Death Cab For Cutie are an American alternative indie rock/pop band. In their music video, “ I Will Follow You Into The Dark” they use a range of camera techniques, genre conventions and other methods of pulling in the audience, whilst entertaining them.
The video is set in a small studio apartment, throughout the video the character is in the apartment and never leaves. They do this to create the feeling of entrapment and fear, as if he is waiting for something to come. There is one character throughout also, a male who is short, wears glasses and dresses to appeal to the audience. He wears a stylish shirt with a tie as well as khaki coloured trousers and white trainers. This costume appeals to the target audience, the target audience being 16 to 25 interested in alternative music.
The music video uses many of Goodwin’s theories, from notions of looking to the complete focus on the artist. The first Goodwin theory and the most used one is the complete focus on the artist. Throughout the music video the artist is always in the shots, this is because he is the character in the narrative. Using this theory the director advertises the band/particular singer, making him stand out and seem important. This is very important to the audience as they can recognise with the artist.
The second theory is the notion of looking. The director uses the notion of looking repeatedly throughout the video, starting with the notion of looking through the guitar, using this the director creates ambiguity of what is about to happen. Another time is when the character looks through the hole in the floor boards, this creates more ambiguity to what he is seeing. Also later on when the floor boards fall through then there is a notion of looking coming from there, looking up into the room as if there is someone down in the darkness. The use of the notion of looking creates ambiguity overall, making the watcher intrigued and interested.
Another theory of Goodwin’s is the relationship between the lyrics and the images, the director is linking the lyrics about darkness throughout the video, linking it with the dark hole appearing in the middle of the apartment.
The next theory of Goodwin’s is the link between music and images, in the video there is a link between the guitar and the music as well as the singer singing in sync in the video. This idea brings the music and the narrative together.
There are no dominant inter textual references in the video.
The music video uses many of the genre conventions including the use of the acoustic guitar, the acoustic guitar is a generic signifier of the alternative/ indie pop genre. This signifies to the audience straight away that the video is of this genre.
The director uses many different camera angles and shots, close ups of the character and the focuses as well as over the shoulder shots and angled shots to make the video more artistic.
In the video the director is creating a representation of the band through one character. They are represented as lonely and loyal, through the idea of being confined to one room, and sticking to that concept. The character represents the band as a whole and this then relates to the audience. The audience use this character as a link, letting the audience put themselves into that position.
In conclusion I think that the video uses the majority of Goodwin’s theories along with a range of camera techniques and styles. Using both of these has added to the uniqueness and quality of the music video as well as creating ambiguity throughout. The setting and character play a big part in relating to the audience because it may well be that a lot of students or young adults live in studio apartments and feel that the world is keeping them there. The black/darkness then being the way out for them. This could then be a metaphor for escape.
