Planning - Outline of Narrative

What was the task? Why did you do it? 

We came together as a group and we analysed the lyrics, identifying how the narrative will develop according to each line and beat and we applied our idea to the theories we previously learnt about. This allowed us to identify how we wanted each scenario to form, and what part each one should come in. 

Evidence of annotated lyrics

Apply idea to theory 

 Goodwin's theory:

Our idea will be associated with Goodwin's theory as we will follow the features he has identified which include: genre characteristics, a relationship between lyrics and visuals, intertextual reference, notion of looking and star image motif, performance, narrative or concept? 

Genre characteristics: 

- Alternative R&B genre: female artist will have dramatic makeup, attractive male characters, Slow song, themes including love and mystery, challenging stereotypes through costume, hair and makeup, iconography, setting etc.

- Relationship between lyrics and visuals: The visuals will reflect the lyrics as the lyrics repeat 'Papi pacify, pacify our love', which will be reflected though the visuals as the males will be on the search for the love interest and will fight for her love. 

- Intertextual reference: Tarot reading- The female artist will reflect a tarot reader through her actions and costume, hair and makeup. 

- Notion of looking: There will be close up's of females and males assets throughout the males. 

- Star image motif: During the scenes, there will be close ups of the artist as she performs.

- Performance, narrative, concept?: The video will be narrative and performance based. 

 Mulvey's male gaze:

This theory will be evident throughout our music video as the female and male characters assets will be captured through close up's and mid shots. 

Dyer's theory:

My artist will be portrayed as a star although she will promote her moral ideologies throughout the music video. The artist’s appearance will also go against hegemony as she will be different, being portrayed as a tarot reader rather than being perceived as a role model. 

 Adorno’s popular culture/true art theory

Though my female artist will not follow the popular culture, due to her not reflecting other mainstream female artists and the mainstream culture, the narrative of my music video will be conventional and will be understandable to the audience. Therefore, I will ensure that I follow the popular culture theory by making my music video conventional and appealing to the working class audience. 

 Hebdige’s subcultures

I intend on targeting my music video to a mass audience through the various themes I use, and the mainstream content. I will also aim my music video at particular subcultures through the characters. Each character will reflect a sub culture through their costumes, iconography, and behaviour. For example, one of the male characters is going to reflect a 'Geek' which is likely to engage the geek subculture to engage with the video, due the characters role. However, we are portraying subcultural values in a subtle manner so our music video still appeals to a mass audience, but can also be appealing to certain subcultures. It is important that we cater for all audiences, rather than simply the mainstream audience. 

Video narration 

From analysing the lyrics, we identified that the themes of love and mystery will be evident throughout the music video, as the characters are linked to the love tarot reader through her power and connection with the males We intend on portraying this in a distinctive way to create adrenaline and excitement for the audience. 

As the music begins, the audience will be introduced to a dark room, the camera will pan across in slow motion and stop when it captures the female artist who will have her face down, and then she will look directly at the camera and sing, captured through a mid shot. The shot will then change as the beat drops to a high angle of the artist laying down tarot cards on the table upside down. The shot will then change to a low angle of the female artist turning over one card. The shot will then change to a library where a male character, a geek, is seen to be sitting in a library reading. The artist will then turn over another card, revealing another male character. the shot will then change to a street where the male character from the tarot card is jogging while listening to music. The two males will then start to feel weird as they begin feeling the connection with the female artist. 

As the fourth verse begins, the camera will capture a close up of the female artist turning over another card with a picture of another male. The shot will then adapt to a dance studio , with the camera capturing a male dancer, dancing, before he hears the tarot readers voice through the stereo and also feels the connection in the same way the other two males did. As the frame adapts to the black room with the Tarot reader, a close up will capture her turning over the final card, revealing a picture of the final male. The shot will then capture the male through an establishing shot, performing martial arts.

When the chorus begins, a tilt shot will capture the female artist casting a spell using her psychic crystal ball, which will have an impact on all the males, identified through their facial expressions an body language. She will begin turning over a new set of cards which will have different words on them including, death, fool etc which will determine how each male is going to lose the fight they will be exposed to, preventing them from winning over the love interest. 

During the 8th and 9th verses, the male characters will all find themselves in a cage, where they will fight against one another in a battle to win the love interest (female artist), every time the male is losing, he will have a piece of his clothing stripped away, illustrating his loss. The geek and the martial artist will fight first through dancing, in a very homoerotic way, with  the martial artist winning and the geek being portrayed as a 'fool' according to the tarot card. The martial artist will then be up against the jogger, with the martial artist winning again, and the jogger dying due to the tarot card predicting him 'death'. He will then be up against the dancer, which will be his most difficult fight, causing him to struggle. However, after a close miss, the martial artist wins, with the dancer being hanged. Each of the males will be eliminated in the ways the tarot cards predict they will. 

As the 10th verse begins, the martial artist will be awarded for his strength,by winning over the love interest who he has proved to that he deserves her love. The couple will then cuddle with the song coming to an end.

Conclusion

Overall, by planning the narrative according to the lyrics has increased our knowledge regarding the stages our narrative will follow. This task also allowed us to think about our idea in more detail, allowing us to remove the small parts that were irrelevant and also encouraged us to identify the major parts of the narrative which we could use to begin each verse. As a result, as a group we are now more confident about how are idea and narrative will form itself, and how it will come together at a steady pace. Without planning the narrative according to the lyrics, we would be unsure of how well our idea would be and whether we would have enough or not enough content to film. We are now aware of the locations we need and how we will film according to the content we need to film.