FooFighters: Walk: Deconstruction

For their newest single the FooFighters produced a music video depicting a normal man rebelling against life. The lyrics describe someone pushing away from their normal life and begin taking risks by doing whatever they want. The music is in the genre punk, whose target audience is varied but is normally ages above 16.

Camera: The camera movements in this video are simple but convey the story and meaning behind the music effectively. Handheld shots are used extensively throughout the video to convey to the viewer the idea that the video is real and the characters are representing people from life, meaning it is relatable. The height of the camera is an extremely important aspect of how the director establishes the characters social class and personality. At the beginning of the video high shots are used to show the character as being oppressed and frustrated with his life. As the video progresses the camera becomes more and more level with the character to show his growing strength and confidence. At the end of the video the camera is low, looking up at the

character showing he has pushed through his problems and grown as a person.

Editing:How the video is paced is important in relaying its message. At the beginning in the piece the pacing is slow; connoting to the audience the character lives a boring and mundane. The pacing increases as the character performs more rebellious acts. This keeps the video moving and continues to catch the audience’s attention. The fact that the director did not use transitions continues the idea that the video is realistic. This therefore continues to make the video relatable for the audience. The fact that the video is lip-synced to the song shows the relationship between the visual and song. The lyrics become more dominant as well allowing the audience to read into them and understand the deeper meaning of the video.

Sounds:Sound is very important in a music video as it was created to sell the song. At the beginning of the video the track is not playing, this allows the audience to concentrate on the other sounds in the video. The sounds heard are common, car horns, chatter and traffic sounds. These sounds set the scene and clarify the location to the audience but as soon as the track starts all other sounds are muted. An example of this is on the golf course when Grohl is shouting at the golfers but cannot be heard by the audience. This forces the audience to focus on the music and how it relates to the visuals they are watching. This is an effective technique that could prove useful in our music video.

Mise-en-scene:

The most prominent lighting source in the video is natural light. With the majority of the video being set outside it was the easiest light source to use. When the character ventures inside to buy a

cheese burger the lighting switches to artificial. This lighting arrangement connotes to the audience that this story is taking place in real life, not in a music video. This reinforces the connection the audience has with the character and song.

The costumes in the video are many and varied but not uncommon. The main character played by Dave Grohl wears and shirt and tie, connoting he is an office worker. Another member of the band, Nate Mendel is wearing a uniform for a fast food chain. Both costumes are very different but are not uncommon in real life, reinforcing the realism of the video.There are an endless number of props in this video so I will concentrate on the most frequently viewed, Grohl’s guitar. The guitar represents many things in this video; one is the character’s personality. At first the main character appears to be a normal, bored and frustrated office worker whom is annoyed at his life. When he retrieves the guitar from his car the audience see another side of his personality, he is

musical. This is something the audience would not have anticipated. This demonstrates the idea that not everyone is who they seem on the outside and that you should not judge a book by its cover.Another aspect of the guitar that is interesting is that music is a significant part of life. Later in the video Grohl is confronted by two characters dressed to represent genres of music; one is rap/hip-hop and the other is metal/heavy rock. They then threaten him with a knife to give them his guitar but he fights them off. This connotes the idea that the band is fighting against popular trends in modern music and keeping the traditional way of producing music alive.

Aspects I would like to use:I really like the untold elements of this video; and example being the guitar with its message about music. It really leaves the viewer thinking about the video and ultimately about the track itself, hopefully leading to more sales. Another thing I like about this video is the narrative plot to it. The audience see’s the character develop and grow throughout the video and go on a journey with him, meaning they can relate to him because they have seen him change.