Olympic Airways is a song from Foal’s debut
studio album “Antidotes” and falls into the Indie/Alternative genre. The video
for this song is a mix between a performance and a narrative video with
elements of both working well together to create a video, which, in my opinion,
works well and has given me inspiration for my own final piece.
This song is generally about the theme of
escapism. The song name suggests this, as Olympic Airways is a reference to a
Greek Air Company, which is Yannis’ (the lead singer) home country. There are
also further elements, which illustrate this theme visually throughout the
video.
This video follows many conventions found
in videos of the same/similar genre such as a natural environment as a
background, a performance from the band and elements of mise en scene to
reinforce the genre to the audience (clothing, hairstyles, props etc.).
However, the video also defies conventions
found in music videos from its genre with the use of some unusual and quirky
props that would not be commonly found in other videos such as the child’s
tricycle, hula-hoop and mattress. Although these props may have been used for a
greater purpose (maybe to symbolise and illustrate certain things to the
audience) they go against conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos, as
they would not be commonly used within them. Also, the shots of the band
smashing up the props defies conventions of Indie/Alternative music videos and
is something that would be found more commonly in more heavy Rock videos oppose
to Indie Rock genre that Foals fall into.
Throughout the video there are many simple
relationships created between the lyrics and the visuals. For instance, the
first line of the song “Suns up, we wait” the sun is out whilst a band member
is sat is field and appears to waiting. This immediately shows to the audience
that the video is not disjunctive and is relevant to the song and lyrics.
Furthermore, throughout the lyric “disappear, disappear, disappear” a band
member is falling onto a mattress which could be a metaphorical way of showing
to the audience that he is trying to “disappear” which then fits into the
lyrics playing over the visual.
The camerawork in the video consists of
many different shots. There are close ups of the band playing the instruments
and of the singer lip syncing which is very typical of this genre and is
expected from a performance video. Also incorporated are long shots of the
band, which add a new dimension to the video and give the audience a wider
angle of perspective. There is a mixture of static and panning shots throughout
the video, which is again a convention, found in videos of the
Indie/Alternative genre. The shot length in Olympic Airways is generally longer
than heavier rock music videos due to the pace of the song and this works well
and fits the music.
The video on a whole is an amplification
video as the band are metaphorically trying to escape by causing carnage and
disarray within a forested area which fits in with the meaning behind the
lyrics through a creative interpretation by the director. Therefore, the
audience will have to look slightly further into the video to grasp the meaning
behind it making it an amplification video oppose to an illustrative video.
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