Analysing Narrative Music Video - The Neighbourhood - Female Robbery, Chosen Genre, Narrative Structure

From my point of view 'Female Robbery' is a narrative storyline revolving around a young girl who has an abusive father who is later kidnapped by an unknown woman. To others the video can be seen in varying different ways; the girl being kidnapped could be portrayed as a dream she has, this can be adapted from the opening lyrics "I think I found help. I think I found something. I think I found something in my TV screen." The little girl could have watched a TV show which gave her the idea to dream about her escape from reality into a world were she is free from her family. 
The music video is all edited into black and white, this corresponds well with the lyrics and video as it helps bring negativity to the video.
The beginning segment of the video is a narration by the little girl, she speaks in French but subtitles are displayed, in her translation it says about how happy she is and how her life is like a movie but her voice sounds sad not overjoyed like it should be according the lyrics. This shows that she may have to lie to people a lot about how her home life is, in the lyrics it says "And don't let the police know" her father will abuse her more if she tells people what really happens. 

Using a transition of a book falling the scene morphs into the girl tossing and turning in her bed, having a nightmare, it's a still birds eye view shot capturing how the girl is not in power. 
Faint images of the father hitting the young girl are shown in the background as well as him then kissing her on the cheek, this displays her nightmare and introduces the viewer to what the video subject will be. Text is used in front of the image throughout the video, the first text is the title of the song, the font is of the noire thriller genre, this also fits in well with the black and white effect. 
We are then introduced to an image of the father, mother and daughter in a photograph were they all appear happy, this is used as a contrast to the reality of the present. The shot then zooms out to reveal a dinner table were by the daughter is sitting at the head of the table, silent and still while the mother and father shout on either side. This displays how the daughter isn't truly part of the family, she is mostly ignored except the times in which her father shouts out her, her father and mother shouting appears to be a very normal thing about the house. Although we don't know what they are arguing about we can guess that it has something to do with the child as we find out later in the video. This resembles a 21st century family life well as many families have these difficulties therefore making the video realistic.  
The shot then tracks right out of the room into darkness to then zoom out of the girls back in a freeze frame with her father were they both look happy, the camera then tracks round the two until its the other side of him, the child's face has turned to one of sadness and he appears angry,as the camera continues tracking it moves slightly into a worms eye view for her to show he is the one in power, he then hits her. 
The lyrics at this point are "That I have nothing in this place for me" these lyrics have been adapted approvingly displaying how there is nothing left for her in her home life.
Transitions are very smooth, slowly having the camera appear in different shots through the use of objects such as her hair, the wall etc... No scene looks particularly rehearsed but instead as if the camera happened to capture a shot of what really happens in their household. 
The camera tracks out of the darkness to display the words 'Perfect sense' these display key elements of the lyrics as they hang above the girls head. As the camera tracks round into a mid shot of the girl sitting down we see a woman dressed in black walk into the room, her face isn't in the frame which creates enigma as to who she is. The lyrics at this point make the viewer suspicious as to whether she is there to take the child away from this hell, "I watched it all in my head, perfect sense. They'll take me from me my bed, Leave everything that is worth a single cent and just take me instead." 
As the girl holds up her notepad so it can be used as a transition the camera zooms into the darkness to return behind the girl were the woman appears beside her, a close up is then used to show them holding hands, this is the first close up used.
The lighting is very dark throughout the video so we never get to see the entirety of what is happening in the scene, this provides shadow onto the characters faces causing enigma. At this point a single slither of light is shown on the rear wall, this shows light on the top of the characters entwining hands causing a spotlight for the whole scene. The camera then zooms in onto the hands to show the woman pull her hand away to grab the girls wrist, this shows this woman to be insensitive to the girls feelings, the lyrics being "Praying to whatever is in heaven please send me a felon" the girl doesn't care as to who comes to save her e.g. felon. As the two move into darkness this is used as a transition to the next scene where the woman opens the door to the outside, this is the first shot taken from outside the household, this symbolizes the girl breaking free. Outside appears almost white where as the characters outlines appear as darkness, this is a contrast, its as though the girl is alien to that world and doesn't fit in.
Quick cut away's are then provided as the chorus plays "Anything, anything, Don't tell them anything, Anything, please." the first cut away is of a book which is related to a diary as their is handwriting in French, this provides enigma as we don't understand what they is talking about, a shot of her writing in her diary for 2 seconds is then shown, this establishes it as her's. Then a cut away to them walking down the girls drive back to her writing in her diary and then her laying down sleeping, during this shot the woman can be seen in the background, this makes the viewer presume that the woman has been watching her for a long period of time. The woman is submerged in darkness, yet again we don't get to see her face providing a sense of unease, where as the girl is in natural lighting showing her to be good. These shots provide a montage of images displayed to the viewer in a shot period of time, this builds up tempo for the video and provides a sense of unease.
A cut away of a close up of the woman's eyes is then provided tracking to the right with darkness
surrounding her, this is the first shot of the woman's eyes we see, but the full image of her can't yet be established as we haven't seen a long shot of her in full. With the darkness around her this acts as a mask to disguise her and show her to be almost another antagonist to the story. More cut away's are then shown of each shot but lasting slightly longer, these cut out's work well on the beat of the chorus. A shot then tracks right to reveal the woman standing over the child, this is the first major shot we see of her; body and face, dressed all in black she provides more to the 'bad' image.

After she is taken away a track shot is then shown of her mother on the phone to then slide out of the room to the right to show a room smashed and broken, this makes the viewer presume that the woman was on the phone to the police as the room was a token of the other woman stealing the child.

The video is very linear as the story continues on in a straight forward manner, this is shown as each shot slides off to the right. 

"I bet they planned it all out, Like the shows, Went everywhere I go, Walked into the store right behind me, Stood in line right beside me and followed me to my home" These lyrics explain another option of the storyline that, the woman has been watching the child for days, weeks, months and then gone on to take her away from her family to another group. As the child walks forward the woman follows behind showing superiority as her full body isn't in the shot, this makes her appear larger life while all of the girl is displayed displaying her weakness. A 180 degree spin shot is used to then have the camera directly in front of the two walking, the woman is looking down to the child while she looks up, this shows clear superiority. The camera then zooms in on the woman slowly, this directs the viewers concentration purely onto her, as the camera zooms in onto her zip the scene transitions into darkness to then move onto the scene of the father character watching a football game. A 360 degree track is used on the scene so the viewer can take in all the mise en scene in the shot. The woman and child then walk up a dusty hill to a newly dug grave providing curiosity as to what the woman is going to do. 
At 3 minutes 21 seconds many cut away's are used rapidly showing images of what have happened already throughout the video of all characters, this provides a build up relating to the unidentified grave. A worm eye view shot is then used from the bottom of the grave up to the woman shovelling dirt into it, this gives her clear superiority as, the girl doesn't appear in the scene the viewer believes she is the weak one being buried, this idea is further amplified by the lyrics "We're gonna die." As each mound of dirt hits the grave an image of the girl is shown this is almost like a memorial, remembering the girl. The girl's diary is then displayed on top of the grave also with the words "We're gonna die" written repetitively as the camera zooms away from the diary it shows the woman and child holding hands. This can be viewed in two ways; the woman changed her mind and wished to the keep the child alive and with her or she was never burying the child but instead burying the girls past and bad memories relating to her home life therefore having a fresh start and beginning new. 

There are large similarities between this and the ideas for our music video, 'hurt me,' we wished to film in black and white, this is due to our love for black and white media and the adding effect of pain and darkness it represents.
The main story we have is about a young girl and her bad relationship with both her father and the rest of her family and her need to escape, this is represented well in the music video 'Female Robbery.'

Reflections on Narrative Structure and our Storyboard

The music video is linear, resulting in shots going in a straight forward storyline, our video was also going to be in a linear fashion (as you can see on the storyboard) but when the time came to editing we invented new ideas and decided that the first part should be a montage of different shots throughout the video, not in order, this breaks away from linear and puts a new spin on the idea. As you can see in the 'The Neighbourhood' a montage is used at about 1min 40 seconds, these are cut away shots of other shots taken in the video which allows the scene to be broken up whilst still telling the story. Although the video is mostly linear the shots make sudden changes and they do converge swiftly into a new scene but, they are different to the ones previously shown. The audience is able to follow the story to it's entirety and establish the storyline, like ours, we wish for the audience to understand the proceedings of what is happening.
Throughout 'The Neighbourhood' we are perceived as being a 3rd member to the scene, looking in on what is happening, or seeing from the young girls point of view, those few scenes make the scene more intimate and we feel as if we are truly in her position.
We have also used those two idea's in our video, the young girl spinning/running up the hill, either myself or my partner held the camera and carried out those actions so we would produce those actions on the final scene.