REAL MEDIA ARTEFACT 02 - Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before The Lights Come On

Arctic Monkeys – Leave before the lights come on (2006)
Director: John Hardwick
Genre: Alternative/Rock

The video is set in Sheffield, in the Cultural Industries Quarter, during 2006. It starts off with a close up of a man walking down the street, with diegetic street noise for a couple of seconds before the song kicks in. The surroundings look like a rough area and the man doesn’t have the happiest expression on his face. The lyrics haven’t started yet so you don’t know whether the song is about this man.
It then cuts to a close up of a women’s face that looks quite sad and she is looking down. You then get an establishing shot of where she is, on top of a building, looking as if she is going to jump. The song does not fit this kind of scene as the song has a very up beat and this is not a very happy situation. She then looks down at the street, which is a point of view shot, which is when the audience then realise as the camera cuts back to the man, that these two people will meet each other because of this situation.
The lyrics “Well this is a good idea…” are sang when the women is shown on top of the building. This could have been intended for sarcasm as it is not a good idea or a coincidence, because through out the song the lyrics do not relate to the video.
The beat of the music is emphasised by the camera cuts, angles and shots. There are shots of the man and women at the beginning that are evidently cut to the beat. There is a close up of the man and the women’s hands almost toughing as the man tries to pull her back from the roof edge. The music is very quiet at this point, only a guitar is heard, to build up the tension of whether she will accept his help, when she does take his hand the other instruments kick in to almost so joy that she is away from the edge.
The band is not in this video at all. The Arctic Monkey’s are well known for their spontaneous videos though, including a video which was based on clowns fighting all the way through, so this is no change if the audience know of the band.
Also when the man has had enough of the woman following him, he threatens her so she starts to run away. This is where the high point of the song starts, where the instruments are played really loud that fit her feeling of despair as she runs through the streets that we have recently seen. You start to feel sorry for the women as the audience can predict that she is going back to the top of roof again – and maybe jump this time.
This video is a narrative video of a woman who uses the excuse of jumping off a building to get attention from men – who will hopefully help her. This is shown at the end when you find out that she goes back to the roof and waits for a man to walk by to drop her shoe to attract their attention. There is a mid-shot of her smirking as she does drop the shoe which will make people think the video is quite a weird but quite humorous idea for a music video.

Here is a link to watch the official music video