1. Narrative By Samantha Ferguson

2. For our project we are making a promotion package for the release of an album to include a music promo video. The genre of our artist is pop, so the video will have to be suitable for mainstream use with no controversy. Also the image we are trying to create for our artist is young, innocent and perhaps a little vulnerable so our video will have to reflect this to successfully establish her image.

3. The Plot The story behind the song we have chosen is a girl trying to get over a break up with her boyfriend, its called ‘When will it end.’ The main bulk of out video will be a performance by the artist. In an empty theatre, to create the atmosphere of her feeling alone. During this there will be flashbacks in black and white; of her with her boyfriend, when they were happy and maybe also during the break up. At the end of the video when her performance is over the camera switches back to the empty theatre seats and her boyfriend can be seen in one of the seats, however he is in black and white so the audience realise its just her imagination.

4. Research I have looked at certain music videos that follow the same criteria that we would like our video to follow. One is Leona Lewis’ first single, ‘A moment like this.’ Although it is not the same image we want to put across for our artist, it uses the same flashback effects that we want to use as it shows her x factor journey. It also features the theatre performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3kAsUB6nFA&feature=related There aren’t many music videos that share this convention but I found that it could also be compared to Michael Jackson’s music video for ‘you are not alone.’ This again uses the empty theatre performance along with narrative clips, and the song also tells a similar story to our artist’s, ‘when will it end.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8rYl6K2STc

5. Further Research I have studied many narrative theories and tried to compare the typical conventions of these to the music video we wish to create and I have found that Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions was closest to our narrative. His theory suggests that all meaning within the text is gathered from understanding binary oppositions, or a conflict between two sets of things. For example: The artists past vs. The artists future The artists feelings vs. Reality The artist vs. Her partner All of these explain the story of the song as the artist is battling with herself to try and move on. Our video can also be correctly applied to Barthes theory of the ‘enigma code’ wherein the narrative continuously sets up puzzles to be solved. Our narrative links with this because the story keeps switching back and forth causing the audience to question what’s happening or happened before. Also, even the title of the song is an enigma, ‘When will it end?’