Narrative Theories and Conventions

The Star Image is important as the artist's personality and style have to be promoted but continually adapted and changed to meet audience needs and preferences. So for example, by adopting our 50s style mise-en-scene this manipulates the artist's image with the new single to broaden the appeal to new fan bases by adopting a new style that they may like more than their previous music video images.

Again, the Audio-Visual Technical Codes are again relevant due to the changing pace of the bass within the song and the extended vowels and consonants of long lines in comparison to the shorter chorus lines. The camera shots therefore during the chorus feature more close ups and extreme close-ups especially during the lines which require vocalisation. Whereas the verses contain longer seconds during each shots and shots that are further away such as long shot or extreme long shot that do not require any vocalisation so it is not as important to focus on the mouth. The camera movements follow more active actions during the chorus such as twirling of the dresses or fast poses of the star with hand-held action shots; whereas during the verses the camera movement is more stable with a tripod or more controlled hand-held shots.

Straus's Theory of Narrative can be applied to our music video as we will use the binary opposites of both location and the style of our star. For example, in terms of location we will switch between outside shots and inside shots to meet our genre category of amplification but also portray our 50s theme better. In terms of mise-en-scene we will change from a bright pink dress in the indoor scenes to a black dress and a white faux when our star is outside. This contrast will be effective for our amplifcation narrative. 

Todorov's Theory of Narrative could also be applied to the cut between the performance and narrative. This is because as the video progresses from the location of the bedroom to a perfect 'equilibrium' state of mind to a disequilibrium that is formed as the star becomes more frustrated with her apparent 'lonely' lifestyle which would later be evident in the diner as she sits alone. However, the leave interpretation and stick the conventions of the genre category of amplification a new equilibrium will not be formed but will instead return back to shots in the room in the final chorus where the previous equilibrium began.

Therefore this can also relate to Barthe's Theory of Narrative by using the Enigma Code which will leave the audience questioning the artist's life at the end of the video and how, if ever, her lonely state would be resolved. Also, the Semantic Code could also be applied as we will use different mise-en-scene to represent different emotions or foreshadowing. For example, red lipstick and clothing that will be used may reflect her sexuality and obsession with fame but may also suggests that this will lead to her death - such as with other icons like Marilyn Monroe.