http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXYiU_JCYtU
Numb is a song by the heavy metal band Linkin Park, the song is very aggressive and deals with the rebellion of teenagers and how they wish so desperately to be themselves but due to their parents or some sort of authority continuously getting in the way then they can never be themselves. The video for the song begins with a mid shot of a young girl standing on a bridge looking over the city of which is quite clearly Prague. The camera cuts to various different buildings of the city before cutting back to the girl in a high angle mid shot as though emphasizing the world is looking down on the young girl symbolising how the world looks down upon young people and teenagers subsequently highlighting their feeling of isolation. Afterwards a high angle shot reveals the band’s live performance of the song by revealing a section of the equipment directly before another high angle shot; only this time a long shot shows the whole band all playing live and in synchronisation with the music. The area the band is playing in is very peculiar in regards to typical conventions of rock music as the area the band is playing in is shown to be an old church; this does not conform with typical conventions in regards to mise en scene for place in which the live performance takes place as usually this happens in a very urban area such as an old factory or middle of the streets. However analytically this would link to the idea that the band is preaching some sort of belief, in this case most likely being the belief that teenagers and young people should be allowed to do whatever they like without the limitations of people around them, the church element therefore helps highlight the sense of strong belief system the band and song is trying to portray. Multiple shots are then shown of the band cutting from various long shots and close ups of the band playing instruments, this is just as the tempo of the music begins to increase. The narrative begins to show the girl in a classroom therefore clarifying that the girl would most likely be a teenager, she does not show any real contact with other students and another high angle close up shot reveals the teenager to be drawing angels onto a notepad creating an impression that she is seeking hope from somewhere, notably the girl’s wrists are shown to have scratches on them indicating clearly that the girl has cut herself frequently in what is most likely frequent suicide attempts, this would overall suggest the girl is going through a vast amount of emotional pain which has caused her to delve herself into physical pain representing teenagers as very emotionally torn people who aren’t listened to or cared for in anyway therefore showing them to be isolated. The girl is shown to be laughed at and taunted by her fellow classmates reflecting the emotional torment the girl is suggested to be going through. The band is frequently cross cut between the live performance of the song by the band throughout this video, the narrative now begins to focus on the girl travelling throughout the city with her notepad continuously drawing images taken from very religious statues. Another shot later is a time-lapse type shot in which a class full of students all leave the room whilst the girl stays, the classmates are blurred as though they cannot wait to get out of the room and leave the girl, and never does any other classmate acknowledge her existence emphasizing further her isolation from the rest of the world. Another shot is similar to the time-lapse but instead this time the girl is seemingly deliberately knocked over and the time-lapse begins as soon as she falls over, again no one acknowledges her or helps her up despite her considerable pain. Another panning shot is again similar to the time-lapse shot as it pans the school pupils walk down and up the corridors in a fluid motion referencing how no one is again helping her emphasizing her isolation even more. Whilst at home she does not have any proper communication between her mother highlighting again her isolation and that no one really cares about her. The time-lapse type shot again occurs to indicate how the mother is in an almost routine day and does not have anything to slow her down whilst the girl is still continuing normally as though her world is slowed down making her pain of isolation seem even more drastic. A close up shot of her mother shows her in a red shirt seemingly complaining about something, the fact that the mother is complaining most likely about something unrelated to her daughter indicates that the mother does not care about the emotions of her daughter or isn’t aware of her pain because she never communicates with her daughter, clearly she is not openly talking pleasantly to her daughter due to a reaction close up shot of her daughter whose face is emotionless as though the daughter just wants her to shut up and listen to her, she is wearing a sleeveless black shirt, the dark nature of her clothing would help indicate that the strong but dark emotions she is feeling at the time whilst the fact that her clothes are sleeveless help suggest that the daughter is essentially screaming out for her mother to notice her pain but is instead to focused on her own self to listen to her. Multiple more time-lapse shots show other girls at her school walking away as soon as the main girl sits down and more panning time-lapse shots show the school casually going through their day whilst again no one pays any attention to the girl. The girl eventually ties her hair behind her back and begins to throw rapidly stuff across her room (of which is covered in her pictures of angels from before) as though she is attacking her own self metaphorically as well as physically and therefore emotionally. She begins attacking the drawings in a slashing fashion as cuts towards the live performance becomes increased as the music tempo begins to increase, the slashing motions reflect the slashes the girl has done to herself. Eventually the girl suddenly appears inside the church where the band is performing, she runs up towards the band just as the song is about to finish, this helps highlight how the young girl is finding solace and hope with the fact that the location is in a church through Linkin Park’s music, the random nature of this ending (of which is quite abrupt) highlights as though the girl has been transported into the music world just before the song ends, the fact that this is a church plus the fact that the last time the girl was shown she was in a very emotional state suggests that the girl may have perhaps killed herself in order to be transported into this world.
A typical image of alternative rock videos, showing a close up or mid shot of the instruments before they are actually shown as the full band in the live performance.
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