1. 9 Frame Analysis – Arctic Monkeys – Why
Do You Only Call Me When You’re High
The first shot shows what seems to be the main character in the
music video texting a girl called Stephanie at 3:30AM asking her if
she’s awake. He’s in a bar in the early hours of the morning, alone,
which seems to suggest that he is depressed about something. The
title of the song also kind of gives the storyline away a little bit. It
seems to be bout a man who only calls the girl he’s seeing when he’s
high and desires sexual contact with the girl.
The second shot I have selected is the main character hallucinating in
the mirror in the bathroom of the bar he’s in which is backing up the
theory that he’s drunk and high and desiring to see the girl which I
assume he cant get off his mind.
2. The next shot is a shot of the character in the video drinking shot
after shot after shot and the camera is wobbling and shaking all over
going blurry giving the illusion that the character is high and drunk.
Lots of close ups are used of the side of the characters face as he
drinks all of theses shots further create the illusion that he is having
lots of shots and getting drunk due to depression over the girl
(Stephanie) which he keeps on texting throughout the music video
asking to see her.
This is a point of view (POV) shot from the perspective of the main
character looking over to the clock and the clock melting away into a
sad face, which I assume is a representation of the characters
feelings, he’s feeing depressed about the fact the girl still hasn’t text
him back and he’s feeling sad and depressed about it.
3. The character the chooses to exit the bar he’s been in all night
presumably when he looks over on his way out he sees a man and a
woman flirting about to kiss which is angering him even more abut
not being able to see Stephanie. The shot is blurry again like the last
few shots to continue the illusion that he is dunk and high.
This POV shot is taken from after the character has exited the bar and
started walking down the street bumping into various different
people giving him bad looks. The character then begins to see
multiple people doing sexual things in totally unusual places such as
in the window of a take away shop but then when he character looks
again he realises that it isn’t really happening its just his drunken and
high imagination paying tricks on him because he’s missing
Stephanie and wants to see her for sexual purposes. This shot is
taken of a taxi driver that he sees driving past but the same as the
other shot when he looks again it isn’t really happening.
4. This next shot is another POV shot of the character looking down an
alley and seeing two people engaging in sexual intercourse with
another man watching, shocked that he’s seeing all of this the
character rubs his eyes and looks again and it isn’t actually
happening he just has an angry looking man walking towards him.
This is the final sexual shot that he sees before he decides to actually
just go over to Stephanie’s house. He sees a group of bikers go past
and when they go past he notices a naked girl on the back of the
second bike. This just sends him over the edge and he decides to go
over to Stephanie’s house for what I presume is sexual contact.
5. This is the final shot in my analysis. It is taken from the end of the
video where Stephanie finally sees her texts. Her friends are asleep
on the couch in the background suggesting that she has been with
them all night therefore that’s the reason she hasn’t been replying to
his messages. However when she does see his messages she doesn’t
seem bothered at all she simply sighs and puts her phone down
aggressively. But the main male character is over the road banging on
the wrong door looking for her. So she’s either at her friends or he is
so drunk he’s knocking at the wrong door. This whole video fits in
with the name of the song. Stephanie’s response to his texts suggests
that he only calls her when he’s drunk and desiring sexual contact.
