Video Analysis

Arcade Fire- The Suburbs

 I will be focusing on Arcade Fire’s fourth album called ‘The Suburbs’, released in August 2010. The indie/rock band, from Canada, have had great international success. The album debuted at number 1 on the Irish Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, and the Canadian Albums Chart. It also received multiple awards including Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammy Awards and Best International Album at the 2011 BRIT Awards. The album itself has the theme of the ‘suburbs’ running through, along with adolescence and growing up and their personal and political feelings which is shown through their lyrics and videos.

‘The Suburbs’, directed by Spike Jonze.

The video is purely narrative and has no performance of the band, which subverts their genre identity as most indie rock tend to have a lot of performance to help band identity. However, in the case of this video I think the narrative is very strong and deeply moving, allowing the video to be memorable without needing performance. 

The narrative is shown through a flashback a boy has from when he was younger, when him and his friends used to play on the streets safely in their protected suburban environment. The group joke around about the war outside their protected community, until the war they thought was a game ends up on their doorsteps and one of the blonde-haired boys gets taken away. The blonde-haired boy returns after serving, he’s more mature and angry about what has happened and blames another boy. The blonde haired boy goes after the other boy, despite his friends trying to stop the fight; the boy is beaten up at work. The video ends with the blonde boy crying after smashing chairs and the other boy is staring at the monster the war has created.

The camera is barely still throughout the video, particularly at the start demonstrating a fluid movement perhaps in a metaphorical sense meaning ‘fast paced life’ or ‘childhood’s being over too fast’. As the motif of the band in this album is generally based on the idea of growing up, I think this fits perfectly. I enjoyed watching this part of the video and thought that the disorientation of the camera made you feel a part of the group as they go on their journey. This movement of camera also fits well with the rhythm of the song, as the beat is constant, fluid and fairly relaxed at the start, setting the tone of the video. I would like to incorporate this into my own video, as I think it brings a reality and a sense of being involved. 

I believe the colours in costume play a particularly important role in the video. At the start, the two main boys are seen mostly wearing white tops which I think portrays innocence and naivety. In the later scenes the blonde-haired boy is seen wearing a white top covered by black/blue jackets, this could be seen as a darkness casting over him, perhaps through his thoughts and feelings war, therefore shadowing over his innocence to give the impression of someone older and stronger. Since the jacket is just covering the white, it could still be portrayed as his maturity has been forced upon him and he’s still naïve inside. This idea would also link to the end of the video where he is crying on the floor after seeing what he’s done and what he’s become due to outside world.

The lighting in the video essentially relies of natural light from the sun for the outside shots. Because they have done this, the reflected light makes the children look more natural and youthful. I would also like to incorporate this into my own work, as I prefer natural light as opposed to artificial light. Again it will make it look sufficiently better in certain shots, providing it links with the narrative me and my group choose.

I personally love the shot of the broken bike outside of one of the boy’s work places. The shot focus’ on the bike from a high angle to make is seem insignificant and lost, as though it doesn’t fit into its surroundings. The boy is seen from a long angle shot, where he stares at bike looking blankly at it. This could work as a metaphor for his now broken and ruined childhood, and that nothing exists of his past. I would like to use this kind of symbolism in my group video, I think that the unspoken emotion is very affective in a video and makes it more haunting.

The video also plays with pathetic fallacy, which helps set the scene and emotion. In their childhood, there are clear skies all around, demonstrating security and everything being simplistic. Then, when they are threatened they are in the dark with the occasional flashing lights, giving the sense of entering the unknown, which to their suburban lives appears threatening.

The settings for the video aren’t too exciting or extraordinary. The use the stereotypes of a ‘American’ suburb, using houses that all look very similar with pristine lawned gardens at the front of the houses, streets that have very little traffic. They also use a desolate field which they cross a few times, again it is nothing spectacular, but sets a backdrop to the scene. I think the simplicity of the setting for the video makes it more appealing to the viewer as there is not too much to focus on.

The lyrics fit the narration very well, taking its own twist of the meaning. The difference between the rhythm and wording of the song, especially at the start is huge. They tend to keep it upbeat but relaxed as they talk about childhood in a derogatory way. For example:

• “And they told me we would never survive”
• “You always seemed so sure, that one day we would be fighting in this suburban war”
• “In my dreams we’re still running and screaming through the yard”
• “So can you understand, I want a daughter while I’m still young. I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before the damage is done”
• “In my dreams we’re still screaming”

The video also demonstrates the bands political views on war. This is shown the through the moment they are by the fence, looking out on to the war zone. I think this is set to show two different worlds. One of the group turns their back to the other world, showing the uncaring nature of people, and getting across the meaning of not caring until it affects you.

There is also a small amount of foreshadowing in the video, where the group of friends are using BB guns and are shooting unsuspecting citizens. In this shot, we see the group of friends in an open stair, looking out and shooting at people. This is a close up shot to all of the children and we can see from their faces they are happy and uncaring about other people’s feelings or consequences. The man they shoot with the gun is shown running to tell them off from a high angle shot, making him again seeming insignificant to their fun. Even though they are only children when they do this, this is the reality of the blonde-haired boy.

The timing is done well, as it links the lyrics to the narrative but doesn’t take the literal meaning of the whole line. For example, when it talks of night it cuts to night but sticks to the narrative of their suburban paradise being threatened.

The editing is simple and slow at the starts, but begins picking up pace towards the end, reflecting the hectic ending. Having very little visual editing makes the video look professional. This is something I would like to consider.


Digipack

Arcade Fire created 8 slightly different types of digipack for their album, ‘The Suburbs’, mostly changing settings and colours but keeping the same dynamic of the car.

The digipack I will be analysing is probably the most common of all as it has been widely distributed in the UK as the ‘main’ one.

The main image running through the digipack theme and on occasional album posters contains the car. The car is of a vintage model, which helps reinforce the look the band are going for, but also links to the idea of a stereotypical 1980’s upbringing in a suburban area. The image of the car is from behind and takes over the bottom third of the cover. We seem to be in the ‘back seat’ of the car, which perhaps is a metaphor for the band taking us on a journey, or being able to transport us elsewhere.


The colours used in it are mainly dominated by a pink tone added to every pane on the digipack. The pink added to the cool shades of blue, green, brown and grey give the sense of a calming cd.

Alike the bands ethos, the cd itself is also very minimalistic but highly effective. It comprises of an all-black cd, and a smaller white circle by the inside of the small hole. The writing ‘Arcade Fire’ above the hole, and ‘”The Suburbs’” below is written in a handwritten font. To me, this gives the feeling of a ‘homemade’ type of cd, which of course fits into the idea of ‘The Suburbs’

The back pane of the digipack consists of the works “Arcade Fire Presents “The Suburbs”” It is written out in a very arty way by playing with the shape of the text. I love the way this has been presented and would like to consider playing round with the shape of the text for my digipack. The font is quite informal and relaxed as they again have gone for the ‘hand written’ look. I think with this type of font you have a much bigger audience base, as it doesn’t appear pretentious, this is something I’d also like to consider for my own digipack. The background to this is of a suburban back garden with a fence, grass and plants. This image is edited to replace the grey and white picture with a pink in grey one to generally fit in to the whole colour coordination of the digipack.

The inside panes of the digipack are photographs of the ‘Suburban’ area in which they have set their whole album around. I suppose for a photography point of view, this picture could be deemed as something non artistic and boring, but actually after edited you see more than just what is in front of you. The colour across the inside panes could be a metaphor could be to subvert the idea of a dull suburban lifestyle, and that you should actually look again to enjoy the simplistic nature.

Poster

The advert for Arcade Fire essentially follows the same look at  the cd, with the same dominating image. This is the theme that links all of their album release together. They still use the same colours and same kind of background, to again follow the continuity of the release.

The advert conveys the same stereotypes brought with adverts, ie release date, band name, name of album.