Narrative theories

The target audience of a media product need to quickly understand what is happening. This can be achieved by having a clear narrative. These are a few ways in which narratives can function:

OPEN- This is where questions remain unanswered and the audience are left wondering what will happen next.

CLOSED- This is where all questions are answered and the audience fully knows what is happening/happened.

LINEAR- The narrative is in order.

NON-LINEAR/FRACTURED- This is where the narrative in out of order e.g. a trailer for a film or use of flashbacks.

SINGLE STRANDED- Only one storyline in the media text/product

MULTI-STRANDED- This is where there are several storylines in an overall narrative for example soap operas.

ROLAND BARTHES

Barthes came up with the theory that we use 5 different narrative codes when analysing media products.

1) Action code
2) Mystery code/Enigma Code
3) The Semic Code
4) The Cultural Code5) Code of Oppositions

In our music video, we plan to use 'The cultural code' in order to make the audience aware of the time period of the artist/single. We are going to make this obvious to the audience by the characters in our video being dressed in typical 60's fashion and also by using props which would of featured in that era.





Shared through: http://www.jorjahlangthorpg324.blogspot.co.uk/