Narrative Essay

‘Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to narrative’ In this essay I am going to show how my a2 music video production can be related to narrative using theorists and how it relates to my work. My A2 music video is Monster by the Automatic and I will show how this relates to theorists within the narrative subject. The theories I will discuss are Andrew Goodwin’s, Pam Cook’s, Todorov, Levi-Strauss and Carlson, in relation to my A2 music video project.

Firstly Todorov's relation to my a2 music video using his 5 stages within a music video to do with narrative. The five stages are equilibrium, disruption of the equilibrium recognition of disruption, action against the disruption and restoration of the new equilibrium. My A2 music video has used this theory quite closely and followed it quite well, firstly the equilibrium is the band performance at the start with us all playing our instruments, then the disruption was the killing of our 5th band member by the cookie monster so this is the problem which has occurred. Recognition of our disruption was that we found out that our band member was missing and then found a wanted poster for the monster and put two and two together. Action against the disruption is that we all got ready and set out to catch the cookie monster for our missing friend. The last point is not used in our music video so its ambiguous it ends on us catching him and keeps the audience interested and wanting for more. Using Todorov’s theory in relation to narrative within my A2 music video we have used the structure effectively but also challenged it with the ambiguous ending.

Pam cook’s states that mainstream narratives include a ‘high degree of narrative closure’. This is closely related to my A2 music video project and how it shows a firm resolution at the end. In my A2 music video of monster by the automatic the end scene is the band catching the cookie monster, this is a resolution of the full video as that is what we aimed to do because of our missing friend, which follows Pam Cooks theory of narrative closure. The ending also uses a net over the camera signifying we have caught the monster this also shows we have followed Pam cooks theory of narrative closure in our A2 music video as we have caught the culprate of our missing friend which is the cookie monster.

 ‘Binary Opposites’ is a key theory made by Levi Strauss, this in close context means basically good v evil and this is portrayed in my A2 music video. The use of his theory of binary opposites is shown through my good v evil theme in the video, this includes the band being good and the cookie monster being evil, as he has caused our friends disappearance. Another point is in our band we all use the same outfits so this shows us as a social group like all having similar indie taste wearing dull clothing and skinny jeans etc. in relation to our genre; on the other hand the cookie monster outfit is all bright and fluffy in relation to sesame street this is showing an easily distinguishing binary opposites which therefore is following Levi Strauss’s theory.

 Carlson’s theory of Music video’s shows that there are many types of clips these include narrative based, performance, and artistic and conceptual clips. In my A2 music video I have used only 2 of these, performance and narrative based style clips. Within my music video I have used an integration of these two clips such as band performance and then the cookie monster story of how we catch him. This is showing we follow Carlson’s theory but also challenge his work, as we don’t use all of his conceptual clips/shot’s. Also in my A2 music video our lead singer is Carlson’s relation to televised bard using meat shots to tell the story to the audience, main character more or less.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory of ‘Narrative relations are highly complex’, this is stating that in different cultures it may not be understood or maybe took in the way other cultures such as ours take it. For instance the humour factor of our video with the cookie monster outfit chasing a band member funnily like prowling through the tress maybe seen as funny in our culture but in other cultures it may be seen as quite a scary sequence therefore showing narrative relations are quite complex and should be taken into account. Another relation to Goodwin’s theory is the cookie monster outfit as it American other cultures outside the region may not see the relevance to sesame street with the playing with the title taking the cookie monster as the monster. So all in all using Goodwin’s theory to explain narrative in my A2 music video I have challenged it and also followed it.