Narrative theory:

Part of my research towards the production of my music video is to apply relevant narrative theorists towards the meaning and making of my video. This need is only amplified since my video is clearly going to be narrative...

Andrew Goodwin's theory of analysis:
Goodwin's theory is being applied in many ways within my music video:
- The technical aspects. Goodwin believes that camera movement is important to conisder in the production of a music video. This is being used, as I have carefully planned both the shot type and movement used in each shot. E.g. in shot 1, the camera is going to be in a handheld movement so it captures the life-like feeling and imagery of the scene, this being a man walking home drunk and depressed.
- The use of illustration, disjuncture and amplificiation. As stated in previous posts, is going to be used multiple times in my video. Not only will illustration be used in general as part of the added narrative property, but it will also be used in particular instances. i.e. in the shot where the image of the girlfriend reflects the light to make her look heavenly. This visually shows why the man in the video is depressed over losing her. Amplification will be used in some cases, for instance, when the shirt is shown in a close-up, all messy and worn out. This will amplify the narrative content of the man's new adoptive 'trashy' and self-abusive liefstyle via an assist with illustration. Disjuncture will be used starting from verse 3, when despite losing such a great girl, the man starts to think more optimisitcally, and separates from his depression and despair, and remembers only the good times. He then gradually becomes more happy throughout verses 3 and 4.
- Another important issue from Goodwin's theory is the star image. In this case, the star AKA me, will have to look worn out, depressed, and somewhat dirty. This will be aided in both my depressed look, and my messy clothing which I will wear during footage. The man in the video must look like a wreck to fit in with the video's narrative, which I will do and have planned.

François Truffaut's Auteur theory:
The term Auteur translates from Author in France, as the creator of the theory was a French film director and critic.
- This theory tends to focus more on individual stylistic features rather than generic conventions. This is an interesting property from the theory, and my video actually applies to it. My video is inspired by some unique yet simple videos such as Proof and Nothing compares 2 U. Videos like these have specific features such as simple production, low shot quantity, in Proof's case, just 1 shot, and these videos, particularly Proof, use more of visual effects and facial expressions and reactions to amplify meaning of the lyrics than other videos, since other music videos also focus on background scenery, appearance of the star and his/her clothing, high production methods, etc...
- This theory focuses on how texts are determined via an artist's creativity. In the original Proof video, this was not so apparent, however, in my video, with added shots and a narrative property, this will become very apparent. I am the artist, as well as the producer of the video. Since most of my footage is original, it will be up to my ability to not only produce shots and edit them effectively, but also perform in a fitting and visually impressive way that specifically establishes my video as both unique, and appealing to the target audience.
- The artist's body of work and how it helps to emerge a text is another key issue regarding this theory. In my case, I will mostly be focusing on my facial expressions for the making of this video and it's content rather than body movements. I will use my face expressions to tell the story, and make the viewers understand the meaning of the narrative in a much greater depth and feeling. Much like with the original Proof video did itself.

Vladmir Propp's theory:
Propp was a man who composed fairy tales in the 1920's. His theory focuses generally on movies, and books and their characters, but the theory can be applied here as well.
Propp's theory is that the hero (in the video, I will be this) seeks something. In my video, I seek at first to regain the girlfriend (princess in Propp's theory) and later I seek to achieve emotional redemption as part of the video's story. Which happens. The girlfriend in my video (Princess in Propp's theory) is at first what I hope to seek as the hero and main protagonist of the music video story. Later, she suddenly seems to be a helper/donor in Propp's theory fitting as her presence in his memory helps him achieve his redemption. This somewhat subverts Propp's theory however, though in a dynamic way, by the hero achieving his goal with the help of the helper and donor despite them not appearing in the present tense scenes physically or even trying to help the hero. This video plays things differently.

Ronald Barthes' theory:
Barthe's theory is made of 5 codes, these being action, enigma, symbolic, semic, and cultural.
Action is used casually at the start as the man in the video (me portraying my artist Josh U R) is walking home drunk. You see the internal struggle physically via the handheld movement of the camera. Then while you don't see it, action is implied via the view of a messy living room, which has been trashed by the depressed man.
Enigma is used at first as the audience does not know why the man is depressed. The narrative and events that occur later in the video explain this.
Various symbolic things are used in this video to support the narrative. For instance, the shot where the image of the girl reflects the light. This symbolises her as heavenly then the man remembers the good times about her. Also when the sun goes down, this symbolises both the end of the video and the depression. The beer being thrown in the bin also symbolises the man overcoming his depression at the end.

Claude Levi-Strauss' theory:
Levi-Strauss focuses a lot on the use of binary opposites in media texts. E.g. light-dark, peace-war, etc...
In my video, there will be some uses of binary opposites. Perhaps the most significant would be weak to strong. This is what the man will achieve emotionally as the video progresses and he begins to get over his girlfriend. He becomes stronger from an emotional view due to his gained ability to cope with the loss of a great woman. Another example is the binary opposite of light to darkness, and how the video progressively becomes 'lighter' as the emotional redemption kicks in... This will likely also be demonstrated with the use of illustration in my video. The start of the video is set at night, on a road, and then when we enter the house, it has a messy and damaged living room due to off-screen rage by the character in the video. Then we see metaphorical darkness via the depression shown in the facial expression, movements and positions of the man in the video. As the video goes on, while the man begins to feel happy, the 'light' will become stronger, as the song picks up in high tone, the illustration is more positive, the man becomes happy, the atmosphere of the scenery becomes more light and tidy, and the shots from the montages generally become less negative through progression of the video as well. The transfer to a 'lighter' mood and atmosphere in the illustration of the video naturally comes from the narrative story of emotional redemption.