Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

Arctic Monkey – When the sun goes down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqkBRVukQmE Target Audience & Needs

I think that the target audience for this video are late teens – mid-twenties. I think this because you get more late teens – mid-twenties listening to loud, rocky music. I think the video is also for people who like to watch short films. I think this because the music video is a narrative video, this means that it tells the story of the lyrics; it also looks like a brief summary of a film like its showing all the important scenes. As the audience I think that even though the music video goes back and forth a bit with the scenes you can still piece together what the story is about without listening to the actual song in the background. Another target audience I think the video is set for is people who watch dramas and read books about serious topics. I think this because the video is set around prostitution and being abused. This is a serious problem that the director, Paul Fraser, wanted to portray in the music video. He had to make sure it wasn’t too heavy for the people who fit into the other target audiences, for the music video, but can also show the negative sides of the issue. I think the video addresses the problem in the best way because they didn’t glamorise prostitution and they didn’t make it too dark and serious for a music video.

Lyrics (Meaning Implied?)

The lyrics to the song have many different meanings hidden in them for example the chorus;

“Cause they said it changes when the sun goes down,Yeah, they said it changes when the sun goes down.”

I think the chorus is basically saying that nothing is as it first seems. For example, in the video the “pimp” or “bad guy” is not dressed as what everyone thinks a pimp or bad guy should be dressed like or how they have been portrayed in other videos or other forms of media. During the day the man appears to be kind and caring but then in the scenes set at night the man comes across as a violent guy and someone who you wouldn’t particularly want to hang around with or see on the street.

In the first verse the second and third line have the most meaning out of the whole verse. The lyrics to the first verse are;

“So who's that girl there?I wonder what went wrong

So that she had to roam the streetsShe don't do major credit cards

I doubt she does receiptsIt's all not quite legitimateAnd what a scummy man”

The lyrics highlighted are the ones with the most meaning. I think these lyrics basically mean that no girl purposely goes into prostitution so this basically falls back into the “nothing is ever as it seems” message that is shown throughout the song. It starts to

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

make the audience think about what would have to happen to someone to make resort them to prostitution and selling themselves. It could be from her being an addict to something and she has spent all her money or she has been abused or emotionally damaged and she thinks she is worthless and can’t do anything so this is the only place she belongs.

Tempo The tempo of the music starts of very slow but then gets faster. This gets shown in the video because when the tempo slows down the shots in the music video last longer than they do when the tempo speeds up. When the chorus is sung for the last time the scenes just flash on and off for no more than a second each.

Genre The genre of the song used is Indie. Typically indie music videos should be performance based with the lead singer stood in the centre of the screen wearing dark clothes, for example; black skinny jeans, hats or suits. The expression shown during an indie music video tend to be minimal and also tend to be seen as very serious. The video also tends to shoot in close ups of the band, the setting of the music videos tend to be in the backstreets or dark areas as this goes with the intended look. The editing used for an indie music video is straight cuts from shot to shot / scene to scene. This is to show that the bands lives are quick paced as indie bands are known as always being on the road.

The video for “When the sun goes down” does not follow some of the genre conventions for an indie music video because it is a narrative video so you can’t see the band performing which is a massive part of indie videos. The only sort of genre convention the video follows is the fact it cuts from scene to scene.

Camera Technique One of the camera shots used in this video is the two shot. The purpose of a using a two shot is for establishing the relationship between two people. The first of many of the two shots shown in the music video is shown is the third camera angle and it is in the third scene shown. It is off a man in a car at the prostitute corner and we see the prostitute kneeling down at the car window about to get in. The second two shot we see in the music video is shown straight after the first. In this shot we see the prostitute walking away from a man and him walking after her. She doesn’t look very happy that the man is there. The third two shot we see is two scenes after the second two shot. In this scene we see her sat with a man who seems to be trying to make her feel better because she looks upset we later find out that this man is her pimp and the one who’s forcing her to keep on working for him even though she makes it a well-known fact that she wants to try and get away from the prostitution world. The fourth two shot we see in the music video is straight after the third one. In this scene we see that the prostitute is in the man’s flat and he has cooked her a meal and he is cutting her food up for her this is making the audience think he does really care for her when really he is trying to persuade her not to leave him. The next two shot we see is five scenes after the fourth one in this we see the prostitute away from her corner and she seems to be near an abandoned business. She is stood with a man. With her being away from her corner where she usually meets clients it makes the audience think that she could be in trouble with this man or she is a drug addict and the guy she has met is her dealer. The sixth two shot is straight after the fifth one. In this shot we see the man, who seemed to be taking care of her a few scenes earlier, walk over to her in a drunken way. The prostitute seems a lot happier than she was in the other scenes this makes the audience confirm the thought they had from the last scene that she is a drug addict and that man was

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

definitely her drug dealer. The seventh two shot is a few scenes after the sixth one. In this scene we see the man who seemed to be caring is in fact a violent man, we see him pick her up and her face goes from being happy to being frightened for her life. This makes the audience think that she is being forced into prostitution and it is not being desperate for money it is because she is being there through fear. The eighth two shot we see is of the pimp coming out of a place with a sign on the door saying “Talent Night and Strippers”. He is stood with another man who looks like he was there for the talent night whereas the pimp was only there for the strippers and the guy who was there for the talent doesn’t look happy at the fact the pimp is drunk. The next two shot we see is off the prostitute collecting something from a guy who looks about 13/14. This shows the audience the type of people the prostitute knows and it also fits into the “not everything is as it seems” message because the 13/14 year old could be delivering her drugs and you don’t expect people of that age to be doing that. The tenth two shot shows the pimp making fun of the man who took part of the talent show. As a result of this shot the audience sees that he is a disgusting human and just a waste of life and he’s trying to bring everyone else down. The eleventh two shot is off the prostitute trying to get another client but him rejecting her proposition. The last two shot I am going to use shows us the pimp being caring and how we first saw him again. This fits into the title of the song because whenever it is a high key lighting scene he’s kind to the prostitute but then when it’s a low key lighting scene he’s a viscous, mean piece of scum.

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

The first camera technique we see is a close up. The purpose of using a close up is to show detail/emotion. The first close up we see is the very first scene. It shows the prostitutes face. In this scene we don’t know that she is a prostitute we just think she is an ordinary woman. In this scene she doesn’t look happy, she looks miserable and like she’s dreading the events ahead or the events she has experienced. The next close up the audience sees is a few scenes after the first one. This is another close up of the woman’s face at this point we know that she is a prostitute. The close up shows us that she it isn’t out of choice and that she hates it. The expression on her face shows that she is disgusted at what she has become and that she has been emotionally hurt. This makes the audience think that she and the pimp started off in a relationship and now he is forcing her into prostitution and she can’t get away. This sort of makes us sympathise for her. The next close up we see is also of the woman’s face this time she looks like she knows that we know what she is and she’s ashamed of it. Each one of the close ups we’ve seen so far have been separated by 5 scenes. The fourth close up is 52 seconds into the video. In this close up the woman looks really upset but she is trying not to show how she really feels. This could give us an insight on what kind of childhood the woman had. It seems like she thinks that if

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

she shows emotion then she will be seen as weak and like she is a pushover and there two things people don’t want to be seen as. The fifth close up is also of the woman. This close up is on the screen for less than a second and unlike the last four close-ups she can’t even look at the camera. It looks like as were seeing the events in between each close up she’s reliving them. The most recent event we see at this point has most probably made her feel worse about herself and she can’t even face anybody because she most probably feels like she doesn’t deserve to be alive and she deserves everything that’s happened to her up until that close up. The sixth close up we see shows us that she is abit angry at whatever she’s most recently remembered or she might be angry at where she is in her life and how it might be different to where she imagined herself being. The seventh close up we see is like an update on what her life is like now and weather she made it out of where she was. The bit we see makes it look as if she is hiding from somebody and she’s upset about something. This gives the audience the opportunity to let our minds run wild. One possibility of this is that she has only just ran away and she’s upset because even though it was most likely like she was living a nightmare but it was a big part of her life and their might have been some happy times even though we haven’t seen them. The last close up I’m going to talk about is shown 2 minutes and 22 seconds into the music video. It shows her at a bus stop. This could confirm some of the audiences’ theories about her running away from her life. She still looks upset about what she did/does for a living and she looks like she wants to forget what happened to her and the people she has met.

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

Another shot in the music video a point-of-view (POV) shot. The purpose of this shot is to show the view from the subjects’ perspective. The first POV shot we see is from the prostitutes’ perspective. This shot appears 30 seconds into the music video and it shows the pimp the scene lasts for one second and is followed by another POV shot of the pimp from the prostitutes’

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

perspective. In this shot we see the pimp either drunk or off his face on drugs by the looks of it he is drunk. This shows us, as the audience, that he isn’t a nice person. This shot is also shown for one second.

Editing The editing technique used in this video is jump cut. This is used to get from scene to scene. I think the video uses flashbacks. This

is used for most scenes.

Use of Digital Effects The digital effect used is colour correction. It is used to make some scenes darker than it actually is.