Monday, 19 September 2011

Katy Perry 'Firework' with Narrative Codes



As part of my research I am looking at well produced music videos and analysing how they are created, their narrative codes, what genres they are.

The Katy Perry 'Firework' video is a hybrid genre of narrative and performance throughout.
Also by looking at Barthes' narrative codes we can see how videos are put together and show meaning such as:

Enigma code - (setting up a puzzle and usually resolved) in Firework this is shown through the multiple narratives cutting to performance, with each character having a social problem and then by the end of the video showing a resolution. Such as the man being mugged is then stopped from being mugged.

Semic code - (connotations suggested by the characters) there are 5 people each with a problem, this is done so the audience can relate to one of them and their problem.

symbolic code - (binary opposition, telling us what we don't see) we understand that the girl fully clothed by the pool is self conscious about her body and therefore doesn't want to take her clothes off.

By researching videos like this, I can see how meaning and narrative can be represented through Barthes'  codes and also how audiences are targeted and are made to want to watch the videos, for example being able to relate to the video and song such as in 'Firework'.

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