BWB - Analysis of Metanarrative (Mark Kinchen)

 

 

 

Goodwin's Genre conventions

• Using Andrew Goodwin's theory the video can be said to be voyeuristic. The opening to the video shows a good looking woman wearing a very sexually promiscuous outfit (tight jeans and small top) this portrays the woman as seductive. Mirrors are commonly used when giving of this effect. Voyeurism is widely used to sell artists music as it creates a sex appeal to the audience, in this case more of a male audience.
• The video is amplified when relating the visuals to the lyrics. Lyrics such as 'look right through' at the beginning shows a woman completely ignoring the male as she looks beyond him and 'other peoples lives' shows the dressed up male pointing at other people. In addition to this the cutting rate is also in time to the music.
• There are numerous visual motifs that are associated with music genre of house. This includes multiple dance moves and sequences such as 'the running man' and the 'Charleston shuffle' which are all in time to the beat of the song.

Dyer Analysis

• In terms of using Dyer's theory Mark Kinchen can be referred to as extraordinary because he is not visual throughout the video. He is absent yet present as he does not feature once, yet his music is dominant throughout the video. Essentially it is his music which contrasts into the visuals and drives the rate of the cut.
• The fact that MK is absent throughout the video it will encourage audience to watch further videos in an attempt to work out what else is associated to MK's music or maybe if he even featured in future videos.

Todorv's theory

• There is a clear narrative arc to the video. The equilibrium is distorted when the male character being ignored the by the woman perhaps due to his bad looks. However when he puts on the unusual outfit women begin to notice him and become attracted to him all of a sudden and the attempt to repair the equilibrium is made. The video then ends with the dressed up male going back to his room with a very good looking woman, oppose to being ignored at the start. A new equilibrium has now been created.

Roland Barthes theory

• This theory can clearly be applied to the video. At the beginning of the video where the male character starts acting like an animal and puts an animal mask whilst wearing an extremely formal black suit. This creates various strange thoughts and creates multiple questions in the audiences mind. The purpose of this is to keep the audience guessing as to why he's decided to dress this. The enigma is then solved when it becomes evident that this chosen animal attire makes himself largely attractive to females and he is no longer ignored.

Levi Strauss

• Levi believes that the narrative to a video is based upon binary oppositions. In this circumstance the narrative is organised around the conflict of man vs woman, as the video is purely based upon the male character trying to seek females attention and interest.