This document provides a textual analysis of several shots and sequences from the music video "Flourescent Adolescent" by Arctic Monkeys. It analyzes the cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, and symbolism used to portray the relationship between two former friends who are now enemies engaged in a violent fight. Flashbacks show them once being close as children but now one clown beats the other brutally, reflecting their lost friendship and deepening conflict. Tension and emotion builds throughout quick cuts and slow motion sequences until one is forced to kill the other in an explosion, showing the devastation their feud has caused.

1. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

2. FLOUESENT ADOLESENT The first shot we see is from the passenger seat of a car, this could be interpreted as a point of view shot- this makes us feel as if we’re in the car and part of the action. This same shot then goes into a handheld shot, that is shaky so it gives the illusion that we’re running with the people and therefore reinforcing that we’re part of the scene. Also in this sequence, as the fight scene breaks out, the editing get noticeably quicker giving the scene a more frantic anxious feel.

3. In this screen shot from the opening of the music video we’re shown the setting for the music video, which seems like an old industrial estate. The place looks abandoned which would suit the anonymity that they would desire with, what seems like, an organised fight. The mise-en-scene also has a very 70s look to it, this is shown by the dull colour scheme that is used- brown, and pale blue- and the retro cars used also give it a distinctly 70s feel. Also in this clip we see dust kicked up off the floor by the car that we see, this reflects the dirty side of the music video (i.e. Hooliganism and organised fighting).

4. Here we see a man running towards a car, which the camera is positioned in (this means that the audience feels placed there as well). He is running away from a clown, showing that in this instance the clowns are stronger as a member of the group that is dressed casually is trying to escape from them. As he enters the car the camera subtly cuts to an over the shoulder shot, this puts the audience on his side and builds the apprehension that we feel when the clown jumps onto the bonnet of the car. Then the camera pans to see a panicked expression on the mans face, reinforcing the clowns ability to scare.

5. In this clip we see a man attempting to ward off two clowns with a chair, we see him smash a chair on a wall. This is done using a long shot as well as a slow motion track; the long shot is used to show that the individual is quite small - in that he is inferior to the clowns and the slow motion is us to show that the chair breaks up into several little pieces - this represents the devastation that this fight is, or could cause. In this image we see a low angle shot of a man with a chain as he is about to attack a clown, this shows that he is now the more powerful person (this is the same person whose car was jumped by the clown)- the first time in the video where the clowns vulnerability has been exposed.

6. The first shot of the video above is a long shot of a clown beating up one of the casually dressed people, this could be interpreted as a POV shot as later in the video two men (dressed casually) are seen coming up behind the clown and dragging him away. After this shot we see a medium shot of the man that is being beaten, this is framed in such a way that we don't really see the clown that is beating him, but we do see his bloody face and that he is being held over water by the clown- this show that once again the clowns are in control because his life is in there hands. The framing also emphasises the risk of drowning that the individual faces, this is shown by the fact that most of the shot is water. In the last shot of this shot reverse shot there is text superimposed onto the image, it reads ‘How could it have come to this?’ this is significant in the music video as it shows the viewer for the first time that that there is some emotion connection between these two figures and that it is not just mindless violence. We then see shot reverse shot that shows the aggression, and lack of sympathy, that the clown is showing compared with the man that is bloody and in pain.

7. Last slide cont. This shot is also significant in that it introduces a flashback which is of presumably these two people when they were younger, playing on a swing socialising with each other well- in contrast to the contempt they feel today. This is the only part of the video that is lip-synced , this makes the lyric seem more significant (especially as it is done in such a way that the clown is ‘saying’ it to the casually dressed person) than any other “Where did you go?”, this reinforces the fact that they were once friends and are now enemies and has lost him emotionally.

8. After the swing scene, the camera cuts to what could a handheld shot of the pair cycling together. This again shows that they were once friends, this is further supported by the mise-en-scene: a park, which has positive connotations and balloons, the have party connotations. After a sequence of more violence (but slowed down in order to show a more calmed atmosphere- the ‘calm before the storm’ potentially), their is an over the shoulder shot which shows the mans target (the clown) looking directly at him as they’re about to engage in a battle that involves the clown getting rammed into a corner by the driver that we see here.

9. At the beginning of this clip we see a zoom, this zooms in quickly onto a petrol leek- it is quick to show that the clown has to think fast in order to get out of this predicament. This then straight cuts to a medium shot of the clowns face, the shot is in slow motion (highlighted because of the quick nature of the editing around it) as the clown realises he has to kill his former friend in order to survive his own life. His power is then shown through a low angle shot as he drops a lighter onto the line of petrol. The fast pace is then restored with a very fast POV tilt as the clowns eye line follows the line of flames to the explosion that it produces. After this their is a dolly which goes from a medium shot of the wreckage to an over the shoulder shot of the clown looking on at the devastation he has caused. This dolly could also represent the clown mental state at this time, his world is spinning because of he has just killed a person.