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 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

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.