Genre Theory

Genre means a kind or type of something, a type or film or type of music. Genres include Horror, sci-fi, comedy and romance. These genres will have characteristics which are shown again and again that audiences recognise, such as in westerns we will see similar locations, costume and props.

Audiences develop an understanding that certain expectations may be fulfilled and they may take pleasure in predicting what will happen. The audience recognises key elements or conventions and respond accordingly.

These key elements are known as paradigms, have been identified in two types:

1. Iconographic: Signs and symbols, such as props and costume.
2. Structural: How sturcutes in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender

Levi-Strauss' Binary opposites narrative theory

Levi-Strauss argued that narrative structures are dependent on two conflicting qualities, or Binary opposites. These groups can be split into dominate and subordinate groups, the most common of these groups are:

Andrew Goodwin's music video theory

Andrew Goodwin identified 5 key aspects to look out for when looking at music videos:

1. Thought beats (seeing the sound)
2. Narrative and performance
3. The Star image
4. Relation of visuals to song
5. Technical aspects

Thought beats

This is the idea of seeing the sound.

• Firstly is to look at the music, look at the structure of the song.
• Next is to look at the artist's voice. Each artist has a unique voice which goes hand in hand with the star image. The voice is an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.
• Next is the artist's mode of address. Songs are like stories, and the artist a storyteller.

Narrative and Performance

Goodwin says that songs fail to give us the full narrative, they leave part of the story to the audience to work out. He also says that music videos should avoid typical narratives, they are made to advertise above all. The video should be made to allow repeatability. The artist should also be convincing, the audience need to feel that the video is real.

Star Image

The star image identifies the artist, and makes then easily stand out from others.

Relation of Visuals to song

This can be broken into three parts on how the video can promote the song:

• Illustrate- The video can use images to illustrate the lyrics, genre or a certain meaning
• Amplify- This is when meanings and effects are manipulated to drum the video into the audience
• Disjuncture- This is where the song's meaning is ignored and the video unrelated, possibly making is more memorable or to get the audience think more carefully about the song itself

Technical Aspects

A music video should be edited to the beat or rhythm of the music where possible to make it more entertaining. Colour and lighting are also vital to show the mood of the song and genre or maybe to ignore it completely. Mise-en-scne is needed to be constructed carefully to ensure the authenticity of the video and make it look professional.

The three acts structure

Hollywood film narrative tends to be organised in the 'Three Acts Structure'.

Writer Side Field has identified what he calls the ideal paradign three act structure which says:

• A film must be set up within the first 20 to 30 minutes before the protagonist experiences a 'plot point' that gives them a goal to be achieved.
• Approximately half the films running time must show the protagonist's struggle to achieve their goal
• Field also sometimes refers to a subtle midpoint which happens in act 2, where a confrontation has an apparently devestating reversal of the main character's fortune.
• The final quarter, or third act, shows the final struggle by the protagonist to finally achieve, or not achieve, their goal.

Vladimir Propp Narrative theory

Vladimir Propp Identified eight key character roles in folk tales, which are often also shown in modern media texts.

• Hero
• Villain
• Donor
• Helper
• Father figure
• Dispatcher
• Princess
• False Hero

Characters can fill more than one role, and there can sometimes be more than one

Roland Barthes Narrative theory

Roland Barthes described texts as complex 'bundles' of meaning which can be unravlled to create a whole range of different meanings.

The texts can be:

• Open- with numerous 'threads to pull'
• Closed- with only one obvious thread to grasp
• Polysemic- can be read in a number of ways

These 'threads' are known as narrative codes. The most significant of these codes is the Enigma Code.

The Enigma code is constructed to attract and hold the attention of the audience normally by creating a mystery or puzzle that the audience want to see solved. These codes can often be seen in reality shows such as The X-Factor, where audiences are forced to wait for contestants to be kicked out or win by showing the results 'After the break'.

Tzvetan Todorov Narrative theory

Tzvetan Todorov says that narratives follow the same structure

Equilbrium- This is when everything is balanced, when its normal everyday life for the characters.

Disruption- This is when something ruins the equilbruim, the balance.

Resolution- This is when and how the disruption is solved

New Equilbrium- This is where everything returns to normal, but something has changed, the characters have learnt something new, or their situation has changed in some way.

Some media texts will however not have all of these stages, sometimes a new equilbrium may not be reached, such as in sitcoms, often the 'New Equilbrium' reached is the same as the original Equilbrium, the characters have not leaned anything and are in the same position. Eg, the man and woman are still not together, the character still doesn't have any money.