LEARNING INTENTION; To compile and narrow down a narrative and performance idea for a chosen song.

KEY TERMS: narrative, performance, amplified, illustrative, disjunctive, star image, edit to the beat, lip sync, MES, locations, anachronic, linear, montage.

Remember:

• 3″ to 3.5″ is doable….any longer than 4″ you are almost doubling your work load.
• Is it Warner Music Group? – It could be taken down.
• Do you have some performers, actors in mind who could play and lip sync?
  • Think “Grain of voice!”
• Is the narrative ‘doable’ with your equipment/mise-en-scene/actors/performers and locations available?
• No swear words – find clean versions.

Also:

• No references to drinking or smoking
• No filming in moving cars
• No inappropriate language
• No sex or sexual references
• No fires
• No swimming

Using a 4 page slide show and having listened to several songs, and taken on board the advice about choosing a song, find one that you have a  ‘doable vision’ for.

Slide 1: Embed the MP3/or Embed the lyric video – but not the actual video with the star performing the song

Slide 2:  Add in the written lyrics.

Slide 3: Complete a word cloud with @ 20 descriptive words, adjectives, adverbs, nouns that come to mind when you listen to the song (use the synesthetic approach)

Slide 4: Complete a brief slide description of the narrative and what will happen – be inventive and yet make it ‘doable’ – remember to precis/summarise it as you did with the  tag lines/chapter headings from the narrative exploration post.  PLUS IMAGES

• MES – costumes, locations, make up etc ? including images
• Narrative type – amplified, illustrative, disjunctive etc
• Narrative structure – anachronic, linear, episodic/montage etc

Slide 5: Complete a brief slide description of the performance and where this might take place – PLUS IMAGES

• MES – costumes, location, make up etc including images

Focus Forward

Once this is complete you will find out who is in your group and you will pitch your own idea to each other and then choose one to carry on and complete a really full, detailed pitch that you will present to your teacher.

LEARNING INTENTION:  To explore how narratives can be inspired by a song.

KEY TERMS:  disjunctive, amplified, illustrative, episodic, linear, thematic, anachronic

You will need to learn about the relationship between the ideas / themes in a song and the “narrative” in a in music videos.

The classic, ‘Boy meets Girl’ is acceptable but worn and cliched, so is the graveyard scene mourning the dead lover.

We want you to try and plan and film some more cutting edge, intriguing and experimental narratives.

Remember, most narratives use ‘conflict’ to drive the narrative, such as: law vs criminality, love v obsession, entrapment v freedom… etc. Remember, these can be described as “Binary Oppositions” (Levi Strauss), so always try and think about the central conflict in your narrative – it creates the drama, intrigue, excitement.

TASK

Play some the narrative games – bingo and go fish.

Then complete the following and reflect in your post.

Blog Post

Choose 3 videos with clear narratives.  Embed them all separately in your blog.

You could choose ones that we have previously suggested but not that you have already analysed.

• How does the video interpret the lyrics in a visual narrative?
• Overview of the structure:  Episodic? Thematic? Anachronic?
  • Episodic: a video which uses key episodes in a story to quickly communicate a theme / message
  • Anachronic: many music videos include flashbacks and don’t stick to a chronological time frame – they may jump about in time and space.
  • Thematic:  will probably amplify the lyrics and illustrate the ideas in visual metaphors / visual poetry.
• What is the story – in a nutshell? – 4 to 5 sentences.
  1. Beginning
  2. Complication
  3. Development
  4. Crisis
  5. Resolution
• How is the audience supposed to feel at the end of the video and why might they wish to watch it again or share it on their socials?

Over to you & Focus Forward

Then come up with three of your own quirky , poetic, metaphorical, odd, surreal…narratives that you could summarise in a snappy headline – like a Chapter Heading.

You could use the ideas inspired by the narrative games we played… Then in 1 – 2 sentences sum up the focus / theme / binary of the narrative.

These are actual narratives used by previous students, but summed up in 2 – 3 simple sentences. You should endeavour to be able to do the same with your chosen narratives.

LIFE IS A GOLDFISH BOWL – a man is a spectator in life, trapped in a cycle of tedious routine, until he breaks the glass goldfish bowl that he looks at every night and can then metaphorically and literally break out of his entrapment and finally find his freedom.  Freedom v Entrapment = Binary Opposition.

NEVER PRESUME – a child is playing pooh sticks and without fail the stick appears. However, as an adult when he plays it, the stick does not appear. Never presume that what has gone before will happen as a given. Certainty v Uncertainty = Binary Opposition.

ALONE AND BAKED OFF – a person is making a cake – we follow its construction from buying the ingredients to decorating it…..and in the end they sit waiting for someone to join them to eat it but no one arrives.  Loneliness v Friendship = Binary Opposition.

THE MONSTER WITHIN – a mad scientist struggles but eventually succeeds to wake up his beautiful robot assistant.  Despair v Hope = Binary Opposition.

LIFE FLASHES BY – a man in a coma, relives all his experiences through his senses – everything he has tasted, smelt, seen, heard and touched. In doing so, he is revived.  Past v Future = Binary Opposition.

GET ME OUT OF HERE – a young girl is suffocated by domestic restrictions of her old fashioned parents. A silent, uninspiring tea time, leads her to break free and at the same time destroy the dolls house she has lived in.  Suffocation v Freedom = Binary Opposition.

20TH CENTURY CAVE MAN – a group of Neanderthal men dance and worship a god in anticipation of a tribal war. This is cross cut to man now, still tribal, still a warrior as we see a group of men brandishing weapons, burning books – they are the same men in the cave.  Past v Present = Binary Opposition.

GRASS IS NEVER GREENER – A man submerses himself in a rough sea and disappears from view. He resurfaces in a plush hotel pool surrounded by rich people and luxury. He wanders around the sunbeds unable to find comfort – disliking the cocktails, being bored by the conversation.  He dives back into the pool and then re-emerges on the beach.  The grass is not always greener on the other side.