BARTHES NARRATIVE THEORY

ABOUT BARTHES…

Among many things, Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist and he came up with his own theory of the 'Five Codes'. Barthes described text as having no beginning “we can gain access to it by several entrances” meaning there are many different ways to analyze films and find meaning in them to work out the narrative. He said texts are either open or closed meaning you can find many meanings for the same text, or just one.

A narrative is either a spoken or written account of connecting events - meaning a story. Barthes narrowed down any action in texts into five categories which he called 'codes' of any narrative, which you will see in the next slides.

HERMENEUTIC OR ENIGMA CODESThe function of this code is to make the reader question the narrative, or to delay an answer to a question the same way a cliff-hanger would. Specifically, enigma codes set puzzles in the story as well as solve them.

The idea behind this code is that the delay between the audience asking the question and the film revealing the answer, will drive the audience to continue watching.

As you can see in the slide previous to this one, the photo makes us question a number of things, for example why is the girl hiding? And why does someone have a pigs head on them behind her? Is she being harassed? The purpose of this code is to keep the audience guessing, it is the way the story avoids revealing all truth straight away - or maybe even at all.

SEMANTIC CODESThis is the way in which setting, characters and objects take on and portray different meanings. Its the way an image is presented to us that will make us believe its a certain thing; place, creature, genre, etc. For example, the film cover on the previous slide uses semantic codes generically to show us that it is a horror film by...

The darkness in the picture suggesting the film will be dark, this is one of the generic conventions of a horror film as it sets an intense atmosphere as even in real life, anything will appear to be scarier in the dark.

The eye with no pupil, this shows abnormality and immediately shows us that this person may have no real sight of life and could be possessed.

The blood and shards of glass appearing to come out of the girls face, this tells us the film has a gory element where people will be hurt - something that usually occurs in a horror film.

The girl screaming also shows that she is unhappy and scared, this can be used to mirror how the audience may feel as they watch; tense and possibly frightened.

SYMBOLIC CODESThese signify 'binary oppositions'. These are themes, settings, characters, emotions or any object or thing that are opposites for example a boy/girl or happy/sad.

In the example in the previous slide, symbolic codes are used to show good vs evil, both sides are playing chess which signifies a game or competition. One hand is light and has the sun light surrounding it with the players hand appearing elegant and gentle, and the other is an aggressive looking dark hand with dark clouds/a storm surrounding it. These are the opposites I mentioned above, it is an effect used to emphasize the difference between things - in this case, people or teams.

ACTION CODES

These are signs to us that something is about to happen, for example a man putting on his seatbelt - we would know he was about to drive, or a student putting up their hand in class, we would know they were about to ask a question. In films, this is often used to build tension, for example a man loading his gun (the image below) would tell viewers that he was aiming to either defend himself, or kill someone

CULTURAL CODESThis code refers to anything that is founded on some kind of real information or law that cannot be challenged and is often use as a base for finding truth. This usually involves science and religion as the majority of people would class either one of these as the 'truth'. In fantasy stories magical truths may be involved such as 'after midnight magic wears off' such as in Cinderella, in the image on the previous slide, you will see the big tower clock in this film that signifies a magical culture code (that Cinderella has to run off, or else the prince will see who she really is). There is a branch off the Cultural Code called 'The Gnomic Code'. This typically refers to sayings, cliché's and any other common meaningful word sets. It basically looks at wider cultural knowledge.

H O W D O E S T H I S T H E O R Y F I T I N T O M U S I C V I D E O S ?

Each one of the codes are very creatively expressive, they can be done without much dialogue at all meaning they would fit into a music video very well, with the exception of the enigma code.

Enigma codes are meant to create questions in the audiences head and build suspense, music videos are typically fun and uplifting or tell a story. People listen to music to unwind or relax and enjoy themselves, one would be more interested in suspense from a film than a music video. One music video however that does make the audience question what is happening, building suspense, is Michael Jacksons 'Thriller', because right at the end we see that he is in fact a werewolf. So, although this code can sometimes work in a music video, its not particularly common unless the music video has a deep and meaningful message, or some mysterious element to it.

S E M A N T I C + S Y M B O L I C C O D E S I N M U S I C V I D E O S

Semantic codes fit into music videos very well as they can show us the genre of the film, where the location is and what we are watching. In a scene, we may be able to tell it is particularly horror based from dark dingy lighting, a pale and creepy/abnormal looking character, blood could tell us of a gory element in the music video, and any dialogue or mimed dialogue would let us know how any of the characters felt (screams). These codes are very powerful in creating meaning for the audience without much of it coming from the actors performance, and therefore fit very well into music videos.

Symbolic codes are more common and fit better into fantasy themed/genre music videos rather than any other kind, these codes emphasize the differences between binary opposites which can be good for a music video containing a 'wicked' character and an 'angelic/heroic' one, such as in Joey Graceffa's music video for 'Don't Wait'.

A C T I O N + C U LT U R A L C O D E S I N M U S I C V I D E O S

Action codes also fit very well into music videos as, although they tie in with enigma codes in that they can build tension, they are not as intense. For example, an action code could be two people that like each other about to hold hands, or kiss etc. It fits better into music videos as it doesn't create such an intense question in the audiences mind as an enigma code would, however it leads to a small element of the unknown, as the audience could most likely guess what is about to happen.

Cultural codes fit into fantasy themed music videos best as they follow a rule, whether that be 'magic wears off after midnight' or 'good will prevail'. It could also fit in a music video made with a moral message for example to show there are consequences for ones actions (a universal fact to all cultures) or to actually teach its audience about a worldly culture, however, typically these types of music videos are less common.

Overall, Bathes narrative theory would work very well in music videos, they help to create meaning for the audience and would help to make a video go from boring, to interesting!