Todorovss theory suggests that there does not just have to be a beginning, middle and end to piece of narrative, but it can undergo other transformations throughout. To try and break some conventions of videos with my work. I included this theory. Instead of just having a linear narrative I incorporated other techniques such as flashbacks of her 'before and after' being confident. I also jumped back and forth between locations to make the piece more complex to watch. My piece did not have a strong narrative as the aim of my video was to produce a visually stimulating set of scenes that was bubbly and fun. I don't personally think that my video needed a strong storyline as a lot of pop videos follow the form of having an abstract, random video that has no meaning and allows the viewer to interpret it how they want. From audience feedback it was clear the the audience need something to follow even if this means they make up a narrative themselves. With the narrative of my piece I tried to go against normal conventions of a music video that are just linear as my piece is more about the audience interpretting it how they want in a way that makes them feel better and more confident about themselves.
Also, with the narrative of my piece I included another common convention of music videos; the withdrawal of footage. I used lots of various locations throughout my video but only introduced them gradually, flicking to different locations as different sections of the song progressed. By penultimate chorus of the song the editing was much faster paced which brought a climax to piece and then as the video ended, the editing became much slower which brought the piece to a close nicely. The shots of the sky and the subway are flowing and slow which shows that the piece is relaxing and drawing to a close. This is a usual convention of a music video as the song itself often follows a storyline with a climax, and the video therefore imitates this narrative.
After analysing other music videos in my planning and research section of my product I an see that my video includes a lot of aspects that follow the normal conventions of a music video. I followed inspiration from existing products such as Natasha Bedingfield - These Words, where they have also used parts of stop motion and the same mise en scene that I included in my video. This is something that Eliza Doolittle uses in her other videos so it made sense for me to follow this theme through into my own work.
Although I strongly stuck to the conventions in some ways, in others I chose to challenge these forms. In my music video it is solely the main character and no-one else. In some of my feedback this was picked up on and I recieved comments that said it would have been more interesting with more characters but I do not think that this lowers the standard of my work in particular. I think just having the artist in the video is often a good way of introducing a new artist as it allows the audience to get a feel for her personality and if they give a good performance, which I think Cesca did, then this can be equally as endeering as if there were more characters interacting with each other.
Another convention that I decided to use for my piece was the miming of the lyrics by the 'artist'. This is something that I thought would make the piece more intersting and personal to the audience as it made it seem as though Cesca was directly speaking to the viewer. As there wasn't a strong narrative to my piece then the majority of the video was based around the performance that Cesca gave. I feel that this was achieved well and was believable, especially in the grafifitt which added to the visual aesthetics of the video.
Finally, the last way I followed the conventions was the characters costume in the video. This was typical for a music video as she wore laidback and up to date clothes that were in fashion currently. This meant that my audience could relate to the artist more when they saw her in the video and magazine advert.
