Music Video Analysis of Arctic Monkeys – Snap Our Of ItHOW DOES IT REPRESENT GENDER, SOCIAL CLASS ETC IN ITS USE OF CAMERAWORK, EDITING AND USE OF SOUND.

Snap Out Of It - Music Video

http://youtu.be/H8tLS_NOWLs

Genre and brief plot.

Arctic Monkeys are known for doing strange and obscure music video particularly in the AM album period. This video features an insecure, emotionally unstable upper class woman, a home video of the bands rehearsals, and the woman cooking steak. It is quite random. I believe it is more in the concept boarding onto the narrative genre. The lyrics are related loosely to the song ‘snap out of it’ when we see the montage of the woman and her mixed emotions, these lyrics could link telling the woman to snap out of her current unstable state.

Representation of WomenThe opening shot is a mid shot of the main character getting our of the water. The woman motivates the pace of editing, as she rises from the water the camera pans upwards towards her face, she is then gets out of the swimming pool in a graceful, manner, this presents the woman as rather elegant but still ‘sexy’ and an object od desire.

Once the woman is out of the water we see a close up shot of her body and low cut swim suit, this again leads to the common stereotype that woman are to looked at and also links to the Male Gaze theory (1975) created by Laura Mulvey which states that audiences ‘have’ to view characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male one of the features of the theory is ‘the camera lingers on the female curves of the body’ which is what this shot is showing with it’s slow panning and close up shot on her body. Her we could conclude that she is an object of the male gaze.

Here we see another close up shot of the woman crying whilst watching what appears to be a home video of the band. She has tears running down her face whilst the band members are laughing and smiling during the home made video. This represents the woman as weaker in comparison to the men as she is seen in distress and experiencing a great deal of sadness where as the men are seen smiling and in a positive state. Therefore we could conclude that the men are more in control and she as a woman is weak.

A mid shot of the men laughing and joking around in the home video that the woman is watching

Here we see a wide shot, the woman is costumed in a tight skirt and just her bra. This could represent her as bare and vulnerable and shipped down. It may symbolise her emotions.

In time was the fast beat of the drums we see a quick montage of the woman and the home video of the band age. After each shot the woman is seen with a different emotion, either laughing, crying or just looks blank. This could represent woman as emotionally unstable and concluded to the common stereotype that men control women's emotions because they have more power than women.

Representation of Class and WealthAt the very beginning of the video we see a close up shot of the woman’s belongings which featuring, expensive jewellery, gold and peals, a cigarette end and a dirty coffee mug. The expensive jewellery suggests that she is off wealth and from the upper class but then these expensive belonging are placed with not so upper class belongings. The cigarette nub could suggest that though upper class people are wealthy there also have bad habits, smoking and not cleaning up after themselves.

After all her mixed emotions during the entire video she is seen in the ending in her swimming pool again. This could suggest the upper class have a life a relaxation and luxury, they can unwind in their luxury pool and forget about heir problems for the moment being because they can afford to.

Representation of MenDuring the entire video where we see the band they are seen joking around, they are many close up of their faces. There are also many close up shots and establishing shots of the playing their instruments this could represent men as hard working and dedicated to their work.