The video for Alt-J's "Breezeblocks" has an unconventional narrative style with shots edited in reverse order. This creates a disorienting effect and conceptual twist by portraying the desire to turn back time. Various camera techniques like alternating depths of field and close-ups create an artistic feel while reflecting the song's pace and mood. Symbolic props like a breezeblock used as a weapon represent the love and fatality between characters. Though confusing, the plot involves a woman's attempted murder of a man in their home that goes wrong, with the video seemingly showing the man's wish to change events.

1. Yves Robinson
Video analysis: Alt-J Breezeblocks
I have chosen to analyse the indie group
Alt-J’s music video for one of their first
singles “breezeblocks” for it’s off the mark
narrative style and deep conceptual
meaning.
From the opening scenes it is obvious that
the video has been edited so that the shots
are in reverse; This immediately creates a
disorientation in the narrative of the video and gives a more conceptual twist. After watching
the video you could guess that the reason for this editing technique is to portray the idea and
desire to turn back time. The video has also been edited with a variation of fast and slow cuts
to mirror the pace of the song, the long cuts being shown at the bridge of the song with fewer
beats and the quicker cuts being at the chorus, this creates a flow between the music and the
video, making it easier to watch and listen simultaneously and just makes the video appear all
round professional and up to the mark. The camera techniques used give the video a more
artistic feel; with the alternating depths of field creating a soft look to the shots as well as
disorientating the view of the moving characters. The video also features its fair share of
close ups to capture the props being destroyed , the running water from the tap in reverse, the
deceased women’s hand floating in the bath tub and the aggressive facial expressions of the
characters to set the mood and display the emotion portrayed in the video.
Throughout the video there are several
iconographic props and codes displayed; for
example there is a shot that is repeatedly cut too
with the male characters head in his hands as he
sits beside the women he just killed in the bath tub,
and on his hand we see a wedding ring, this has
been strategically placed in clear shot to thicken
the plot to the video, we can clearly decipher the
man is married although we cant be sure to which
character if any of them at all. There is also an
actual breezeblock used in the video which makes
a direct reference to the song title and lyrics, the
breezeblock is used with the intention of a weapon
by the male character, immediately giving
aggressive connotations to the once quite odd and
innocent title to the song, however the breezeblock
is then pulled back and forth between the two

2. fighting characters giving a sense of shared harmony in the heart of the fumbling fight scenes
of the video; the opening scene of the deceased women lay in the bath is also cut to
throughout the video and towards the end to create tension, the breezeblock is also used her
as a weight to hold her down and kill her, again bringing back the aggressive connotations of
the prop. In this sense the breezeblock could be symbolic of the love shared between the two
characters and its fatality, this is exaggerated by the fights and death represented throughout,
that the love they shared, he used as a weapon and eventually killed her. These examples
seem very symbolic and to me feel like subliminal clues to the meaning behind, or even an
explanation to the confusing narrative of the video
As I mentioned above, the breezeblocks
video has a reversed narrative, starting
off with a dying women in a bath tub and
reversing into a fight between the women
and a man for a large portion of the
video. We then see towards the end of the
video a third character, a women who
appears to be taped up and hidden behind
a curtain of some description, the male
character reverses to help her and we see behind him the first female character hidden behind
a book case holding a knife. At the end of the video we see the male character entering the
room in reverse, switching off the lights and closing the door. Though the story is rather
confusing to follow and even more so to explain, after some thought the audience can depict
the events in the video and put together a plot for themselves and even a theory behind it.
This is what makes the video so interesting, because it is a thought provoking piece of work
that the viewer can get involved in and feel part of during and after watching. What we do
know however is that the first female character in the video was most likely waiting for the
man to come home and, judging from the prop knife she was holding, kill him, however it
didn’t quite go to plan for her and this induced a fight resulting in the characters death; from
this and the shots of the man holding his head in distress paired with the floating women in
the bath tub we can assume that the reason for the video being in reverse is to show the desire
of the male character, to turn back time and not kill the women.
Three characters feature in this video, one being the women who appears in the opening shot,
the man who kills the women, and the women who is taped up towards the end. At the
beginning, the first female character appears to be being attacked by the male character and
chased throughout the flat; the body language and facial expressions of both characters gives
them a crazed, furious and aggressive appearance. Later on in the video as the reversed plot
unravels, we see the caring and concerned side of the male character as he cares for the
trapped women who gives off distressed and terrified facial expressions and we later find that
in fact the first female character is the attacker and the man was just protecting himself and
the second women in what is presumed to be their home. Aside from the fact that the
narration is literally reversed, so are the stereotypes of male and female in that the women

3. was the attacker and not the man, though we don’t know the reasons for her characters
aggressive behaviour of insanity this is definitely a twist on murderous plot conventions.
The video is set in what looks like an average flat, not too extravagant in its decoration or
furnishings and looks like it would belong to an everyday working class person. The fact that
it is set in an enclosed area such as a flat mirrors the ideas portrayed in a horror film, a one-
way-in-one-way-out space which increases the fear factor and is relatable to a lot of viewers
as an ordinary home. there are various deliberate techniques used within the mise en scene to
set a dark theme to the video, for example the low key lighting gives an eerie vibe to the
video throughout, mirroring the events of the plot and the style of the video. The colours used
in the decoration of the flat where the video is set are also very bleak, dark and minimal
which again create a spooky look to the scene and the blue tones of the shots themselves give
a cold, scary and more artistic feel to the video.
All together the “breezeblocks” video is a very interesting and artistic take on a narrative
story with lots of conceptual aspects and an enigma of a plot, it is also very enjoyable to
watch and depict the greater meaning behind it and strikes many questions as to why the
snippet of the story we were shown took place, and also raises question as to why this was
chosen for a video in the first place.