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.

2. 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.