To get a greater understanding of how Usher uses narrative in his videos, in the hope that I might be able to apply these theories to my own music video I looked at the Usher video ‘Climax’; it is a brand new video from Usher as it was only released in March 2012. When looking at this video I thought about several theorists and conventions of narrative, including Propp, Claude Levi-Strauss and Todorov. I further looked at narrative depth, narrative structure and Cameron’s modular narratives theory.
Narrative is the way that stories are told, for example beginning, middle and end to the audience, sometimes they have a set way in which they are told and sometimes they are told in a new and original way. Furthermore the way that narrative is told gives cause and effect to the story, for instance the way that the middle of a narrative is told is caused by the way the beginning is told and it affects the way that the end is told. Narrative additionally can be told from a range of viewpoints, it can be told from one person’s view point, it can be told through a hundred peoples view point or no view point at all. Lastly the way that narrative is told is condenses time and space, for instance in this video the video is approximately four minutes long however the video explores weeks.
Usher’s video ‘Climax’ has several of Claude Levi-Strauss binary oppositions but the dominate one is anger vs passion. Passion is portrayed in this video by Usher and the women ripping each other’s clothes off each other and holding each other tightly. Passion is also explored through just Usher himself as he seems to be pulling at his clothes off in a gesture of passion. The lyrics also demonstrate the passion in this video as the lyrics include things like ‘I just need you one more time’ and ‘we’ve reached the climax’. The lyrics are quite passionate in the sense that they do reference sex which is one of the main forms of showing passion however they do express a sense of desperation, of needing each other and that in itself is passion. Anger is the binary opposition of passion, anger is showed through the way that Usher and the women push each other around express anger. Also the way the artist moves around the camera for instance when Usher is alone singing the way that the camera does a panning shot, gives the sense of anger but also the way that Usher pulls at his clothes and clenches his fists. Another binary opposition that features in this video is love and loneliness; this is explored by Usher being portrayed as either by himself or with the girl that he loves. When Usher is by himself in this video he is portrayed as lonely in several way, the fact that he is alone being the most obvious but when he is alone he is either against a plain background or standing by himself or sitting in his car by himself; this really emphasis the fact that Usher is alone. Furthermore when Usher is in his car for example he puts his arm on the passenger seat like he is missing something there-e.g. the girl.
Secondly there are a few of Propp’s characters in this video, Propp believed that the narrative is shaped and directed by the characters and this is certainly true for this video. The video is shaped by four different character types and some being in the same character. The first one is the princess who is obviously the girl that Usher is in love with, she is the princess not because she is wearing fancy clothes or wearing a tiara but because she is the prize that Usher is trying to win. Usher can be several characters all rolled into one he can be the hero, the false hero and the villain. Firstly Usher is the hero as he is clearly the main character that is there to rescue the princess, in terms of this video not rescued from a man but from herself, Usher is stopping her from ruining their relationship and hurting herself.Usher can also be considered the villain as the girl has moved on with another man and Usher shots the man and this is a very villainy trait.
Todorov’s theory can be applied to Usher’s video however not all of the five steps can be applied two can. The first Todorov step that can be applied is step two a disruption. This step can be applied as Usher explains through his lyrics that the disruption was him and his girlfriend breaking for example ‘couldn’t handle the arguing so we gave up.’ Through the lyrics we the audience can piece together the dysfunctional relationship that the two had that caused the disruption. The second Todorov step that can be applied is step four: attempt to repair the disruption. This step is shown differently to how step two is shown it isn’t shown through the lyrics it is shown through the actions of the characters who are Usher and his lover. This is shown in a number of ways, the two characters trying to run away being only one of them.
Additionally the video structure is one of non-linear/fractured and open ended. Narrative structures are important as the meanings of the narrative need to be interpreted correctly by audiences. Firstly the structure is open ended as the video ends with a wave of questions and uncertainty with how the video concluded. The video ended with the implication that the car with Usher and his girlfriend crashed into another car however as this was not shown, all that was shown was the two cars getting nearer and nearer to each other, the audience is left speculating and questioning what happened at the end of the video. Secondly the video is non-linear/fractured as the sequence of events happened in are out of order. First of all we see Usher by himself singing then it flashes back to Usher sitting outside a house then it flashes further back into time to show Usher and the girl he loves having sex then once again it flashes forward to show Usher singing by himself then flashes back to demonstrate Usher going into the house with a gun and so forth.
Furthermore this video does demonstrate Cameron’s modular narrative theory in manipulating time. It doesn’t fit into all four parts (Anachronic, Fork-pathing, Episodic and Split screen) but it does fit into two which are Anachronic and Episodic. The video fits into Anachronic as the video involves flashbacks a key example of this is when Usher is sitting in his car and then has a flashback to when he run out of the house with the girl. Additionally whilst it isn’t obvious that this video is Episodic there are at least four different distinctive episodes in this video. These episodes include how the girl and Usher broke up, then how they started seeing each other again, how they decided to run away after killing her boyfriend and lastly them being in a car crash.
The role that Usher play’s in this video is a mixture as he is both the narrator and the protagonist. Usher is firstly the narrator as at the start of the video Usher is shown more by himself singing and what he is singing is informing the audience of what has happened between him and the girl-just as a narrator would. Then constantly throughout the video Usher pops up by himself singing a brief line which contributes to the story in some way. Usher furthermore plays the protagonist as he is clearly the hero in the video, as not only does he come to rescue the girl from heartache and pain he also comes to rescue himself from heartache and pain.
The narrative depth in a video is very important as it lets the audience see the video in two different ways, either from a range of peoples point of views (subjective character identity) or just from one characters point of view (objective character identity). Climax portrays subjective character identities in the narrative; this is because the viewpoints of both Usher and the girl are portrayed. Usher’s viewpoint is portrayed in a more obvious way as he is the narrator and the main character so we the audience get his viewpoint the strongest. However the girl’s viewpoint is also shown and this is in a more subtle way, the constant use of ‘we’ in the lyrics indicates to the audience that the song is from the point of view of both the two main characters.
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