Narrative, Plot and Storyline

Within one of our exam questions (1b) we are required to select one of our own productions and evaluate it in relation to media concepts. These concepts include:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

At first glance, the only one which seemed a little unusual to me due to the fact we have specifically studied it yet was 'media language'. However upon further inspection, it became clearer that actually 'narrative' was a concept in which held scarce knowledge about; you just assume it means the story.

So What is Narrative?
~ What distinguishes narrative from other forms is that it presents information as a connected sequence of events.
~ Progression - it links it all together.
~ The most basic narratives are linear - arranged in a straight line-like sequence (ABCDE). It is structured logically and is easy to follow as everything seems to make sense.
~ Many narratives sturcture their sequences causually; each event logically follows on from the previous one; each event causes the next event.
~ The majority are recountedin past tense.
~ Narative Hook: it should serve to intrigue the audience and give them a reason to keep on watching. This is often achieved through the use of an Enigma or McGuffin.
~ Most contain 'seeds' of the theme, which develop and grow later on.
~ Films which do not follow the conventions of a familiar genre can be harder to get into, as they have the potential to alienate the audience
~ Whilst sometimes it is the Director's intention to alienate the audience, most film openings incorporate generic conventions.

What is the difference between a story and a plot?
~ Films usually consist of events which are explicitly shown onscreen and events which are inferred to have happened off screen.
~ The Plot: everything that the film explicitly shows
~ The Story: the chronological order if all events explicitly shown and inferred.

Boris Tomashevsky
~ He suggested that the plot can be seen as the aesthetic arrangeent of ideas that teh firector wishes to bring to the attention of the reader.
~ So effectively the best bits of the characters' lives.
~ I think it is easy to follow this theory, as often with any film you watch, it is the conventional markers you see which move the plot along; you don't see the fill in bits of everyday life - which is just aswell really as you'd need the film in constant realtime, and would end up with a year long film!

Lion King
~ Is a good example, as we don't see many of the back stories - such as how Pumbaa and Timone met, how Scar and Mufasa were like as cubs, how Zazu became Mufasa's assistant etc.
~ We natually fill in the missing parts and details
~ However they did make some sequels following the success of the first film, so some of the holes are filled, but of course not all.

So it is now a whole lot clearer to me what measures to take when elaborating on the concept of Narrative within my exam question - there's a lot more to it than I thought!

Textual Analysis of Everything's Changed - Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran

'Everything has changed' is a mellow country/pop/indie combination from a collaboration of Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran. The concept surrounds two young children who represent their older, singing counterparts (Ed and Taylor) and follows the development of their friendship.

There is a strong connection between the lyrics, music and the visuals in the fact that the narrative closely follows the concept of friendship and getting to know someone better. For example, the boy and girl are at the beginning of their friendship, and they are both starting a new day at school - there is lots of reference to new beginnings. Following this, there is a direct link to the boy's appearance; when Taylor sings, "And all I've seen since 18 hours ago is green eyes and freckles and your smile in the back of my mind making me feel like" whereby there is a side-on mid-shot of the young boy drinking from a flask, highlighting his freckles and green eyes, followed by a shot of the young girl smiling. From this, we can assume that the girl in character is singing or thinking about the boy, so the concept of love is also active.

This kind of link is made throughout the whole video, as we come to learn more about the characters, which follows the theme of the lyrics, "I just want to know you better". We come to gather that they are both typical to their gender stereotypes; the girl is very neat, tidy and precise whereas the boy is more abstract and wild. For example, whilst decorating cookies in their class, the girl arranges a very sophisticated and neat double layered biscuit, whilst the boy is showing just piling everything and anything on his. This could have subtle references to the kind of people they are now, which they are trying to put across in the video to show their personalities. In terms of their current star images, lots of very subtle references are made, for example, when the girl is pretending to give the boy a tattoo, the boy drawing in orange in his book (one of Ed Sheeran's trademarks - ginger hair/orange in general) and when they are both doing yoga instead of running aroud like the other children. I think the idea was to set them apart from the others to show that they have always been different, and that that's not necessarily a bad thing.

There is a very slight reference made to the notion of looking, but it is more an admiration/awe rather than sexual desire - when the boy is painting the girl whilst she dances. Little occurances like this are made throughout, again when the boy is reading to the girl and she is looking up at him, and again when he plays the guitar for her.

We do not see any shots of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift until the end of the video where it is revealed that they are actually each child's parent. This is a twist to the audience, as prior to this it is hinted that the duo are playing the young Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, but we discover that they are actually their children, and prehaps their relationship could mirror their parents one - they could bring them together. It leaves on a real cliffhanger, as it seems like the children have such a lovely relationship that perhaps their parents would get on really well too.

Overall, I really love how the concept and narrative work so well together in this video, and the cating was perfect - the roles of the children were really convincing and it suited the song and genre perfectly.