Sleep on the Floor

1How is narrative constructed through media language?

Within the narrative there are two characters. The long shot of the couple in a hotel room, with low key lighting is used. The male character is awake and preparing for bed, but the female is stretched out and asleep. Producers have chosen to present this idea of stereotypical gender roles as, bell hooks defines, to the audience. It shows a weakness within the female, in that she isn’t able to remain awake. It also represents a narrative through which the audience can follow with Propp’s Character Theory. The male is depicted as the Hero, saving the female character from being trapped and not leaving. On the other hand, the female character is shown in many instances to rely on the male character, making her the Princess character. The audience can connote this from the long shot of the Hero opening the cab door for the female.  An additional instance is the encoded cue of the non-diegetic soundtrack of the music video to play as the male sits; this is an indexical sign of male dominance within the narrative. 

The producers are representing a heterosexual young couple. Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory would have it suggested the heterosexual ideology is typically presented as the only socially acceptable sexuality in media, to which this text conforms. This is important because it drives the narrative through the myth of romance, engaging the audience to build a rapport with the characters and form an emotional connection.

Cinematography within the music video presents the male and female characters in a mid-shot both on 1/3 framing to the left and another on the right with direct address to each other, in high key lighting, promoting the idea of youth with potential connotations of love. Centre framed is the tip of a tree; an indexical connotation of this could be mistletoe and perhaps foreshadows the kiss later on within the narrative. It’s clear that indexical signs have been encoded throughout the narrative to then be decoded by the target audience (a theory of Hall) as the myth of love. Equally there are many LS and XLS, which could connote the freedom the characters are faced with when leaving.

Another theory is Tordov’s equilibrium and this could explain how the narrative is constructed. The audience as a privileged spectator throughout the majority of the cinematography. The equilibrium of the female character is shown at the start, to then her disequilibrium (a decision to stay or go with the male character). The disequilibrium is resolved by her waking up in the same costume as previously presented; suggesting nothing has changed- although the audience is not led to a closed narrative.

It could also be argued the split narrative to stay or go is an encoded binary opposition, a theory of Levi-Strassus, to whether the female decides to conform to the hetronormativity ideology in the belief she will be happier with a male in her life, or refute it.

The Barthes Myth of Romance is constructed within the text. The ideal relationship is presented to the audience. The ideology suggests male audiences are attracted to the female in the text when she’s submissive and subdued by a male character. There’s a specific long shot, where the mise-en-scene with amber, low key lighting connotes the romance and the vulnerability of the female laying on the floor to the ‘male gaze’; with male drawn to hold her as security.  It could be additionally argued that the Hetronormativity Ideology is conformed to and the narrative glorifies gender roles.

The title “Sleep on the Floor” is a symbolic sign. The symbolism to which could be a declarative resolving the disequilibrium; suggesting the female character didn’t “leave this town”. However an alternative reading could be the psychological freedom to which leaving behind her hometown, and bedroom comforts, has led to her living the ideology of the American Dream. The audience can interpret the setting of America though the anchorage of the freeway and signs to “Nevada”, as well as the iconic yellow cab and American style diner. This helps the audience engage with the narrative, as Ricour suggests with the complex audience to the text being a “laboratory for thought”. Furthermore the producer is able to present the audience with Barthes Enigma Code, in the open ended narrative structure, to form an active audience in the New Equilibrium.

 (738 Words)

[13/15 Marks]