1. 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.