Music video idea

For the music video i am going to make, I have decided to work with Joseph Richardson. Here is a link to his blog: http://josephrichardsonmediastudiesblog.blogspot.com/

For the music video, we have decided to use the song "Six Six Sixties" by Throbbing Gristle. This is a song by a very unconventional band, and this song is off of their most accessible album. The idea behind the album was for the band to be unconventional by being conventional, as the band was criticised for being extremely predictable. They also used the name "20 jazz funk greats" for the album along with a normal looking album artwork to trick some people into buying the album. This means that we can create a conventional music video for the song, and it would seem authentic as it follows the idea for the album.

The song we have chosen has a sinister feel to it, so we have decided the visuals of the video to be like a thriller. The idea at the moment is to have an individual walking around an industrial estate with cuts to a close up of the vocalist on particular lines of the song. We are currently planning to have a narrative in the music video, the person walking through the industrial estate starts to appear more edgy throughout the video. This is because he can sense that he is being watched by someone, this person will be the vocalist. At the end of the video the vocalist will attack the other character before the video then concludes.

Here is the song:

My Group

For the A2 project, I have decided to work in a group with Joseph Richardson, candidate number 5114, I have pinned a link to his blog onto mine. Here is another link to the blog:

http://josephrichardsonmediastudiesblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Applying Narrative theory to a music video

There are many music videos that have a narrative, and considering that it is very possible that the video i am going to make may have a narrative, i thought it would be a good idea to study narrative within music videos. To see if there a link between narrative in music videos and narrative in film, I am going to apply Todorov's and Propp's theories to a music video to see if there any similarities. I am going to use the music video of "Feelin This Way" by Mikar-The-Vipar here is a link of the video:



Todorov's theory suggests that there are five parts to a narrative. The first of which is a state of equillibrium at the begginning of the narrative. This does happen in the video, and this is the point in where Mikar has not yet met the girl yet. The second part of the theory is that a diruption occurrs within the narrative. This happens when Mikar realises that he likes the girl in the video. The next stage is a recognition of the disruption, and this happens during the part where you see Mikar hanging out around bars and playing pool. The penultimate stage is that there is an attempt to repair the disruption. This does happen in the video but it doesn't exactly end well for Mikar. This is the point where the girl abandons him. The final stage is when a new equillibrium occurrs, and this is at the stage at the end of the video where Mikar is upset that he has been used by the girl.
This shows that the music video in this case does actually follow Todorov's narrative theory, this could be that case for all music videos with a narrative, but i am going to need to study more videos before i can fully conclude that Todorov's theory applies to music videos as well as film.

Propp's theory suggests that there are a number of character types and in each story the have similar roles. In the music video, there are two characters, and a debateable third. Mikar-The-Vipar is the hero in the video as he leads the narrative, and his quest is to get the girl. The girl can be seen as two character types in this musci video. For the majority of the video she seems to be the Heroin who is the hero's prize for completing his quest, but later in the video she could be seen as the villain for leaving him. The debateable third character is the person who rings the girl causing her to leave Mikar, this person who is presumeably another man the girl is interested or her boyfriend also appears to be a villain within the narrative as they are in conflict with Mikar over the girl. This shows that this music video follows Propp's theory to extent. It does have the main character types, but considering there are only about two characters in the video it doesn't contain all of the character types which Propp identified.