Pam Cook - Narrative

The Structure of the Classic Narrative System

According to Pam Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should have:

• Linearity of cause and effect within an over all trajectory of enigma resolution.
• A high degree of narrative closure.
• A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially by spatial and temporal coherence. 

There is a linearity of cause and effect within the overall trajectory of enigma resolution, as in this video there is a beginning, middle and end which sets out a story that the audience can follows relating it to the song lyrics. The linear narrative follows a straight line, starting at the beginning where Rihanna is rising out of the water, moving to the middle of the narrative seeing her in different locations looking for a man as implied by the song lyrics, and then proceeding to the end of the story where she returns to the water as seen in her initial location with males surrounding her ending the song therefore the narrative.

There is a high degree of narrative closure in this video as Rihanna returns to her original location ending her story which is been told as part of the narrative. Immediately when we see Rihanna returning to the water we know the narrative is ending and from the way it is ending we understand how it has ended. Therefore, this implicates that there is a high degree of narrative closure if the audience can understand what has happened.

In this video, it is clear that there is a fictional world but from the settings it creates verisimilitude. The setting of a lake within a jungle type location creates reality as we would expect it to look the way it does also the lighting helps to create the setting by it being dark. There is a contrast between the first setting and the second, as the first setting is dark and the second setting is light as it is a desert once again creating reality of what we would expect. The costumes that Rihanna where's within the mise-en-scene make the video look more appealing to the audience whilst creating even more verisimilitude from that of the location and the lighting.

In the desert Rihanna is wearing clothes that can reflect people who may live/work in the desert, from her costume the audience can understand what she is trying to portray as she is 'looking everywhere' in order to fulfill her lyrics in the song.