analysing the learn to fly music video

1. Learn to fly-Foo Fighters

2. The music videos narrative is about janitors on a plane who put drugs in the
coffee before the flight takes off and everyone gets drugged including the pilots
apart from the Foo Fighters band members who then have to land the plane. The
narrative has quite a funny twist as all the characters on the plane are played by
the band members including the women and even babies.

3. The mise en scene in this video is pretty simple as the whole of the video is set on a plane
and inside the cockpit. The lighting is high key throughout the video which is fitting to
the genre as it isn't heavy rock which is usually associated with low key lighting. All the
camera angles are pretty simple as they’re just eyeline match and most of the shots are
just medium shots. Some of the editing in the video is quite good as the band members
play all the characters some of them are in the same shot twice. There is also a part where
someone's head turns into a burger which is good editing. The sound is obviously the
song and the song is about medium paced and the pace of editing fits with the pace of the
song.The video also features Jack black and Kyle Gass who form the band ‘tenacious D’ as
they are quite good friends with the Foo Fighters. This also puts a funny twist on it as the
video features a well known actor.

4. The whole of the video is narrative based as it is the story of how everyone
was drugged so the band had to land the plane. The narrative fits to the
lyrics as the band literally have to learn to fly. The todorov theory of an
equilibrium fits to this video as the equilibrium is disrupted at the start
when the drugs are put into the coffee and continues to be disrupted when
the pilot and passengers are drugged, it then becomes an equilibrium again
when the band land the plane and the janitors who put the drugs in the
coffee are arrested. The narrative also is quite humorous as all of the band
members play all of the characters in the plane which is quite common in
the ‘Foo Fighters’ music videos as they like to put a funny twist in all of
their videos.

5. There are quite a lot of different representations throughout the video as
there a lot of characters in the video. For example one of the air stewards
played by ‘Dave Grohl’ is gay and the character is played very camp and
sassy which is a common stereotype of gay men but isn’t always true.
Another stereotype is that of the other air hostess even though she is
played by a man she is wearing a low cut top and flashing her cleavage to
the band members which could include the theory of male gaze as that
would only be for the males benefit. The band were also represented in a
way that made them look cool by showing them in low angles and close
up shots. The way they saved the plane from crashing also makes them
look like the hero’s which is something they were probably looking to do
when making the video.