James Wakeling - Auteur Analysis

Auteur Analysis – Marc Klasfeld

He is an American music video director who has made over a hundred music videos for a variety of artists – he has written and directed independent films and documentaries and has also worked in television on the American series Oz. He is also the founder of Rockhard Films, a production company that houses directors Ray Kay, Tony Petrossian, Phil Griffin and Rob Pearlstein, and is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Foo Fighters – Times Like These

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WG294M_kYWM

Video Information:
"Times Like These" is the second single released from the Foo Fighters' fourth album One by One. It was released on two main discs in 2003. It is in 4/4 time but includes 7/4 irregular time signature timing in the main riff. The chorus of the song is also grouped in bars of 3 rather than the regular bars of 4. The song is sometimes listed by its full original title, "Times Like These (One-Way Motorway)." The lyric "I'm a new day rising" is a reference to the album New Day Rising by Hüsker Dü, one of Dave Grohl's favorite groups.
After the album version ended its run on the charts, a solo acoustic version of the song performed by Grohl was released and had some success on pop and adult contemporary radio. The entire band performed a version of the song with jazz pianist Chick Corea during the Grammy Awards in 2004.
The song actually has three different versions of a music video:
Version 1 - Directed by Liam Lynch
The band is performing the song against changing backgrounds, consisting mainly of brightly colored kaleidoscopic forms similar to those found in music visualization, giving the video a psychedelic, hopeful, joyful mood. In the end, the backgrounds blink out to reveal that the band is performing against a greenscreen in a studio. This version is often referred to as the "UK version" and received little airplay in the US as the band ultimately opted to film another video shortly afterwards.
Version 2 - Directed by Marc Klasfeld
Version 3 - co-directed by Grohl and Bill Yukich
A music video was produced for the acoustic version. It consists solely of clips of Grohl recording the song's vocal, guitar, and piano tracks in the studio.


Video Analysis
The band is shown performing the song on location, below and in front of a bridge. A girl wanders onto the bridge and eventually tosses her Game Boy Advance at them. Gradually, more and more people arrive at the bridge and start throwing other inanimate objects (including appliances, instruments, and furniture) behind and around the oblivious band members. The items never hit any of them, though they come close, and the motivations and intentions of the people are never made clear.
Two cars are then simultaneously dropped off the bridge and behind the band, resulting in clouds of smoke and fire. This is followed by an entire house (only with walls and roof) being dropped onto the band by a crane, and the walls falling onto the ground without anyone getting hurt. This scene is reminiscent of a similar one featured in Buster Keaton's silent comedy, Steamboat Bill Jr. A continuity error occurs at the end: when the house falls apart, the roof is missing.
1 – Goodwin
· Band performance
· Concept narrative
· Link between lyrics and visuals – girl walking alone on bridge at start
· Other characters acknowledge bands existence – throw objects off bridge at band
2 – Visual techniques
· C/Ups of each band member
· Mid shots/Aerial shots from bridge
· Editing - Quick cuts between members
· over cranked shots
· Mise-en-scene – performance underneath a bridge, dry yellow grass, dusty road at start
· Long shots to showcase this climate
· Use of handi-cam
· Tracking shot – objects falling off bridge
· POV – from inside car, over cranked
· High + Low angle - Dave Grohl singing
3 – Band Representation
· The band are easily recogniseable – wearing informal costume – ‘rock band’
4 – Intertextuality
· Buster Keaton's silent comedy, “Steamboat Bill Jr.” - the walls of the house falling onto the ground without anyone getting hurt

5 – Postmodern features
· Social commentary – critique of consumerism? – destroying TV’s, Game Boy, consumer goods etc. + cars and house
6 - Social Groups Representation
· Asian girl at the start
· Large varied crowd – but mostly white
7 – Ideological discourse
· Critique of consumerism? – destruction of consumer goods
· If not there is also a possible reading of criticism of the masses – the crowd throw items as people they don’t even know
8 – Video Consumption
· The video (and track) would probably have been aimed at teenagers/young adults – the bands appeal for them as well as the relevant past history for other fans of Nirvana (Dave Grohl – drummer)