'Afraid' The Neighbourhood - Analysis

The video begins with a black screen, and fades into a black room with a white spotlight on a young boy and a table with a tall pillar with a cup on top; the white clothes the boy is wearing and the white pillar with white cup contrasts with the black background.

The boy walks over and takes a drink, which is when an extreme close up of the boy drinking out of the cup blurs into a black screen with 'THE NBHD' written on screen.

 

A straight cut is used to show the boy lay on the floor with only a single spotlight on him, which is when the music starts playing and the camera zooms into him.

When the beat hits, the boy blinks and the band are seen in his eyes because of an extreme close up shot.

One of the shots we can see in his eyes is a medium shot of the band's lead singer sitting naked in a white chair - he is exposed and vulnerable just like the boy is, which links to the title of the song, 'Afraid'.

We then see then lead signer with the word 'AFRAID' "carved" into his forehead, which implies that he tries not to show his fears to the world but this song exposes these fears to the world.

The camera then zooms out and, in the left and right background, there are two spotlights on two people - one is sat at a piano, and one is sat at a table with a cigarette; it could be someone writing the lyrics for the song, and the other is someone playing it on the piano.

The spotlights then fade out and a spotlight appears in the foreground so we can see the little boy sat on the chair.

This spotlight then fades out, and, again, we see the two people in the background. Then the spotlight appears in the foreground and the lead singer is sat naked on the same chair the little boy was sat on.

This continues for a few shots and it is implied that the little boy is the lead singer when he was younger, showing his vulnerability and possibly how fame and being in a band has drastically changed him from that once young boy.
After quite a few of these shots, the little boy disappears and it is just the lead singer sat in the chair, implying that the little boy is a symbol of his innocence and now that he's gone, it means that his innocence no longer exists.

A picture is taken of the lead singer which shows his skeleton, suggesting that everyone can see right through him and this song is letting us get 'inside of his head' and get to know him personally and what he's thinking.

The whole video up until this point is in black and white, but the camera shows a high angle medium-long shot of the band performing the song with purple spot lights on them; purple has connotations of wealth and richness, but also of flamboyancy, which could have implications of what fame can make you become.

The music then stops and there is silence as the camera slowly zooms in on the little boy lay on the ground. This is contrasted with extremely quick editing of clips from the video so far, which is edited in reverse, possibly to show that the effects of fame can be reversed.

The chair that was shown towards the start of the video is now totally empty, and the little boy has disappeared.

However, a shot of the little boy is seen, but the spotlight isn't covering his whole body and his face is in the dark, implying that the singer's innocence is somewhere inside of his, he just has to find it.

 

The screen fades to black as the music fades with the image of the empty chair.