
In Passion Pit’s Carried Away music video, the main couple undergoes many ups and downs in their complicated relationship. They are shown doing an array of many things, from goofing around, to being intimate, to arguing, to laughing, to angrily throwing glass vases at each other. During their fights, both the man and the woman say things that they later regret.  These words (quite literally) come back to haunt both of them.  The use of gazes and framing in Passion Pit’s Carried Away music video is used to visualize hurtful words and the apologies that follow them.


The couple’s hurtful words finally catch up to them near the end of the video. In this shot, the man and the woman face the words that they have said in the past. Their gazes are fixed on the negativity that they have uttered to the other. The medium shot is used to show the characters’ position while also showing the subject of their gaze. The woman’s extra-diegetic gaze and the man’s inter-diegetic gaze are both fixed on the representation of the unkind words they have said. This is when they realize the extent of what they have said. The physical position of the characters supports the idea that they are going to “fight” their words. Both characters are shown in an alerted state. The woman is clinging onto the man while the man finds a way to fight the words he has said. The closeness of the two characters shows the intimacy, and that they are going to sort the situation out together. They are both preparing to face the words that surround them.

 Shortly after this frame, the couple get into a physical battle with the words. They hack and slash at the words until they finally turn into a bundle of meaningless letters, while flashbacks of their past fights flash across the screen. This scene represents the internal process of apology. They recognize that the things they have said were hurtful, then together they create a resolution to the issue. Their conscious recognition of their wrongdoings lead them to regret, and their regret leads them to come to a solution. By getting rid of the hurtful words they are able to put aside all of the negative feelings that they had.


With the harsh words destroyed and in the past, the couple is able to take the last step in an apology: the formal stating of “I’m sorry.” In this frame, the man is pointing to clouds in the sky that spell the word “sorry.” The over-the-shoulder camera angle is used to show the perspective of the two characters. What the audience sees is identical to what the man and the woman are seeing. Both of their gazes, along with the audience’s, is on the word “sorry.” The couple’s gazes were in different places while dealing with the chaos surrounding the attack from the words, but in this shot they have a unified gaze. This shows the unity between them. They went from fighting their words separately to coming together to apologize. This shot is the formal apology that the man issues to his girlfriend for all of the things that he had said to her. Following this, the woman accepts his apology by pointing to a different location in the sky, which has “ok” written in the sky with clouds. They then walk back into the house and are seen lying next to each other; their issues finally resolved.

This scene represents the resolutions that come from apologizing. The couple sorted out the words they have said by symbolically destroying them. Once they do that they are able to come to an agreement with a formal apology. With the words, “I’m sorry,” formally spoken, the tension between them finally is put into the past. They then are able to arrive into a peaceful state. 

The music video’s message and the message from the lyrics of the song are similar, but not exactly the same. Both are an apology to the girlfriend of the singer. The only difference between the two is that the reason behind the couple’s disagreements are displayed in the lyrics, but are only hinted at in the video. The root of their problems is suggested in the lyrics of the song. The singer says, “Please don’t ever note me as your friend… Let’s perform our favorite little scene.” The root of their problems is the fact that the man just wants to sleep with the girl, rather than be committed in a relationship with her. She says that she is, “certain that [she] need[s] this,” which gets questioned by the man, “tell me what your point is in defense.” He later says hurtful things to the girl when he states: “Listen, I don’t really know you, and I don’t think I want to… Let’s just keep pretending to be friends.” These words are what fuels their arguments in the lyrics. In the music video however, the fights have a trend of being started by the angry girlfriend. There are numerous scenes of her getting enraged at him and acting irrational. She is shown smashing Jenga blocks, kicking over a canvas, and slapping a tablet because she lost a game. The girlfriend’s rage is not mentioned in the lyrics of the song. Nonetheless, the music video and the lyrics act as an apology for the way the singer has acted.

Though the couple had their troubles, they were able to come clean by apologizing to each other. It took a physical battle to do so, but it did get done. By using framing and gazes, the music video is able to visualize the apology that the singer gives to his girlfriend.
