My example of a narrative music video is Self Care by the late Mac Miller for his album swimming in 2018. the music directed by Christian Weber begins with Mac buried alive inside a wooden coffin acting very nonchalantly as he lights a cigarette in his oxygen restricted space almost as if he knows he is going to get out he also carves memento mori on the top of his coffin which translates from Latin to “remember that you have to die” This could potentially signify that in order for an individual to want to make themselves feel better again they must sink to their lowest to end up at their greatest.
the lyrics of the song match up with the story the music video is trying to tell by making him feel isolated alone and helpless and shows him spinning out to oblivion with lyrics like "I been losin' my mind" and "swear the height be to tall" fit in with the music videos helpless aesthetic. at the same time the lyrics are very chilled out and uncaring with lyrics like " I could fly home, with my eyes closed" and "I don't move my feet when I be glidin" this gives the message that he is not in reality and doesn't care anymore that he's in that coffin
the coffin scene is a homage to kill bill volume 2 where In the film, the character Beatrix Kiddo / The Bride (played by Uma Thurman) punches her way out of a coffin in which she was buried alive in.
he then is seen breaking a hole through the coffin where the latin term is showing the audience that he plans to fulfil the idea that he will eventually have to die this connects with the audience because not long after his album dropped he was found dead is his apartment from a drug overdose this gives the song a much more heavy feel as the audience knows that mac miller wasn't playing a character and he really was spiralling out of control
this music video still falls into the conventions of narrative music videos however by using close ups for most of the video zooming in his face to see his expressions and to give the video a very claustrophobic feel the song also uses a clear narrative structure it starts with Mac in the coffin it leads to his digging his way out this coffin which then leads to all of the explosions and special effects once he gets out
there are also many action and enigma codes such as the empty background once he gets out of the coffin and the coffin itself. there are also action codes such as him breaking through the coffin and him being flug about by the explosions going on behind him.
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