Case Study 1 Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly

Foo Fighters - Learn to fly

In the music video of Learn to Fly we are given a comedy view to the different viewpoints of a long journey back home. Throughout the Foo Fighters music video we are shown different key stereotypes of what the band itself see's and how we as audience also agree to what they see when we see it. This music video itself has used alot of Andrew Goodwin's theory. However they have gone by it in a very smart way.

Throughout this music video we are greeted with several different characters. These characters are:

• The pilot
• The fan girl
• The air hostess
• Dave Grohl as himself
• The tracksuit couple

Firstly we can see that all these characters are played by the lead singer himself "Dave Grohl". This shows our first point of the star image at used or "Demands on record label". Usually in music videos the lead singer tends to be shown the most especially in rock bands because generally the audience tend to think that the lead singer is better looking. Dave Grohl who plays all these characters is constantly in every frame. There is always a close up of him or a long shot of him in this music video which shows that he has a little bit more of a higher status over the other members of the band purely because he is "Lead" singer in the band. 

Learn to Fly - Star image (Dave Grohl)

In every frame of this bands music video we can tell that the record label would be used to seeing that Dave Grohl is in every shot. This is due to the wide fan base that this band has, also fans are expected to see Dave Grohl alot more than other artist cause its his voice that we hear. 

In this music video we don't just get the typical rock band music video. We see the comedy side to this video instead. For instance most of the comedy in this video has been played out by these characters. These characters are all so stereotypical which is what makes it funny. Usually in rock band music videos we would just get the usual performance based music video of the rock band singing to the camera. However in this case Foo Fighters have combined both the performance and Narrative structure of the music video so the story can be told throughout the video and the lyrics combined makes it easier for the audience to understand and grasp what is going on. For instance this music video seems to show the everyday life situations of a plane ride which the title of the song gives away "Learn to Fly". Throughout this video we see that Dave Grohl is the idea of a "Normal" person such as giving the impression he is what the audience is thinking in these situations. However everyone around him seems to be very overly acting giving particular stereotypes off. For instance the young girl fan girling.. Stereotypes of what Dave Grohl has to deal with every day. The lady in the track suits seems to be larger compared to other girls. Stereotypical called "The Tracksuit Family". Then we have the cabin crew workers which is stereotyped as being a little over the top and constantly smiling. However one point in the music video one guy in the video refuses to buy a drink and we get the glimpse of the "Stuck up" attitude with the facial expression from the close up played. 

Medium Shot of Dave Grohl

Narrative structure is not only what we see in this music video, In fact we see the band them self rocking out on stage at their own concert singing this song which shows the miming towards the audience and the camera. This shows the performance based structure of the band to emphasis the energy within the chorus. This is mainly where we tend to see the performance based part of the music video. We are still presented with the star image of Dave Grohl singing towards the audience and the camera. This shows the energy within the fan base and the concert that they are playing. The way this part has been done is showing it through one of the pull down TV screens you see in the airplanes. To still give this feel of the airplane ride. 

Performance based shot

Throughout the video we finally understand what the meaning is. We see at the start from a guest appearance Technicous D (another rock band genre). They have put drugs into the coffee. Drugs is a symbol towards rock and roll. We see that things on the plane ride start to get out of hand and at one point we hear the lyrics "I'm looking to the sky to save me" At this point we see that the Plane journey has taking a fault and that the ride has become bumpy. The color red is presented in the pilots cabin representing danger. The fact that these pilots are looking to the sky for it to save them as said with the lyrics shows another point towards Goodwin's theory such as the lyrics and the visuals playing together to emphasis what is hear within the lyrics. We see this played in two parts of the music videos once with "I'm looking to the sky to save me" and another when Dave Grohl takes hand of the wheel to save the day playing the hero character (which can relate to the audience because he may inspire his fans and become there hero's) we see the book "Learn to Fly" which is the title of the song. This is shown dead on the chorus of "Make my way back home and learn to fly". emphasizing whats going on and emphasis the lyrics. When we are shown the instruction guide we are given a middle shot to show the text on the book to show the audience they lyrics as they hear them at the same time. This emphasis on the  visuals and lyrics playing together again.

"looking to the sky to save me"

"make my way back home and learn to fly"

We are also shown the "Notions of Looking" in this video with the lady air hostess. She is the eye candy for the men in this video however in all respect she seems to look the tiny bit trashy this is due to her characterization too. She's chewing gum and looks grumpy giving off a negative vibe of women not being polite at all.  She bends over giving both men an eye full of her cleavage that is on show and the other guy a good look at her behind. Shes obviously wearing a shirt that's tight fitting to show her chest area alot more and a short skirt to show her legs. This is giving off a negative image towards the way women dress. It kind of shows that women who wear these outfits are the people that will get the men's attention alot more. Therefore she has been presented as the eye candy. Again this is also shown by the reaction to both of the bands members shown bellow in the screen shot.  We are shown medium shots to show the surroudings and the facial expressions of these characters also the body language they are given off at this point. 

The reactions

Notions of Looking

Overall in the Foo Fighters music video we can see that the video has used alot of Andrew Goodwin's theory to create the music video it self. This is something that needs to be taken into consideration when it comes to making my own music video. We can see from this music video nearly all the points are shown in the music video from Goodwin's theory. Its is important for music videos to use these points of Goodwin's theory so that the music video itself can connect to the audience and let the audience understand it. Not only is Goodwins theory important but working with the camera angles help this to create the message that we need as the audience to understand for instance alot of medium shots and close up shots are needed to emphasis its points.