In Depth Product Analysis

Our group our focusing on a documentary for our A2 Production, particularly music documentaries. For my in depth analysis I have chosen to look at 'Iron Maiden: Flight 666' a documentary about the famous metal band 'Iron Maiden.' 

General information

‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666’ is a concert documentary film staring the famous British heavy metal band ‘Iron Maiden.’ The film follows the group on the first leg of their ‘Somewhere Back in Time World Tour.’ The documentary was directed by Scott McFayden and Sam Dun (the narrator). The documentary is co-produced by Banger Films, Inc and Rush: Beyond the lighted stage. Banger Films, Inc are known for music based documentaries such as ‘Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey’ and ‘Global Metal.’ The documentary was distributed by EMI and Universal Music Group. The film was realised on the 21^st of April 2009.

Media forms and conventions

Concert Clips

The documentary features lots of concert clips from shows all around the world. The impact that this has on the audience is that you get to see how different cultures react to ‘Iron Maiden’s music. Concert clips are a common feature of concert documentaries. I believe their purpose to create the illusion that you are at one of their concerts.

Interviews

With the band

Each of the band members are interviewed about certain aspects of band life including being on tour, what they think of other members in the band, their thoughts on the music process and life in general. These interviews make the audience feel closer with the band as you begin to learn their outlook in life

With the crew

The interviews with the crew are important to making the audience aware of what goes into putting a world tour together. They put everything into perspective for the audience

With the fans

Possibly the most significant interviews featured in the documentary as this gives the audience awareness of how important the band are to others and what effect their music has on people.

Interview with fan in India 

Archived footage

There is use of archived footage in the documentary often to enrich the audiences knowledge on the band’s history. For example, whilst Maiden are in Brazil they show a clip of them performing at ‘Rock In Rio’ during the 80s.

Voice over

Sam Dun, one of the directors narrates the documentary taking the audience through the different stages of the world tour.

Use of text

The documentary often uses text. Most noticeably, every time there is a shot of ‘Ed Force One’ landing on the ground there is always white text with the name of the place and however many miles they have travelled.

Representation

The documentary represents life on tour for the band with its highs and lows. For example, a low point on tour is travelling to places where they are not necessarily welcome by the authority. For example, whilst they are in South America in one of the destinations the crowd queuing outside are controlled by the police during this time. The band state that this is an attitude they disagree with and that the people who are queuing up to see their concert are not trying to start any kind of revelation like the government might think but they are there for the sole purpose to see a heavy metal show. Whereas a high point would be that they get to travel to destinations that they otherwise wouldn’t see such as Japan and Australia. The documentary also represents other cultures from around the world. From outside Maiden shows we see the individual personalities of the countries including their accents/languages, the scenery and different customs. However, during their concerts there is the same passion for the band and their music in all Maiden fans all over the world and suggests a one world philosophy. Lastly, I think the documentary portrays the heavy metal community as a whole firstly because Iron Maiden are one of the most iconic bands in the genre’s history and because of the representation of the fans. This documentary would be evidence of the argument that heavy metal has the most passionate fan base in the world.

Audience

I think that the target audience is most obviously Iron Maiden fans but also heavy metal fans as a whole. I think that the multicultural aspect of the documentary implies that this documentary is suited for all cultures and ethnicities. The documentary also demonstrates the large age range of Maiden fans therefore suggest that there is no age limit for this documentary.