This video is a narrative music video, it is about a couple
who are almost Bonnie and Clyde like because they plan to rob a store to get
money and have a very toxic relationship. Within this the audience see them
take drugs and smoke which isn’t what your average couple would do together and
sets up a bad representation of the band and their star image.
The video is done by using flash backs and flash forwards,
you see moments of the couple being happy together, then you see him by himself
and then when they aren’t as happy together.
The song is non-dietetic sound but at certain points (when
he is singing into a microphone to his girlfriend) he lip syncs the words to
the song. This helps the audience to see that the music isn’t just in the
background all the time and it makes it very interesting to watch and helps
link the songs/lyrics with the video.
Around a two thirds into the music video the music stops as
we see the couple run into the store wearing balaclavas, the audience then her
swearing and a voice saying “get on the ground”. The audience then hear a
couple of gun shots and then the use of silence to build up the tension of the
moment. As soon as the door of the store opens the music starts up again and
the audience see the main man has been shot and his girlfriend is helping him.
Before this scene happens the camera goes to the faces of
the other men in the van (where the man and girlfriend will get out of) which
are the other band member, but Matty Healy (the main character) is the most
famous out of the band so he has the bigger part and the rest of the band are
just their as “extras”. This also shows that Matty is going to help set up the image the band want to
portray and because he is the main character in this video people will assume
that he is the front man.
The music video has very dark lighting to it, apart from
when they are outside, so this may connote that their relationship isn’t a
happy one. However, when they show intimate moments there is always some sort
of light coming through a window to show the intimate moment.
Throughout the flash backs and cross cuts the audience can
see a flash forward to them walking towards the store that they are going to
rob.
These set up questions for the audience that the band will
hopefully answer in the music video
The camera movement in this video is mainly hand held,
because we can see the shaky ness of it, however at the beginning of the video we can see the slow camera
movement zoomed in on details of Matty and the girl which gives us a sense
intimacy of but once the music kicks in the we get more faced paced clips.
Near the end of the video when Matty is shot the audience
can see a cross cut to him being in pain to the couple being intimate, this really
contrasts but it works well because they link.
There is direct correlation with the music and the movement,
for example when we first see Matty’s bloody hand on the side of the building
the beat of the drums kicks in and gives it a more dramatic effect.
The shots we see really contest each other because they show
the bad parts of the relationship, the fighting, and the good part of the
relationship, the laughs and love.
The meaning behind the song is that it is a toxic
relationship and the couple are too focused on each other to notice the
destruction they cause to each other, we see this when the camera does close
ups of their faces and bodies, and then when they are smoking and taking drugs.
The title “Robbers” refers to how the couple are robbing each
other of happiness and chances in this world, such as when Matty points the gun
at her head as a “joke” and when they go and rob a bank. The video shows how
they are stuck in this type of relationship because they are so caught up in
their toxic relationship.
I think that the band wants to be represented as people who
care more about the story their music is trying to tell. If people base their
opinions of the band on this video and think that this represents them as a
whole then this gives them a bad representation. However, I think the way the
video was done people can see they the band want people to focus on the deeper
meaning and listen to the lyrics and link it with the video.
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