The music video for Calvin Harris' "Flashback" (directed by Vincent Haycock) has been shot in order to illustrate the lyrics whilst also adding extra depth and meaning to the song. According to Andrew Goodwin's narrative theory, these factors make the video amplifying. This is because the video is partly narrative, illustrating the lyrics in the video, but additionally it adds ulterior meanings and themes to the song. These are themes such as 'past and present', which is an example of a binary opposition, meaning the video also follows Strauss' narrative theory. This theory states that two contradictory values are included in a media text to add depth and structure. These binary oppositions are created through the varied shots and post production edits applied to the video, and are enhanced by the mise-en-scene used. A huge proportion of the music video is made up of point of view shots, which are done to help the audience empathise with the protagonist as they help demonstrate his thoughts and feelings by showing images of what he is seeing. A great deal of these shots were filmed on a handheld camera to show the disorientation of the protagonist by making his sight seem unsteady. The handheld camera is mostly used while the audience are seeing the protagonist in the 'present', showing his unclear vision and confusion regarding 'the night before.' The shots of the past are mostly filmed with a steady cam to show the protagonists clear view at that point in time. This variation in filming helps emphasize the binary oppositions featured in the video. Other frequently used shots in this music video are shots such as mid-shots and close-ups, which allow the audience to gain further understanding of the protagonist by seeing his facial expressions. In these shots it also shows the protagonist miming along to the lyrics, which is common in most mainstream videos as it gives the video an element of redundancy, keeping it understandable and recognisable for the intended audience.
The audience get a good idea of where the video is set due to the use of master shots and wide shots, showing the location and the position of the actors in the video. These shots give a great deal of information about the story line, therefore they successfully keep the narrative moving forward. The genre of this song is 'dance', therefore the wide shots of the 'past' fit in with this genre by showing a club scene, flashing lights and dancing. This serves out a variety of purposes. Firstly, it shows that there was a clear intended audience, and would no doubt appeal to people such as headonists, who perceive themselves as people who live life for pleasure. They would typically fall between B and C2 on the jicnars scale, and would most likely be in their late teenage/young adult years. Additionally to this however, the shots of the 'past' demonstrate dominant ideology, featuring typically 'sexualised' women, alcohol, etc. This is important in the video as it is a mainstream song and must therefore correspond with this by keeping the portrayal of ideology dominant. The binary oppositions of 'good and bad' are also featured in this video, as the reminiscence of the past is represented as 'good', featuring people who appear to having a great time, contradicting the present in which the lead singer appears miserable, demonstrating a 'bad' opposition.
(Below: Example of point of view shot)
Representation: In this video the protagonist is represented as wealthy and shows the ideal image for the intended audience, making them aspire to be like him and therefore admire him. Women are represented as sexually available, which is typical in the genre of dance music videos.
Tzvetan Todorov
Narrative structure: Todorov's theory states that narrative structure will be divided into three sections: equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition and reparation. Taylor Swift's music video "You Belong With Me" (directed by Roman White) undergoes each of these stages, which naturally makes it a fairly predictive and redundant music video.
Equilibrium: The first 70 seconds of video clip, where the protagonist is conversing with the 'hero' in the video and miming the lyrics to herself, singing about love for the 'hero'.
Disequilibrium: The protagonist is sat on a bench, when the 'hero' approaches and is taken away by the 'villain' in the music video, causing disequilibrium.
Recognition: The 'hero' realises that that 'villain' has immoral values and searches for the protagonist.
Reparation: The 'hero' finds the protagonist and realise they have mutual feelings, giving the video a 'happy ending' and culminating in a new equilibrium.
This music video also builds on the use of Propp's classification of characters, including a 'Hero', 'Villain' and a 'Princess'. This is done to keep the video understandable for the audience, as these are well known characters, giving the video a sense of predictability.
Media Language: There are a vast amount of mid-shots and over-the-shoulder shots in this music video, which allow the audience to identify with the the characters presented in the music video. (below: example of over the shoulder shot, used to create empathy with the characters)
There is also 'invisible' editing, meaning that the clips have been edited to create continuity edits, resulting in the clips flowing into each other flawlessly. This is nearly always done in mainstream video as it gives it a polished look which audiences admire.
Audiences: This music video would be ideally aimed at an audience of teenage girls, from the age of about 11 to 16. The plot is designed for this age range to empathise with the protagonist, and portray her as person who they would aspire to be like. The protagonist is not sexualised in this video, keeping it aimed at a mostly young, female audience.
Representation: The character stereotypes in this video are very stereotypical, portraying the female protagonist as 'down to earth' and 'genuine', whilst the 'villain' in the video is portrayed as 'nasty' and 'malicious'. The 'hero' in the video is represented as how 'perfect' would be for the intended audience.
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