Linkin Park Essay

Linkin Park is an American rock band and What I’ve Done is the first song on their new album Minutes To Midnight.
The video is part performance and part narrative, it has the whole band playing their instruments in a barren wasteland which could be iconic to what the world has become, fitting in with the lyrics of the song. The video has a type of flashback usage in where the viewer can see things that humankind has done which is deemed wrong or, evil a few examples of these are flash-backs or the Klu Klux Klan and the terrorist attack on the world trade centre. The video is supposed to explore the many ironies of humanity and its ill effects on the world alongside the song’s lyrics. There was an alternate version of the video released in Australia which was a narrative of a young woman who is working at a government run pharmaceutical company learning about a plan of a new virus which is used for “social control” and with the help of a few people in black Linkin Park hoodie’s sneaks out some blood to expose the plot, this could be an attack on what governments are doing behind the peoples backs.
At the beginning of the video we see grass reversing in their growth, perhaps this connotes how instead of going forwards humanity is instead digressing, the grass also links the beginning of the video with the end giving it a continuous feel, this could be a reference to how life continues or to show humanity is stuck in a never ending circle. We also see low angle shots of each of the band members, this convention is used very often in rock band videos as it gives off a sense of superiority and “aloof-ness”, or a stereotypical “we don’t care” attitude. Throughout the video the camera pans around the lead singer this could be to signify how important he is which lead singers are believed to be or to be an object of feel attention as it shows his backside.
The bands clothing also follows the codes and conventions of a rock video as they are dressed in mainly black, this could be to signify their feelings about what is happening in their video/world.
The song also fits in with the video in time, for example in the beginning just as the song kicks in the video is showing a bombs explosion, kick starting the song, this helps transfer the feelings of the song as well as making it look a lot more professional than an un-synced video.


As you can see here the video also has the expected close up on the band member’s instruments, this is an expected convention of this genre of music video and so they make sure they stick to them so the viewers can relate and know what to expect.
When comparing this video to Linkin parks older ones you can see how as they got more famous and most likely wealthier their video’s quality has risen exponentially, for example; in the video In The End the computer generated graphics look much cheaper than in their new videos. One thing that has stayed the same in their videos throughout the decade however is the stylized way they play the instruments.
The lighting used in the video is supposed to be from the sun rather than from studio lighting, this increased the verisimilitude of the video on a whole, after researching the video I learned that the sun in the background while the band is performing is actually a stage light that has been edited to look like the sun using the editing program Corel VideoStudio.
Many of the flash-backs / cuts in the video are played in slow motion, this is for a few reasons, one is to allow the viewers to see the short clips that might have been too hard to properly see and the other reason is that slow motion shots generally help evoke emotion is people and the pictures in these clips are meant to cause sorrow, pity and realisation in the viewer.