Barthe has five main different ways to define a narrative, through narrative codes, proving why an audience is hooked to the piece, but also why they are able to bring their own understanding to it. This is not only in films as it can also happen in music videos as well; the five codes that Barthe used were Enigma, Action, Semic, Symbolic and Cultural.
Enigma Code: An enigma code makes the audience think about what is going to happen, and what they need to know to figure it out, allowing them to use their own knowledge to figure it out - offering a puzzle. For example in murder mystery films, they use a dilemma to distract the audience and make them think it is one person, when really that was just a distraction to put obstacles in the way of the final result. A way of looking at it in a music video would be Rolling in the Deep by Adele, she is found alone in a dark room, with nothing around her connoting isolation of the feeling of being alone, explaining the lyrics, but why is she there in the first place?
Action Code: This is where a series of different events happen that all connect, in one way or another, to then show the outcome to the audience - or in some cases they can predict what is going to happen in the end before it even happens. This code is intended to help the audience understand what they are trying to show in the narrative. A music video which uses this code to an extent would be Grenade by Bruno Mars, this is shown when he is pulling the piano up the hill on a sunny day it is resembling the pain and weight on his shoulders from the relationship that he has just come out of, we know this as there is a crack in the photo of them together.
Semic Code: This is where the audience receive their own opinions and make assumptions of their own due to the props and characters during the piece; for example a shot of Big Ben tells us the narrative setting is London.
Symbolic Code: When looking at this code, it is using conflict between two opposite forces, which is therefore similar to Binary Opposition. This is where two characters are show together, but are completely different in their mannerisms, and they are shown this way to define the difference to the audience. The way you make me feel By Michael Jackson is one way that a symbolic code is used, due to the way that Michael's character is completely different to the 'gang' of men that were in the street; connoting the binary opposion of Michael getting the girl and the 'gang' saying that he wouldnt.
Cultural Code: This is when the audience need to know something to understand the specific details, whether this is in a movie or a music video. An example of this would be the Scream films (1996-2000) where the audience need to have seen the first movie through to the last to understand the whole story, and how all of the characters relate; but not only that they would need to have seen the first one to understand where the story is following on from. This would also apply to 'spoofs' such as the scary movie films, as the audience need to know the movies that they are making fun of. An example of a cultural code in a music video is 1985 by Bowling for Soup, they show a clip of a girl 'dancing' on a car, which is used in Whitesnake's music video Here I Go Again.
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