Comparable Product Music Videos

The Arctic Monkeys - When the Sun goes down

Image - The video opens with a close up of a girl on the street with a council estate setting visible in the background.  This establishing shot is suggestive of the girls class and connotes to the audience that she is not wealthy.  This is reinforced by her attire as she is wearing relatively 'tatty' clothes.  This close up shot enables the girl to immediately make eye contact with the audience creating a relationship between them and therefore allowing the audience to sympathise with her.  Throughout the video we are presented with direct links between the lyrics of the song and the visuals.  The first line of the song 'Who's that girl there' starts as soon as we see the close up of the girl.  The following line, 'I wonder what went wrong so she had to roam the streets', involves the audience further by posing the question to the audience.  This enigma draws them into the narrative.  Throughout the video it seems that a handheld camera has been used which helps to draw the audience into the action and reinforce realism.   'What a scummy man', here we see a two shot of the young girl with a man which highlights the dynamic of their relationship as uncomfortable.  'I'll bet he'll rob you if he can' shows the man stealing an egg off the girls plate, which is again a clear connection between the two. 'Can see it in his eyes'  is simultaneous to a close up of the man so the audience can look into his eyes which helps them to feel more involved.  The fact that he is wearing a pink boa is contrasting to his strong and tough image and also gives the impression that he is not a particularly normal man, as this is not seen as a typically masculine thing to wear. This helps to reinforce that there is something strange about this man.   'He's got a driving ban' shows a close up of the man in a car with a thuggish facial expression.  'Amongst other offences'  image is blurry and very colourful, stresses that the other 'offences' are not known, but there are many different ones.  When the beat kicks in, the visuals are again in sync with the sound and so the pace and type of image changes dramatically, with fast action and sped up motion alongside lots of handheld movement through a point of view shot out of the window of the car.

Editing - Straight cuts have been used repeatedly throughout this video to help keep the continuity of the music .  When she is walking down the stairs the movement and pace of edits are in time with the beat.   They are simultaneous with the beat. 


Target Audience - I think that the target audience for this video is mid-late teens as i feel that it represents how life could be if things got really bad.  I also think this because the characters shown don't seem to be too old so my target audience are able to relate. 


Mode of Address - The video opens with a close up using direct mode of address which, immediately creates a relationship with the audience.  The dull unhappy atmosphere and her pale skin makes the audience feel sorry for her.  


Narrative - Propp's narrative theory has been used.  There is low key lighting when the man is on screen and he wears black connoting he is the villain. There is high key lighting when the girl is outside on her own and she maintains eye contact with the camera a lot so the audience are able to relate to her.  This suggests that she is perhaps the heroin of the narrative.  The costumes of the characters help link in with the narrative - poor,unkempt.  


Representation - I think that this video focuses on lower/working class people giving them a negative portrayal such as selling themselves on the street etc.  I think that it also represents males as the dominating sex as the male shown in this video seems quite rough and thuggish -  not someone you would mess with, putting women across as the weaker sex. 



Enigma - Enigma is created by the audience not knowing what her job is, but by the video interpreting a few different jobs, which causes the audience to pose questions


Attract Audience - The elements that attract the audience i think are, the close ups where direct mode of address has been used, as Having the girl look straight at you through the camera helps the audience to create a relationship with her and therefore, the band.

Images of Band/Artist - The band is not featured at all during this video which suggests that they believe that the music is more important and they are not focusing on the band itself.