A look at how Sven Carlson's narrative theory applies to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs video, Sacrilege.

1. SVEN CARLSON Applied to Sacrilege, by
the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

2. The music video is solely narrative, it has no elements of performance
in it and we do not see the artist or any form of lip syncing. There are
no abstract or conceptual clips. Therefore does apply to Sven’s idea of
three different clip types however only includes one of these, narrative.
The structure is narrative, the story is the main focus of the video and
it closely follows the idea of a short film-style story. By doing this we
can assume the artist wants all attention to be focused on the narrative
and the story it is trying to tell. Sometimes a purely narrative structure
can still include the artist however the Yeah Yeah Yeahs do not appear
in the music video at all, a reason for this is perhaps they wanted to
make sure all actors were professional involved to create a more
realistic story. Also by removing themselves from the video the
audience do not have any expectations of how the characters will act
and this will be more believable if the characters are playing a role we
would not expect the artist to play.
The video is non-linear, it is in reverse chronological order, showing
clips from perhaps peoples imagination or flashbacks. It also mixes
present day when going ‘backwards’ through the video. Showing clips
from the beginning during the unfolding of the narrative further on.

3. Scene of the imagination or flashback followed
by scene showing the guy watching the fire in
present day. Like at the beginning of the
video.
The narrative unravels a story following how a young woman got herself in the situation
of being burnt in front of the people watching at the beginning. It is revealed to us that
she had an affair with the towns priest. We are then shown a series of clips in which the
girl is also partaking in sexual acts with each of the people who have captured and
condemned her to burn. It is not revealed to us whether these are imagined desires of
the people or if it actually happened and she slept with each of them. Personally my
opinion is that she plays the role each of the people want her to play in their thoughts
therefore are figures of their imagination and desires. The irony of the story is that they
are all punishing her and the priest for their sins however each have their own impure
thoughts of the woman however are unable to recognise their own sins.