Music video analysis 3

Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm

Briansotrm is the opening track on UK indie rock group "Arctic Monkeys" second studio album ”favourite worst nightmare". The track reached the top 40 in several countries and came in at the number two spot in the UK charts and no.1 in the UK indie charts.

From the beginning it is clear that this will be performance based, this is shown form the opening shot of the video as the group are clearly in a studio stood in front of an infinity cove, also all of the band members are stood with their performance instruments and equipment. As well as being a performance based video it also includes various abstract clips with the shots seeming unrelated to the song’s lyrics or group.

Because the video was shot in a studio this allows the director much more control over the set up. For example when outside lighting is very hard to control even with the proper lighting equipment, whereas in a studio you are able to every aspect of the lighting to get the desired shot. The lighting in the video changes between shots, when shoot the group the lighting is dim and is focused directly at the band members resulting in everything else around them covered in darkness.

Voyeurism is a key theme throughout the video, we see several female dancer featured consistently throughout the video in minimalistic clothing used to draw the attention of the male audience. There are often zooms and close up of the mid-section of the dancers to enhance the watch for pleasure effect.

There are many effects added at a post-production stage, firstly the static effect used near the beginning gives the video another dimension making it more visually different. The video is very fast paced, this is done by constant straight cuts and fast camera movement. This is done to match the feel and tempo of the song as this can enhance the viewer’s opinion on the song.