Narrative Codes - (Textual Analysis 3)

In this short section I will be attempting to further my understanding of the narrative codes, primarily 'hermeneutic' & 'proairetic'. Now it is hard to distinguish these into a music video as the story sometimes cannot be sure however I will try to make it as clear as possible.


Roland Barthes developed a theory that there are 5 major codes within a story/music video (in this case) that are interwoven in order to create meaning. I am only going to concentrate on the two mentioned above as they are the primary ones, including many separate points within. Hermeneutic refers to the parts of the story that are untold, and in our music video we have a very strong concept with this in terms of the letter Nick receives. The audience automatically try and guess the outcome whilst intrigued and determined to see the outcome themselves. Our video is very typical of this first theory, only revealing the outcome at the very end. 'Partial Answers' are used throughout the film to reveal some of the truth but not all of it, increasing the audiences involvement further. Something known as 'The Snare' is often used to deliberately avoid the truth, whilst at the same time teasing the viewer. This is a great concept however it does not suit our particular genre at all. Proairetic codes are more to do with the actions that the character(s) take, or their reaction towards someone or something. In our music video Nick has these moments all the way through, most obviously the point where he approaches me on the phone and I turn him away, suggesting that Nick is not entirely used to the situation. Furthermore Nick is in a trance when confronted with the vast majority of huge and impressive landmarks such as St. Paul's cathedral and the London Eye. Again the audience relate to this and begin to make guesses, which is a very good way of mixing the video up into one big sequence of hermeneutic & proairetic coded features.


Our music video incorporates this further by giving the audience their answer at the end, when Nick finally meets the mysterious letter sending girl, this is also when nearly all the audiences questions are answered because Nick has met the mysterious girl and the reason why he's in London in the first place.