Detailed analysis of a similar media product to my chosen genre

Alternative Rock

Artist: Linkin Park

Music Video: Numb

Camerawork:

There are a lot of close ups used to emphasise the facial expressions of

both the singer and the actress that is being used in the video, as the song is an

emotional one.

Tracking is used to follow the actress through her school and show what

her every day life consists off there, showing different uses of camerawork along

the way, including close ups which I already mentioned.

As the song starts off, there is a soft build up which leads into a heavier

section, which is the chorus. The soft build up uses a mid shot of a girl standing

on a bridge with her bag, with calm scenery in the background, which happens to

be quite deserted apart from the lone boat. The camera then shows an

establishing shot and long/wide shot to show the scenery, which is an old styled

town/city, and then back to the girl on the bridge that is looking around. This

emphasises the loneliness of the girl.

Later on throughout the video, the girl is shown painting in her room

viciously by swiping her paint brush up/down/across her canvas. Camerawork

used here includes a mid shot to show her upper body movement (arms

swinging) and facial expressions (sadness and anger). Panning is also used to

pan across her front/side as she is doing this to emphasise her emotions.

Editing:

There is a lot of cutting going on throughout this music video between the

band playing in an empty church and the girl during her everyday life (arguing

with her mum, sitting alone at school, etc.). It does this at appropriate moments

to relate what’s happening to girl with the song’s lyrics, i.e. “every step that I

take is another mistake to you” while she is arguing with her mum.

Yet again, editing is used to relate the girl to the lyrics: during the chorus,

the lyrics include “I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there”, while at the same

time shows the girl sitting in class among a lot of people. Fast motion editing is

then used where everyone walks out of the class fast leaving a blurry, distorted

image behind them temporarily, while the girl still remains in her seat with no

fast motion editing added to her. This goes along with the lyrics “I can’t feel you

there” because she feels so detached from everyone else; this is how she sees

the world/her life.

Sound:

The main and virtually only sound that is heard throughout the music

video is the song itself. The band is shown playing and singing along to the song.

Even when the band itself isn’t shown singing/playing and it cuts to the girl, the

song still plays, and at the end of the video, it’s as if the girl can hear the band

playing, and run towards the church where the song is coming from. This

indicates that the song being could be diegetic.

Mise-én-scene:

Locations and settings used include a church, a school (university) and

other random locations around a town/city. This helps create verisimilitude

because they are everyday settings that people the same age as the girl in the

video can relate to. The costumes worn by people in the video (from the band, to

the main girl, to the extras) are very casual clothes that teenagers would wear

(i.e. hoodies, jeans with holes in them, etc.). Props would obviously include the

instruments that the band is playing, school books being carried by students,

dinner, etc.