A2 Media, visual essay: narrative.

1. Narrative
VISUAL ESSAY

2. Taylor Swift:
Blank Space

3. Bordwell and Thompson
Bordwell and Thompson identified the two distinctions between story and plot which relate to
the diegetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which
the audience actually see.
They based this on Russian film theory:
 Fabula (story) is all the events in the narrative that we see and infer. The fabula is defined as
the chronological series of events that are represented or implied.
 Syuzhet (plot) is everything that is visible and audibly present before us syuzhet is considered
to be the order, manner and techniques of their presentation in the narrative.
In practice:
Considering ‘Blank Space’ by Taylor Swift,

4. Todorov:Todorov’s theory identifies 5 different stages. The first one
is equilibrium followed by disequilibrium, which is the
stage where a disaster occurs. The next stage is the
recognition of the disruption in which there is an attempt
to repair the disruption caused, It can be referred to as
a quest, and finally a resolution which creates the new
equilibrium.
Todorov believes that this occurs within every narrative.
I believe Todorov’s theory could be applied to ‘Blank
Space’. The Equilibrium would be the beginning where
Sean O'Pry arrives at Taylor’s house while we see Taylor
on her bed at home continued with having meals, they
spend time together which links to the disruption which is
while they’re having a picnic, Taylor lays on his lap while
Sean O'Pry is messaging with someone giving the
impression of him cheating. The resolution is break up
after kick offs and violence. The new equilibrium is found
through a new man being introduced in the same way
as Sean O'Pry entered the scene, which implies
(foreshadows)that it will most probably end in the same
way, just before we see Taylor through a close up.
It could be argued that not always is it that the theory
applies to every music video. Considering that it applies
to ‘Blank Space’ which is highly due to it being
consistent of narrative clips. As a result, considering
Todorov’s theory it seems appropriate to music videos
that consist of narrative.

5. Tim O’SullivanTim O’Sullivan argues that all media texts tell us some kind of
Tim O'Sullivan argues that all media texts tell the audience some
kind of story, through careful mediation, media texts offer a way
of telling stories about ourselves. This is usually our own personal
stories, but the story of us a culture or set of cultures. The
narrative sets out how to show what we experience when we
'read' a story is to understand a particular set of constructions, or
conventions and that it is important to be aware of how these
constructions are put together.
Narrative is the structure of a story. Diegesis is fictional space and
time implied by the narrative- the world in which the story takes
place. Verisimilitude is literally the quality of appearing to be real
or true. for a story to engage us it must appear to be real to us as
we watch it (the diegetic effect). the story must therefore have
verisimilitude following the rules of continuity, temporal and
spacial coherence.
Considering, Blank Space by Taylor Swift, the meaning it carries is
based around relationships of its beginning and end. It presents
a typical ending of a relationship, which is due to cheating. It
also portrays it in a biased view as it shows men cheating and
women being the innocent victim of his act. Different types of
meaning is created throughout the clip.
In terms of mise-en-scene the use of a white horse and a man
wearing white reinforces the idea of fairy tale of 'Prince
Charming', showing the typical image of what women
expect. The fact that he and Taylor are together both on
white horse, both wearing white and are side by side
reinforce this idea very clearly, showing that Taylor as the
princess who has met the her Prince Charming. However, the
understanding of this would rely on cultural knowledge.

6. Sven CarlsonSven Carlson’s theory suggests that music videos in general, fall into
three groups, these are: performance, narrative and conceptual
clips.
He believes that when a music video mostly shows an artists (or artists)
singing or dancing it is a performance clip but when a clip shows
something else during its duration, often with artistic ambitions, it is a
conceptual clip.
Performance:
This includes that if a music video clip contains mostly filmed
performance then it is a performance clip. A performed clip is a video
that shows the vocalist(s) in one or more settings. Common places to
perform are recording studio and the rehearsal room. However,
performance can take place anywhere, from the bath tub to outer
space. Walking down the street is another performance cliché that is
common in rap videos. There are three types of performance: song
performance, dance performance and instrumental performance.
Almost every music video includes some performance. Some videos
combines song and dance performances.
Narrative:
If a music video clip is most appropriately understood as a short silent
movie to a musical background then it is a narrative clip. A narrative
clip contains a visual story that is easy to follow. A pure narrative clip
contains no lip-synchronized singing.
Art clip:
If a music video clip contains no perceptible visual narrative and
contains no lip syncronized singing then it is a pure art clip. The main
difference between a music video art clip and a contempory artistic
video is the music. While the music video uses popular music the
artistic video uses more modern, experimental music, such as electro-
acoustic music.
In practice, Sven Carlson's theory could be applied to Blank Space as
a clear story has been shown and understood that is based around
relationship and break up. Blank Space would fall into the category
of ‘narrative’. Considering there are some elements of performance
in which we see Taylor and Sean O'Pry in different settings with Taylor
singing (lip-syncing). At a point Sean O'Pry links in with the singing, ‘Oh
my God!’.
I believe Sven Carlson’s theory is appropriate and can be applied to
every music video although the music video may contain one or
more elements out of the groups.

7. BarthesBarthes (1977) suggested that narrative works with five different codes and the enigma code
works to keep up setting problems or puzzles for the audience. His action code ( a look,
significant word, movement) is based on our cultural and stereotypical understanding of
actions that act as a shorthand to advancing the narrative.
Barthes theory could be applied to Blank Space as it requires cultural and stereotypical
understanding in order to understand the meaning it is trying to get across. An example of this
would be where we are shown Sean O’Pry wearing white outfit, sat riding a horse as well as
Taylor Swift who too is wearing white and sat riding a white horse who are both at the same
speed. The fact that the horse and he is wearing white could be the iconography of the myth
‘Prince Charming’. It gives the idea that he is her Prince Charming and she is his Princess
Charming. Although stereotypically, the Princess would sit behind the Prince Charming, it
infers the idea of abnormality.
Stereotypically, the picnic scene also shows abnormality, as usually the man would be
placing his head on her lap and she would be feeding her, which in this scene it the opposite,
Taylor is lying down but feeding herself while Sean O’Pry is on the phone. As a result this
reinforces the idea of abnormality, showing that there is something wrong. Within the scene,
the fact that he is busy on the phone implies, gives the impression that he is busy chatting
messaging someone else implying the theme of cheating. Another stereotype is shown
through the scene when Taylor realises, reinforcing typical kick-offs that stereotypical women
do and become violent with their ex-partner. It reinforces the idea that after women realise
their partner cheating they will end the relationship. It continuously reinforces the idea of
broken heart and how much women get hurt.
The white cake that we see in front of Taylor clearly represents Sean O’Pry as Taylor stabbs it
with a big black knife showing hate, anger and annoyance. The fact that it is white implies
the idea that it is Sean O’Pry due to the previous semiotics of when they were both wearing
white, reinforcing the idea of Prince charming. At the beginning of the video clip we see
Taylor holding a ‘white’ cat which at the end we see a white ‘heart’ shaped cake. This white
cat would represent Prince Charming so does the cake in which she got rid of the cat
because their relationship ended due to him cheating. The fact that the cat is alive could
mimic Prince Charming is live for her whereas the cake isnt showing him as lifeless and
worthless. The fact that when she stabs the cake we see red burt out which have
connotations of love and hate. Contextually this would infer hate and death also danger as
she is showing violence, adding the fact that her facial expressions also reinforce this.

8. Pam CookPam cook identified the structure of the classic Narratives system.
According to Pam Cook (1985) the standard Hollywood narrative
structure should have:
 Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma
resolution.
 A high degree of narrative closure
 A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by
spatial and temporal coherence.