How are narrative techniques employed in U2's video Every Breaking wave

"Every Breaking Wave" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the second track from their thirteenth studio album, Songs of Innocence, and was released as its second single. It was produced by Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder, with additional production from Declan Gaffney. Initially rooted in post-punk, U2's sound grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music, yet has maintained an anthemic sound. Their lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal themes and sociopolitical concerns. Popular for their live performances, the group has staged several ambitious and elaborate tours over their career. 

The song was in the top 30 in the US and in the charts for France. It reached number 7 in Belgium and did very well in the UK. Rolling Stone ranked "Every Breaking Wave" as the third-best song of 2014, calling it a "stark, shimmering ballad" that stands as the "emotional centre piece of Songs of Innocence".

The song's official music video is a truncated, four-and-a-half-minute version of the 13-minute short film Every Breaking Wave, which was directed by Irish director Aoife. The film dramatises the violence of The Troubles in Northern Ireland during the 1980s by depicting a teenage couple on opposing sides of the conflict. McArdle used the album and acoustic versions of "Every Breaking Wave" in the film, along with another track from Songs of Innocence, "The Troubles". The film premiered on 12 February 2015 before the music video was released on 23 February.

Figure 1

The video follows Tzvetan Todorov's theory as he states that it should have five main points. A state of equilibrium where everything appears calm and normal. Then a disruption or disequilibrium where it is a set back, then a realisation then an attempt to repair the disruption and then back to the equilibrium. The video has these elements as in the beginning there is are shots of young people partying and there is a sense of calm and normality. As you can see in figure 1 a clear sense of equilibrium is being created. This carries on to when the the protagonist, in this case the boy in figure 1 meets a girl and they are shot in very scenic places such as the country side and in a sunset thus creating the equilibrium. This soon changes as the disruption is when the protagonist sees his dad in trouble with the police and he has to try and help him with his friends. This immediately changes the video and there is a clear sense of panic from the main character. The shot in figure 2 of the boys running together  shows the panic as before that the boys had always been smiling or having fun      

Figure 2

together so having a tracking shot of them running shows how the story has had a turn for the worse and how it has effected them. There are then hand held shots of a group of people who are trying to fight off the police and get the main characters dad out of trouble. The use of shallow focus and deep focus in these unsteady shots shows the panic and allows the narrative to be told about how the situation has changed dramatically. Also after this the boy and girl character and separated and not in shots together for the first time which reinforces the disequilibrium. The narrative then has a realisation as the boy and girl are in shots together again as there has been a realisation of the disruption. The main character tries to then repair the situation by him and his friends getting guns to help out his dad with the people he got into trouble with. However the final scene of the video does not follow the theory as it end with a bomb being set off and the main character and his friends being injured in the explosion leaving the story on a open ending. Although the ending does not conform the theory the rest of the video does and follows the clear pattern of Todorov's theory. 

Another theorist is Roland Barthes who states that at the beginning there is an enigma which allows the audience to guess what happened and creates tension. This is when the main characters dad is doing a deal with people he knows and the main character knows its trouble but doesn't do anything about it. This leads to the audience trying to guess what was happening thus creating an enigma. Another narrative technique of Barthes is the hermeneutic code which is where they avoid telling the whole truth so they drop clues and create mystery and it allows them to make the narrative interesting and keep the audience guessing. This is shown when the main characters dad gets arrested as we do not know why he has been arrested for but we have to guess ourselves which allows the narrative to have the mystery and draw in the audience.