I Write Sins Not Tragedies is one of my favorite videos by Panic! At the Disco. I decided visual context might be an interesting rout to take while evaluating this video. I could tell from the very beginning that the setting of the video is a wedding. It started with a zoomed image of a white guest book and soon moved on to a priest. It appeared to be a normal wedding as the camera passed over the bride and the groom. However, when I observed the guests at the wedding it was clear that the wedding was far from normal. All the guests on the bride’s side had faces painted resembling traditional porcelain china dolls. Their facial expressions seemed to be in a clown-like manor. The groom’s side of the church was empty which I found quite peculiar. There seemed to be a magician who was discretely in charge of everything. Soon, odd people burst through the door filling the empty seats dressed like they belonged in a circus. With a flick of the magician’s wand, silver dust was thrown into the air awakening the porcelain dolls and revealing human eyes instead of painted ones. They moved with such uniformity, almost like they were under command. In confusion and perhaps frustration the bride fled out of the church only to be followed by a male guest. They were found by the groom and magician outside behaving in a fashion that clearly exposed that they were lovers. Obviously the wedding was called off. In the end it is revealed that the magician is the groom.
I think there are many questions that this video evokes. Why are the guests depicted as dolls? The painted porcelain faces could symbolize the structure and tradition of a wedding. I think this point gains more evidence when the dolls “come to life,” but must still move in a way that feels under command. Why do the characters in the video seem to be clowns or from the circus? The fact that the bride’s guests seem to have clown features could foreshadow the secret that is to be revealed, almost like they are making fun of the situation since they are on the her side. It also appears that the groom has no one to witness the ceremony for him. Later you see that he does have guests, they are just members of his circus. It is almost like they were the spies and broke in to object just in time. The irony of the video is in the conclusion where it is revealed that the magician is actually the groom. It seems that he had suspicions all along and used this to reveal the secret his bride to be was holding all along.
