This song was the first single from the band’s third album "There Is Nothing Left To Lose", on the labels "Roswell" and "RCA Records". The song itself was released on two different singles in the UK in October 18 1999. The video for the song was directed by Jesse Peretz and produced by Tina Nakane. The video also received a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 2001.
This music video is a synergy of the song (Learn to Fly) and a parody of the comedy film "Airplane!" – there is intertextuality in the way the video ‘borrows’ many elements of the ‘airplane disaster’ genre of film (which Airplane! itself is parodying)
Mise-en-scene in the video is all linking heavily to the film. The main one is the fact that the video was shot on a simulator used for training flight cabin crews, so it exactly matches a real one with seats, cockpit, kitchen and TVs. Also there is a wide range of costumes used by throughout the video.
You probably couldn't find a stronger link between the lyrics and the visuals in any other music video. As the song is named learn to fly and the during the durations of the flight it slowly builds up to the conclusion of the band having to learn how to fly the plane
The video begins with the actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass working in kitchen where they hurriedly hide a package containing ‘erotic’ sleeping powder when the flight attendant (Dave Grohl) comes in. In the background is a ‘muzak’ version of ‘Evelong’ one of band’s earlier songs. At 0.31 the Learn to Fly riff comes in and we see the band dressed as pilots sitting in the cockpit. Passengers begin to get on the plane (mostly played by the band members) including the use of ‘fat suits’ at 0.38. At 1.14 we first see concert footage of the band, shown on the cabin’s TV. At 1.51 the storyline develops with the cabin staff preparing coffee, not realising that the drug package is in the coffee maker. At 2.08 a clip of the band (from above) showing the drummer switches to a fan (played by Grohl) tapping the real Grohl on the shoulder – this is in time with the last 2 drum beats. At 2.32 the cabin crew begin serving the ‘drugged’ coffee to all of the crew and passengers, except the ‘real’ band members, who already have alcohol. The video continues switching between concert footage on the cabin screen and the humorous effects of the drugs on cabin and crew. At 3.03 the concert footage shows Grohl crowd surfing with arms outstretched (like a plane) and at 3.53 he twirls his mic stand like a propeller. The concert clips appear to have been specially filmed as there are so many different shots from angles that ‘conveniently’ fit with the rest of the video. At 3.13 the camera begins to tilt from side to side rapidly to show that the drugged pilots are losing control of the plane. At 4.01 the ‘real’ band take control of the plane, using a manual titled ‘Learn to Fly’. The video ends with Black & Gass being arrested with ‘Evelong’ muzak in the background again.
In the music video there were quite a few editing and visual effects, the first visual effect is at 3.22 this in when the pilot is seeing one of the flight attendants (Grohl) flying along side the plane which is followed by the fat woman seeing someone’s head turn into a ham burger at 3.27. The uses of cinematography consists in the lights being kept the same brightness through out in the cock pit and also the main seating area of the plane. Furthermore there were a couple interesting shots for example there was a lot of over shoulder shots and close ups with the occasional 2 shot and 3 shot..
The video fits into the rock genre when the video it cuts to the Foo Fighters playing a live concert with all there rock associated equipment for example guitars and drum kit, but the other content (e.g. dressing up in women’s clothes doesn’t really fit the ‘rock’ genre.) The music video is really a story with a strong narrative attending to the piece. The music video promotes the band extremely well as it shows off the bands sense of humour that they put into mostly all of there videos and have become well known for. The music video is aimed at young adults who are into this genre of music and videos with a humorous nature. This is confirmed by looking at commetnts on Youtube, where most people are talking about the humour in the video - "This vid is hilarious", "Always laff when I watch this vid", "Dave is so funny as a gay". This perhaps shows that while the video can add to people's enjoyment it might also distract them from the song. One person commented that they had "Always thought this song was about Grohl's relationship with God" until they saw the video, so it could be that for this person the video has made the song less meaningful.
The director Jesse Peretz was himself originally a bass player for the band Lemonheads in the late '80s. He began working as a director in the Boston area directing music videos (including for his own band) commercials, and the "Jimmy the Cabdriver" segments for MTV. His best known videos are probably the ones for Foo Fighters – he shot "Big Me",”The One”, “Long Road to Ruin” and “Low”. All of these videos are made in a humorous style, and feature quite clear narratives.
Most of his other videos are for smaller bands, although he did direct the video for “School of Rock” (from the film featuring Jack Black. In 1998, he directed his first feature film “First Love, Last Rites.” In 2007 he directed “The Ex” which is his first film with well known actors, although it received very poor critical reviews.
Bibliography
http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=10883
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learn_to_Fly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Short_Form_Music_Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJS1rmhI6c
http://www.hollywood.com/
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow
“Go With The Flow” was released in 2003 by Queens of the Stone Age from their album “Songs for the Deaf”. At the 46th Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. The music video was made in England by Shynola (a group of visual artists based in London who have worked together on a number of acclaimed music videos) . The video was nominated for the Best Art Direction, and won Best Special Effects at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
The video is shot completely in red, black and white, and features the band travelling through the desert at high speed in a 1960’s pickup truck along with other imagery, most of it of a sexual nature. The video is highly stylised with a very simple narrative of 2 cars racing towards each other.
The main Mise-en-scene feature is the two trucks which are hurtling towards each other down a deserted highway. Other Mise-en-scene such as telegraph poles, cactus plants, phone box with a raven on top and wooden fencing are mainly used for the purpose of highlighting the speed of the vehicles (as they race past) and indicating that they are in a desert. Throughout the video everyday objects are used in a sexually suggestive way. For example at 1.04 after a bikini wearing young woman is first seen draped across a car bonnet raising her leg, a guitar neck is shown rising at the same angle. At 1.20 the woman (enlarged) lies in the road with her legs open and a small car enters between them. At 1.53 the woman holds an oil can up and ‘oil’ squirts on her face. At 2.18 the woman is again shown on the car bonnet with her legs open as a man approaches her and begins to climb on the bonnet, straight after this the two cars meet and ‘merge’ causing a logo of a fork prong to enter a hole made by a coiled snake (the logos are on the 2 car bonnets.) This is followed at 2.35 by a swarm of ‘sperm’ that swim through the desert and cactus.
The video mainly uses sweeping shots which go over and around the truck and constantly highlight the speed of it. The only time that slower sweeps are used is when the woman is featured, although the camera is still moving.
As stated above the video won an award for visual effects. According to Chris Harding (of Shynola) the concept for the video was based on the artwork for the band’s album cover (mostly red and black) and the film Sin City which was released shortly before. The band also spend a lot of time working at a studio in the desert plus the ‘driving’ pace of the track fitted well with the high speed driving of the trucks.
The film took 8 weeks to make from inception. A live action shoot was done near Los Angeles featuring the band performing in the back of the truck as it speeds down a highway. Green screen was then used to add everything else around the truck. According to Harding the final video features a mix of “nurbs cacti, the dancing girls are animated texture sequences on hand placed planes, and the swimming sperm are instanced geometry flowing along curves. The trails of fire and smoke coming from the truck are sprites with animated texture sequences.”
Harding also says that as the video is so stylised because “We designed everything, right down to the logo's on the truck's gear stick. If we hadn't done this, when we came to do the actual work, we wouldn't have known what to do, and there would have been no continuity.” Stylised visual effects feature throughout the video, but especially at the end where there are lots of sweeping images all merging together, such as flowers, wheels, lines, speedometers and lips.
There aren’t many links between the visuals and the lyrics apart from the ‘flow’ of the swimming sperm and at 0.28 the line “she said I throw myself away” matches lead singer (Josh Homme) throwing away a beer can.
The music links to the video through the ‘driving’ speed of the track and the drummer drumming on the truck’s dashboard. Throughout most of the video the cuts are in time with strong drum beats.
The video fits well into the stereotype of the genre of rock as it features speed, fast cars, darkness and half naked women. Most of the comments about the video on sites such as Youtube are quite simplistic but generally positive. Comments such as "Awesome song and video","I can't get enough of this video", although some people give more detailed comments and have clearly thought about the quality of the video - e.g. "I think this is one of the most visually appealling and creative vids of the century so far","The artisitic direction of this video is amazing." There is also a comment that "If you like this stuff you should check my band out" which shows how a good video can inspire others to make music/videos.
Directors Shynola (Chris Harding, Richard "Kenny" Kenworthy, Jason Groves and Gideon Baws). met at art college. They did not originally intend to make music videos (they intended to make animated films) but found music video a good way to”Try out new ideas and get paid for it.” They preferred music videos to doing commercials as they would still have almost total control of their work. They are now very successful and have produced videos for top artists such as Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur. They have also done animation work for adverts (Nike,2002), television (The IT crowd, title sequences, 2006) and film (Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, 2004).
Bibliography
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=1072&page=2
Wikipedia
Purposes of research
The reason research is so important is because it provides a strong background to the work i am undertaking.
There are two types of research these are;
Primary Research - Is research that you have undertaken by yourself and you have not relied on research which has been posted on the internet etc.. You have to collect your research and information from what's around you by going out and asking the public, friends or family. Therefor this research is your own and can not be found anywhere else.
Secondary Research - This is the complete opposite to primary research as this is information that you take off the internet or from books. This research is however is not reliable as anyone could of written it. In this case books are more likely to be the safer option as books have to go under checks to see if the information inside is reliable.
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