Research into Narrative

I have decided to have a non-set narrative in my music video. However even tho there wont be a set beginning middle and end it will still contain elements of a conventional narrative structure. This is a choice I have made through research into existing media products and coming to the decision that a music video made up of different clips with no real correlation would suit the song I have chosen. However I would still like a staggered story-line within which depicts 4 main character having fun together who will serve as the anchor points for my video so that the audience has characters to connect with.

I looked into Vladimir Propp's narrative theory while researching what kind of story I wanted to tell within my video. Propp's theory stated that regardless of the context a set narrative always follows certain rules and most importantly, set characters. These characters are ones such as "The Hero" "The Villain" "The Helper" etc. This is a theory which, in my opinion, seems to apply more to a Shakespearean tragedy then any given narrative however the bases of the theory is that there are set characters who fulfil specific roles. In my video the characters I include won't be explored enough as they won't have any dialogue to define them into these roles, however they could be seen to fulfil these roles as the most seen character would be viewed as the hero and any antagonist in my video would be viewed as the villain. This theory applies to my work to a certain extent however I won't use it as a framework to base my narrative off.

The theory that I most considered applying to my work and my process was Todorov's who stated that every narrative begins with a state of "equilibrium" where the protagonist is happy, then the disruption happens where the protagonist has to fight to return to equilibrium. This is a theory which is applied to many films and story lines and even some music videos. I have chosen however to not include this set narrative type as the song I have chosen is so happy that there is no point where a disruption would fit. In a way, my video is set in an equilibrium but has no disruption.