Narrative structure

When planning our music video, we had to decide if we wanted to create a narrative or performance focused video, or include elements of both. When considering Goodwin's theory that videos generally fall into one of these two categories, we wanted our audience to be reassured that we would focus on one of these as opposed to half committing on either. eventually, we decided to focus on a narrative based video, however we did consider introducing elements of performance into this, but ultimately felt that it would serve the themes and concepts of the video more to focus solely on the narrative, putting emphasis on the fictional protagonist and his internal workings, as opposed to any materialistic real life portrayal of the band or any influences taking away from the immersion within the narrative which we had created. We wanted to really convey the themes of duality and inner morality seen in the narrative, and thought that performance segments could have a negative influence by fluctuating the tone of the video and becoming confusing for the audience.      

We wanted to incorporate a cyclical structure within our narrative, meaning that the opening and climax of the video would be the same event. Our intentions behind this were to emphasise the struggle of the protagonist 'V' through suggesting to the audience that perhaps he was living the same day over and over, possibly metaphorically or even literally trapped in a purgatory forced to exist in his own fragmented psyche. In either case, we wanted to raise the themes of existentialism and urban despair. 

However our narrative could also be interpreted through Todorovs theory of 3 act structure, although changing the overall meaning and themes of the video slightly. 

Equilibrium : 'V' is living his life, travelling the urban maze as a delinquent doing as he pleases                                   causing petty disturbances and damage

Disequilibrium : The character 'H' is introduced, creating a conflict as 'V' is forced to face his                                          opposite and deviate from his previous unchallenged ventures

New Equilibrium : Although towards the climax of the narrative, the struggle of duality has reached                                  its peak, we see 'V' successfully subdue 'H', and finally 'V' pops up out of the                                              wheeley bin just as in the opening, re-establishing his freedom to roam as he pleases

Another of the main concepts we wanted to focus on in our video was the binary opposition between characters 'V' and 'H', by using simple visual cues like the contrast in colour palettes and differences in shapes and design. One video which not only gave us inspiration but also effectively demonstrated this technique is 'Too Close' by Alex Clare, which although features two duelling characters in incredibly similar samurai costume, uses small indicators to convey the opposition and conflict between the two. Small details used like the long stringy red material on the back of one fighters helmet in contrast to the shorter, less vibrant, blackish and more cloth like material on the others. This technique is incredibly effective when setting up a clear conflict, and therefore we could apply it to the theme of duality within our narrative to convey this conflict more bluntly to the audience.