Narrative

Narrative devices

Twist - AFI- Silver and Cold

A twist is something unexpected and it surprises the audience. 

1:51 - Man whose thinking of suicide

3:35- An explosion happening on the streets

In this video there is clearly a twist because throughout the video the centre of attention is the man who is on the edge who is about to commit suicide and it shows how his friends are running to go and save him; however the twist comes in near the end when you see that his friends actually die in a explosion and he just walks off and doesn't even commit suicide. This can make the audience actually quite confused or even shocked. 

Flashback - Justin Timberlake- Mirrors

A flashback is when the protagonist is looking back into the past

1:12- Old people who are the main people

1:25- Flashback to the past when they were young

In 'Mirrors' it follows the story a old husband and wife and how the wife is looking back onto her relationship with him and this causes many flashbacks. This creates more depth for the characters and this helps the audience become more emotionally invested into the video. 

Pathetic Fallacy -Bruno Mars- Grenade

2:13- The rain matching the mood

In this song, there is a very depressing tone to it as he is talking about all these things he would do for this girl but then gets turned away at the end. There are plenty of shots where Bruno Mars is standing in the rain and this adds to the mood of the song. This adds the intensity to the video making it more interesting for the audience.

Todorov

Todorov created a narrative theory where he said was 5 different parts to the narrative:

1. Equilibrium- State of normality
2. Disruption - Something damages the equilibrium
3. Recognition - The character recognizes the disruption
4. Restoring the equilibrium- Trying to solve the problem
5. New equilibrium- A new state of normality.

The Calling- Wherever You Will Go

Equillibruim (0:26) - Right from the start you see the girl looking at a picture of her and her boyfriend and then at 0:26 you see she has a tattoo of her boyfriend's name on her arm.

Disruption (1:14) - At 1:14 you can clearly denote that her boyfriend is sleeping with another woman and this causes a disruption in her life as he is cheating on her

Recognition (1:30) - At 1:30 the woman walks in seeing her boyfriend cheating on her and she recognises the disruption

Trying to restore equilibrium (1:56) - The protagonist is seen throwing all her boyfriend's clothes out of the door and she is seen smashing his things inside the house. This is seen to be her way of trying to repair the damage done to her.

New equilibrium (3:03) - The protagonist is seen walking out of her house with a new boy showing she is now happy and she has restored her equilibrium.

McKee 

McKee is another person who has his own theory on narrative. He also says there are 5 stages to it. 

1. Inciting incident 
2. Progressive complications 
3. Crisis
4. Climax
5. Resolution

Drake- Hold on, We're Going Home

Inciting incident (1:24) - The protagonists girlfriend gets kidnapped and this causes a disruption in the lives of the characters.

Progressive complications (2:56) - It turns out that the kidnapping was part of a revenge scheme and things get worse when the protagonist comes into a room with all his friends to find a load of guns that they are going to use which will no doubt make the situation worse. 

Crisis (4:24) - The characters step outside the car and start shooting at everyone. This is the crisis as when the character sees all the people that are involved in her kidnapping they all go on a shooting spree. 

Climax (6:21) - At this point the protagonist has come  face to face with the antagonist and then shoots him in the head as the antagonist kidnapped his girlfriend and then went on top of her before he got shot. 

Resolution (6:44) - At the end of the video you see the protagonist and his now saved girlfriend walk out looking happy which means they have resolved their problem and created a new equilibrium.