Narrative Analysis of Sea Wolf's 'Old Friend' and Passion Pit's 'To Kingdom Come'.

1. I N D I E M U S I C V I D E O S
NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

2. SEA WOLF – ‘OLD FRIEND’
[INDIE FOLK]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNSbrvhHPF4

3. NARRATIVE TYPE
CLOSED NARRATIVE
The video definitely comes with a
form of closure. The story of the
video depicts a young man going
on a long journey, perhaps to find
himself, and ends with him setting up
a tent and a flag, seemingly to mark
it as his territory and ‘home’.
COMBINATION
This video is a combination of
narrative and performance; it
portrays the journey of the young
man moving through cities and
wilderness, and occasionally cuts to
shots of the main artist performing –
singing the song as he strums the
guitar gently.

4. ILLUSTRATION, AMPLIFICATION OR
DISJUNCTURE?
This video is an illustration of the song’s lyrics. Most of the lyrics
are meant literally and are backed up by the video’s visuals
corresponding to it directly.
‘I went north, I went east,’ ‘Stood upon the roof,’
‘Oh how we’d look, Out over the bay,’

5. TODOROV’S THEORY
Todorov’s theory states that a narrative will usually follow the set path;
starting with equilibrium, which is then interrupted by disequilibrium, and
the re-equilibrium is established by conclusion in order to provide
closure. However, this does not seem to be the case in the music video
for ‘Old Friend’. Then story appears to start with the disequilibrium of the
young man feeling like he needs to go on a journey to find himself,
implying that there was no equilibrium to start with. So it is simply
equilibrium, not re-equilibrium that provides closure for the music video.
Disequilibrium – He is alone, demonstrated by
the long shot, and trapped, closed into the
frame by the bus stop.
(Re-?)Equilibrium – He is home at last, as
indicated by the flag, which is an international
symbol for declaring your territory.

6. LEVI-STRAUSS’S THEORY
Levi-Strauss’s theory covers the idea that humans feel a need to classify
things they see in media texts, and in general, into binary opposites.
E.g. good and evil, young and old, masculine and feminine. Whilst this
most commonly comes into play during films, we can also find these
binary oppositions in music videos. In ‘Old Friend’, whilst there are no
other characters in the video, the binary opposition between freedom
and captivity is clear.
Whilst the young man is moving through the city, the lighting is low key,
and the man is nearly always trapped into the frame by buildings or
cars. Things are flying around him at top speed and keeping him in one
place, clearly painting him as stifled and trapped in the city.
However, when the young man finally leaves the city and finds himself
in the forest, the lighting switches to high key and the shots steadily
become wider and more open. We finally see the man smile, and the
imagery of a bird flying through the clear blue sky is an obvious
indicator of freedom.

7. PASSION PIT – ‘TO KINGDOM COME’
[INDIE TRANCE]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh0ueJN5rvA

8. NARRATIVE TYPE
CLOSED NARRATIVE
The video depicts a group of
scientists as they struggle to make a
scientific discovery. Though they
always seem happy during their
experiments, its not until the near the
end of the video we reach any sort
of closure, when they make their
discovery, and the world seems to
end.
COMBINATION
This video is a combination of
narrative and performance; the
majority of the music video portrays
the men’s scientific journey,
occasionally cutting away to close
ups and mid shots of the band
playing in a strangely coloured
studio.

9. ILLUSTRATION, AMPLIFICATION OR
DISJUNCTURE?
‘To Kingdom Come’ falls into the disjuncture category. The video is
abstract, and ignores the lyrics in favour of offering alternate meanings.
The lyrics, which appear to be singing about an unobtainable love -(‘If
ever there was someone who could make things heavenly again,’
‘That's a frosty way to speak, To tell me how to live next to your
potpourri,’) - are completely separate to the music video, which is
about reckless scientists. However, we are encouraged to look at
different meanings because of this.
‘I scraped on all the walls, Like an orthodox saint,’ ‘I felt a hush fall quietly from my spark,’

10. INTERTEXTUALITY
In this music video, whilst it does not make any specific or direct
references to other media texts, does display a form of
intertextuality. The characters in the narrative portion of the
video are dressed to parody historic and fictional scientific
figures, and the ‘mad scientist’ stereotype.

11. TODOROV’S THEORY
Like ‘Old Friend’, ‘To Kingdom Come’ doesn’t appear to follow
the narrative path of equilibrium – disequilibrium – re-equilibrium,
and instead seems to start off straight into the disequilibrium, as
the scientists have not found the answers yet. However, one
could argue that there is no disequilibrium at all, as the scientists
genuinely enjoy the experiments they’re doing, as most scientists
do.
We could also say that the equilibrium is established when they
finally do find the answers, but then the video takes a strange
turn as the world begins to burn around them, thus implying
disequilibrium again, yet the scientists do not look perturbed in
the slightest, The music video’s disjuncture and abstract nature
make it difficult to determine exactly where the disequilibrium
and equilibrium fit, but one thing is certain; it definitely does not
follow Todorov’s theory.