Arctic Monkeys – ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’By Katherine Laws and Hannah Simpson

Background of Artist/Song‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ is an indie rock song by Arctic Monkeys which was released in the UK in July 2007. Released as their second single from the album Favourite Worst Nightmare, ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ charted number 55 on downloads alone for the week commencing 25 June 2007 and reached the top five for CD singles within the first week of release. Arctic Monkeys are a successful indie rock band with a wide spread fan base; mainly a young audience due to their music genre. Formed in 2002, the band have promoted and established themselves and their music successfully with top charted singles including ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, ‘Teddy Picker’ and indeed ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’.

The Music VideoThe original music video followed the concept of a group of clowns and non-clowns fighting, with flashbacks from when the two groups were once civil with each other. Our video is going to feature the band members playing in a studio, preferably a practice room, as we feel this will be a simple yet effective idea which will help the audience establish the genre of the music video. We are going to get an actual band to perform in our video; this will involve playing instruments to fit the genre. The group of people involved in this band are already ‘indie’, therefore we won’t need to think too much about costume, as they already fit the stereotypical style as would be expected in this particular type of video. This will come across on camera effectively, as the band will be comfortable in their performance, as they are familiar will the equipment, location and clothing which will be used.

LocationThe locations will be a key element in the production of our music video, which will include filming in a music studio practice room which we will have to hire out for the shoot. This location will be where we film the band performing the song. We have chosen this as our location, as it is important to show the band together, and will allow us to get close ups of the instruments (guitars, drums) which is the main feature in the video. This concept will capture the band’s live energy and add atmosphere and movement to the video. This location will allow us to use a PA system to make the song loud on set for the band to be able to easily lip sync to the song, making the live performance more believable to the audience. We will light the area so that the band is the main focus of the shoot. For this idea, we were inspired by such videos as the likes of ‘Teddy Picker’ by Arctic Monkeys. We are also planning on filming the band in their everyday lives as a group, possibly in student accommodation, as this will really highlight the youthful energy which the audience will be able to relate to. It will feature things such as empty bottles/cans and basically evidence of a party the night before.

Inspiration Our music video influences have been varied, from indie videos to rock, purely because of the concept of the us of a band in the

video. One video in particular that has inspired us is ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ – Foster The People, due to the clothing, location and concept of the video. The band are all wearing typical ‘indie’ style clothes, such as skinny jeans and plimsolls, both of which are associated with this genre of music. This, along with other similar videos, has inspired us to follow this theme of clothing, although the actors performing in the video already wear similar clothing, so there will be no need to establish costume. As well as the clothing, the location in this video has given us some idea of the type of things we want to include in our video. In this video there are many close ups on guitars, singers and the band itself, this is a way in which the director has aimed to promote and establish their band, and this is what we are going to do for our video to have a similar effect. There are also a lot of shots of the band outside of performing, showing their normal lives, this is a concept we want to convey in our music video also.

Another video which has influenced our ideas for our music video is ‘Money’ – The Drums. This video features heavily the band performing live and also a side story of the band itself in their everyday life and we want to incorporate this idea in our own music video. The video illustrates the lyrics through on screen actions, for example when the lyrics “I don’t have any money” are sung, the shot then features the band looking on at someone out to dinner who has money, almost envying their situation. This idea of matching actions to lyrics is the kind of thing we want to include in our video, which will be featured in the narrative. There are some close ups of the singer which show the emotion on screen effectively and there are also long shots of the band walking together, which shows the closeness of the group. In terms of location, this video includes a variety of settings, one of which includes a practice room for the band, which has inspired us to portray this same idea within our video. As well as this, the video also shows the band ‘hanging out’ as a group of friends, giving the video a fun atmosphere, which w e would also like to include in ours

Lyrics & Performance • The opening of our video will show the instruments being set up and the guitars being plugged into the amp and

showing the general setting up of the band. The first 30 seconds of the song is instrumental, so the first few shots of the video will of drums and guitars being played. A close up of the feet of the drummer tapping his foot will be used to go with the beat of the music. (This idea was inspired by the video for ‘Pumped Up Kicks’)

• “Is just a memory and those dreams” – Here we will have the band reminiscing about old times, either through walking outside or inside their house after the night before.

• “You took a left off Last Laugh Lane” – At this point we might include a girl actor (either Katherine or Hannah) to play the part of a girl who is leaving one of the lads, this could involve them chasing after her.

• “Oh that boy's a slag” – We could have a shot of inappropriate ‘lads mags’ here to represent the lyrics

Props / Equipment Guitars Drums & Drumsticks Lighting Tripod Microphone Amp Beer Bottles (empty) Magazines (NME-shows bands lifestyle) CDs Posters