Research and Planning- I Will Follow You Into The Dark

"I Will Follow You into the Dark" is a song by Death Cab for Cutie and the third single from their fifth album Plans. It is a solo, acoustic ballad written and performed by frontman Ben Gibbard and was recorded in monaural with a single microphone and little editing. The song details the singer's promise to a loved one to remain by her side even after death.

The video starts off with a pan of the room, revealing a simplistic grey and white studio apartment, occupying one person which is the main singer ,Ben Gibbard. The grey in the gives across the theme of depression and solitude, which is supported by the fact that he is alone. At the end of the pan Ben is laying on his side facing away from the camera, this is accompanied by a loose frame exemplifying his loneliness. 

There a trending appearance of circles in the video. This symbolises that there is a hole is his life that is always constant.

In this case the hole in his life could symbolise the absence of someone, which also relates to the fact that he is alone for the whole video.

A good example of this is when he starts playing the guitar it cuts to the inside of the instrument of him playing, zooming in on the hole and his fingers. The inside of the guitar is dark and the only light source is the hole of the guitar. This could represent a light at the end of the tunnel.

When he starts singing, the camera gives a close up of his face, displaying a sad/longing expression. This symbolises his longing for his "love", this is supported by the fact that his first line of the song is "Love of mine". 

The music is played in a major octave throughout the song. This juxtaposes the meloncholy lyrics which created an ironic sense to the whole song. 

In the video the audience are presented with a wide range of close ups when Ben is looking at a hole in his floor. There is an extreme close up of the hole with a spider coming out of it and cutting in a mid shot of Ben jumping in fright of it.

The spider is there to symbolise the idea of fear and arachnophobia is a common phobia in alot of people. By combining that with the small hole on the floor, which represents the idea of that there someone missing, the artist is trying to get across that everyone feels this way at some time in there life which makes the video more relatable.    

We witness in the video that Ben steps in the hole resulting in his leg getting stuck, exemplified by the first mid-shot on the left. The camera then pans upward slightly so that it is a low angle shot of Ben and the ceiling where the lights start to flicker. This symbolises him realising that there is something in his life that isn't right and the lights flickering gives that paranormal aspect to it where something isn't right spiritually with in him and the fact that the song is about a loved one that he said he would stay by her side even after death makes the paranormal aspect more effective.

When he does fall into the hole, it isn't as big and deep as it seems. Ben falls in and then we assume he is gone but he stands up and to his surprise its quite small. This gives an element of humour to the video making it more light hearted. This is presented by a low angle shot showing his head and shoulders. He is again placed in a very loose frame deepening the fact that he is alone one again in this hole. 

Throughout the video, the audience is presented with this hole in the floor of this apartment. As the video goes on, the hole gets bigger as Ben keeps ignoring and walking around it. At the end he finally falls in and walks deeper into the hole. After he is gone, we have a shot of the apartment empty, because he is gone and also the hole in the floor is gone. This suggests that the hole is a metaphor for problems in life and the only way to get rid of them is dealing with them.