The One

About

Another Foo Fighters song, another movie soundtrack and video tie-in. The movie in question on this occasion was ‘Orange County’, a comedy starring Jack Black, Colin Hanks and Catherine O’Hara. Foo Fighters finished recording of ‘The One’ early in the troubled recording sessions for ‘One by One’ and submitted the song when approached by MTV Films, the production company behind the movie.

Owing to the urgency of getting the video ready in time for the movie release in January 2002 the music video was filmed on November 20^th – 21st, 2001, just two weeks after recording of the song was complete.

Jesse Peretz returned to the director’s chair following the huge success of his videos for ‘Big Me’ and ‘Learn To Fly’ with a treatment that was loosely based on the movie Fame, each band member taking on a different role at a performing arts school – Dave acting, Nate a mime performer, Chris a dancer and Taylor a self-described “band geek” who played violin badly.

Both Dave Grohl and Peretz noted how rushed the whole production was, with Peretz revealing it was “the most last minute, thrown together video that I’ve ever done”.

The video would also revolve around the cliché “Nerd girl with glasses who gets a makeover and becomes hot”, Dave’s character and another character attempting to woo her, played by actress Amy Weaver.

Principal photography took place at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts in Brooklyn, New York. Day one began with the first scene of the video, Dave in his theatre class “getting his eye” on the girl he wants and filming his audition to get into the school of arts by reading lines and acting out scenes from Orange County.

Later in the afternoon it was then the turn of the rest of the band – Chris filming scenes as a dancer after a crash course in the moves required, Nate trying his best at mime and finally Taylor’s scene ,getting thrown out of music class because he “sucks at the violin” ending the day. In a further example of the rushed production, whilst the band were filming their sections other background actors were filming extra footage that  director Peretz did not oversee.

Day 2 began with recording of what would be the final shots of the video, band members moving through the hallways, Dave hopelessly pursuing his love interest and crying as she leaves without him.

The final large shot of production involved a large cafeteria scene, again mimicking loosely a scene in the movie Fame, known as ‘Hot Lunch’. All four band members were involved causing mayhem, standing on tables playing along to the song with their regular instruments, extras also joining in the mayhem.

Filming was wrapped up by 5pm on the second day and the final edit of the video got its premiere in January 2002 alongside release of the movie. In the original song the lyrics feature lines that alternate, ending in either 'this' or 'shit' - "You're not the one but you're on the only one that makes me feel like this/shit". For the music video and radio airings an edited ‘clean’ version was created where every line ends in ‘this’ instead, although the very last 'shit' was simply muted out.