Textual Analysis

Artist: Arctic monkeys

Song: Leave before the lights come on

We have chosen to do this video as it is purely narrative and it is a good idea to get a sample of lots of different types of videos.  Arctic Monkey’s Leave before the lights come on begins with a mid shot of a man facing the camera walking down the street, his footsteps are in time with the beat of the music. It then cuts to a close up of a woman via a white screen effect, after the close up a long shot is shown to reveal the woman is standing on a roof. The viewer believes she is about to commit suicide.  It then cuts back to the man again and this parallel editing continues, varying the shot types each time. There is a close up of the man followed by an over the shoulder shot, then a close up of the woman followed by a low angled shot of her looking down to emphasise the height.  The cuts are quick and correspond to the music.  Throughout this segment of the video two effects are used, the first is a crackling celluloid effect mimicking a damaged film and the second is sped up camera movements. It often jerks back and fourth. One particular example is when the man discovers the woman, the camera jerkily revolves around him before zooming in on the suicidal woman. This perhaps represents the man’s shock and disorientation when seeing the woman for the first time.  The main beat of the song kicks in as soon as he spots her and the pace of the video increases immediately, this is an excellent example of matching the images with the music.  There is a now a sequence of quick cuts of the man running, the camera jumps from long shot to close up and from over the shoulder to in front of him really quickly, perhaps imitating the speed he is running to save the woman. The camera settles on the roof for  moment showing the roof door, the man comes theough it and we follow him around the corner a little before cutting to an over the shoulder shot of the woman, the camera looking back at the man running towards her. The parallel editing from earlier in the video is back and we are shown close ups of both faces before a long shot of the pair on the roof and traffic below, the man is stretching out his hand. The camera then cuts to a close up of the man’s hand and the woman’s clenched fist, the guitars on the track kick in and the woman grabs the man’s hand and they hug, this is shown via an over the shoulder shot of each of them quickly cut together.  We then see a low angled shot of the pair walking down the stairs before a cut and the camera is positioned inside a café which the pair enter.   There is then shot reverse shot, this signifies conversation and is useful as there is no diegetic sound.  Similar techniques and shots are used throughout the video to similar effects, such as parallel editing once again showing the inevitability of them meeting; fast quick cuts during a confrontation scene to represent the anger of the man; match on action the beat once again kicking in when someone begins to run and the jerking revolving camera this time depicting disappointment and confusion.  This video uses a variety of different shots and effects and all of them have some purpose and are used to convey meaning. This is something we intend to emulate when we produce our own video.