Narrative in our AS piece of coursework

For our AS piece of coursework we made a 2 minute film opening which we named 'Leyla'. We had a clear idea of the narrative involved within the film however it may not have been particularly clear to the viewer from the opening, though they would have got the jist of it.

Our idea was actually a second attempt at our coursework as before it didn't go as well as we had hoped. We filmed our coursework and the concept was probably influenced slightly by the film 'Se7en' which we had watched in class. The idea was based around a young girl's stalker and her abduction by him. There was going to be a lot of camera shots in the photography dark room at school but other than this it was a very vague idea on the whole.

Our new narrative proved to work much better whilst filming. The narrative involves a young girl waking up in a field following a flashback which is what is shown in the opening. As we restarted our coursework we were very unsure of where we were heading with our coursework piece as our confidence was lowered from the bad attempt beforehand. We decided the flashback being shown would have effective camera shots that would certainly grab the viewers attention. We brainstormed and decided that the items shown in the flashback wouldn't make sense to the viewer at the beginning of the film, but as the film continues, the objects will be referred to from the flashback. Eventually all the items shown would reveal why the girl ended up lying in a field.

The voiceover used in the opening is effective because it is a police interview between the girls mother and a policewoman. Though the viewers do not know it yet, it is involved in our narrative that it is infact the girls mum who put her child there in the forest.

Let you go - Chase & Status

I saw this music video a while ago, and thought it was really good. It is purely narrative and has no performance aspects in it. The camera shots are often changed to the beat of the music which I think is very effective in the story that the video portrays.



It is based on 'Patrick Chase', a character with his own reality talk show, similar to the likes of 'The Jeremy Kyle Show'. It puts him across as being a good man, yet the second half of the video contradicts this. There is a point where he brands one of his guests 'disgusting and pathetic' for his useage of drugs. As the music video continues it begins to show his true personality, which is very different to the liked man 'Patrick Chase' seems to be as he receives standing innovation from his audience. The personality it begins to reveal shows him as a drug-user, a cheating man on his family and having a generally wild lifestyle in comparison to his showbiz personality. The beat of the song goes well to the hidden life he leads and I think it's very effective.

Narrative videos

A narrative music video is like a short film accompanied by a musical background. It contains a short story that is easy to follow for the viewer and the lyrics can sometimes be put in time to various things going on in the short story. Sometimes there is no lip synchronisation but most music videos tend to use a bit of both for their music video.

Here are some examples of narrative music videos:

Armand Van Helden - I Want Your Soul

Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down

Yolanda Be Cool Vrs DCup: We no speak Americano