purpose although clear can be applied into limitless meanings and interpretations)

Restricted Narration - Only offers the audience with a limited level of information (the direct opposite to an unrestricted narration)

Narrative Depth

Subjective Character Identification - The viewer being able to visual see what each character see's and the action they take within the text

Objective Character Identification - The audience is allowed access into the personal thoughts/feelings/fantasies etc. of a character(s) within the text

This post is supportive both of the music video production and relevant as terminology to be applied to Section A Q:1b within the written exam 

Treatment of Music Video (Proposed/1st Draft)

FEMINARCHY -

Our music video is a collaboration of Beyoncé's music and fragments of speech from interviews with the star. There are three main scenes in our music video. We aim to set the initial scene within a pure white room, with single seated desks for our female dancers/actors to be sat at, at which point after the opening speech of Beyoncé accompanied with short one second cuts from footage from the entire video the title 'Feminarchy' appears in bold white letters, the music starts and the first singer walks from the back to the front of the room, turns and directs her speech to the girls, a hard cut into the next section of music, the second scenes begins, set in dark/black room, the desks have gone and men are sat down in the girls chairs, the girls begin to dance in a derogatory manner, around the men, but not within the 'male gaze' of camera positioning, therefore this footage should appear awkward and uncomfortable to view. The third hard cut is meet and the music from the initial scene is brought back from where it left off, this time the second singer comes forward and speaks amongst the dancers now in freeze frame, the second singer will walk around the girls as if to give the effect of instructing them on there next move. As the song is brought back 'I woke up like this' the girls begin to show empowerment and push the men forward, the men fall and crawl away, the girls gather as one and begin to dance behind the two singers and they sing the final section of the song, the song ends and a loud bass drop (booming sound) is heard, as this happens the scene goes blank/black alongside the effect of an old TV screen tuning out/off.

Forms And Conventions of Music Videos (As According To Andrew Goodwin)

In Andrew Goodwin's 1992 publication 'The Rise of MTV' Goodwin states seven states of forms and conventions found within music videos, these are stated below -

• There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals  (with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics.)
• There is a relationship between the music and visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics)
• Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (such as live stage performances for heavy rock music)
• There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close up shots of the main artist/vocalist
• The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which over time, become part of their star image.
• There is likely to be voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screen with screens, binoculars, cameras etc)
• There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV 

Genre of Music -

(Also relevant to Question 1 Section B of the Media Exam)

Genre is a broad form of definition to a variety of media/literacy texts etc.. In relation to the categorising of music into genres we can most commonly divide music into these genres -

• Pop
• Classical
• Dance/Techno
• R&B
• Hip-Hop/Rap
• Rock
• Metal
• Country
• Blues
• Jazz
• Reggae

Of course this is not an extensive list, simply a list of most commonly recognised music genres. Music is an entirely stretching and arguably limitless group of genres, whilst this can help to 'categorise' music and aid in a media music consumers finding of their preferred music the accuracy of this can most often be flawed. For example music can often feature aspects of a variety of music genres and so in most cases 'hybrid' and 'Sub' genres are most commonly found in music. This is most common in 'Pop' music as it could be  argued that a variety of music styles collaborated into one piece encourage a mass media audience to consume the music and therefore resulting in a 'chart topping' 'pop' piece.

Each music genre has recognisable 'institutional' support, for example performance venues such as 'Nightclubs' for Dance/Techno music and more recently House and 'Dubstep' genres of music, radio stations from the likes of 'Kiss' for 'Pop and Urban genre's of music' and 'Radio 1' for the more soft rock/acoustic/and popular in the charts within the week music etc. Equally music channels such as 'MTV' for chart topping music and 'Kerrang' for Rock/Metal genre music. Further support can also be found in music magazines and festivals which focus on either a variety of combined genres of music (such as festivals to appeal to a mass media audience) or a specified genre of music such as 'Kerrang' for rock/metal genre music.

Crucial for an artist/band is their 'constructed image' (relevant for the ancillary tasks), this being that is will instantly categorises them into a particular genre of music, images of such constructed on the fronts of album/single covers/artwork, other forms of photography and of-course music videos.

Despite artist commonly rejecting being 'categorised' into a particular genre of music, retailers of music find genre a fundamental aspect to selling music due to individuals commonly 'dedicating' themselves to one genre of music. 'iTunes' and 'HMV' for example divide music into genres in order to make the purchasing of music from customers easier and more encouraging to purchase more from that genre that perhaps the costumer was not aware of. Equally online music providers such as 'Pandora' and 'Spotify' will take into account your recent choice of music to suggest or play (when in shuffle/discover mode etc.) music from your recently played genre(s) of music.

Frequently Asked Questions

With regards to the task of creating a music video, alongside the sub pieces of work which follow in the main task, OCR have set out a list of 'Frequently Asked Questions' page to aid candidates throughout the process, below is the list, provided by OCR, I have read through these and in doing so I am now a lot clearer on what is expected from my work in a greater, more detailed perspective and now have a developed understanding on what I am expected to produce.

 

The Three Main Music Video Styles -

Whilst the majority of music videos can be easily categorised into specific genres of music, others tend to 'transcend' genres and feature a variety of genre styles within the music video (commonly refereed to as a 'hybrid genre'). With regards to music videos, they can be categorised into three main groups. Either performance, narrative or concept, examples of which can be seen below -

Performance -

Performance videos are considered to be the 'easiest' music video to produce, these consist of the solo artist/group/band commonly accompanied with instruments/the actual band members playing a guitar/drums/piano etc. and or dancers to accompany the performance. Whilst these videos can be filmed in areas such as studios, live performances also fall into this category of music video and can be seen as an example below of a live 'Performance' based music video.

 

Narrative -

 

A narrative music video features a 'story' formed basis, in which footage, often presented in a linear structure is presented throughout, the telling of a story, such as that in Drake's 'Started From The Bottom' music video, in which Drake tells a personal story of starting from humble beginnings and working his way 'up to the top'. The video features footage from working in a grocery store and working his way up 'to the top' featuring him dressed in gold chains, driving sports cars, living in mansions etc.    

 

 

Concept -

 

concept is arguably the most uncommon form of music video and these can be tricky to identify, however concept music videos feature a 'single idea', there is minimal elements of performance, apart from a singing performance, there should be no dance or/and bands featured within a concept performance. An example of a concept performance can be seen in Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' in which the single idea of 'swapping' places with a person supposedly in heaven is considered.

 

Copyright Application To The Music Video/Promo Task -

Clearly when producing our own music/pop promo music videos when using already published pieces of music we must ensure to stay within the legal boundaries and conform to what the copyright laws require of us, to ensure a fair practise of using already existing material, below is an extract from the examiners report on previous students experience and practise with copyright laws and how current students should improve on this and go about working legally within copyright laws - 

The examiner's report

“For music video, permission should be sought from the artist for use of the audio track.’ Where this rule was breached, centres either didn't comment on the use of found material, or acknowledged its use but did not reflect it in the marks allocated. In these cases significant adjustments were made to construction marks which potentially jeopardised the order of merit in a centre, thereby affecting the outcomes for those candidates who had followed the requirements of the Specification; such a situation may also result in all work being returned to the centre for remarking.”

Copyright Laws - Relaxed

It was revealed only yesterday (Monday 29th October 2014) that copyright legislation in the U.K is to be relaxed, making it easier for amateur artists to legally broadcast there own 'parody' and 'cover' versions of songs, so long as the piece is not in 'direct competition' with the original and so long as the originally track is not fully featured within the interpretation piece.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29408121

Video's such as these can now be broadcast for public entertainment without fear of being banned.

Theoretical Definition of A Music Video

An Introduction To A2 Media Studies