Deconstruction of Lyrics

Deconstruction of lyrics from Kelechi Okorie

Pitch Plan

This is our A3 pitch plan which helped us bring our narrative to life. It guided us create and plan out the ideas we had thought of that would make our music video successful and appropriate for the genre. Overall this pitch plan was very effective in the process of making the music video. For instance it helped us think of the most appropriate mise en scene, narrative, genre, editing techniques and cinematography for our music video.



Case Studies of Iconic Directors

Iconic director- Simon Cahn from Kelechi Okorie

Costumes in our Music Video

Straightjacket-
In our music video we will use a straightjacket on our alter ego character and on his normal self. The alter ego will be holding up the straightjacket on one side of the spilt screen and on the other side, his normal self will be wearing it. We are doing this to show that the alter ego character is controlling and influencing his normal self as if he is a puppeteer. As the video goes on both versions (alter ego and normal) will be getting worse and worse. We have chosen to use a straightjacket because they have a reputation of making people look mental, disturbed, dangerous and isolated. This is what we need to portray our character as.

Jumpsuit-
We will use a black jumpsuit on our artist because Jumpsuits have many negative connotations. This is because they are normally worn by criminals in prison. We have chosen to use this because our artist is a prisoner in his alter egos world and there isn't anything he could do about it even if he tried.

Blacksuit with hoodie-
A black suit would be suitable for the alter ego character to wear because the colour black has many different negative connotations such as evil, mystery, danger and violence. We want to build our alter ego character up to look like a big villain or boss. We have done our research on what bad guys wear to make themselves look like a Villain who should be taken seriously and the colour black and suits were most common. Because of this we have decided to implement this into our music video.

Paperbag-
The normal version of our artist will wear a paperbag over his head at the end of the music video to connote that he has lost his identity and that he has lost to his alter ego. This will also show that the alter ego character has changed him and turned him into himself. This would let the audience know that his fight against his alter ego is over and that he has transformed.

White t-shirt and jeans-
The normal version of our artist will wear casual clothing to start off as this will differentiate himself and his alter ego to the audience. It will make it easier to tell whats going on. After this there will be a series of prop and costume changes to show his transformation to his dark side. We have chosen to use the colour white as this colour has positive annotations such as innocence, purity, good and many more.

Props in our Music Video

Props that will be featured in our music video:

Chains and Hand cuffs- The normal version of our artist is being restrained and restricted by his alter ego therefore hand cuffs and chains would show this. Hand cuffs and Chains would also show that he is a prisoner trapped in his alter egos world. We would use the chains to dangle our artist in the air so he looks like he is being controlled like a puppet.

Jester’s hat- A jester is a professional Joker or a fool and it is normally told what activities it should do next for someone else’s enjoyment. This would work extremely well in our music video as our artists song is a conversation between his normal self and his alter ego. The alter ego is controlling and influencing his normal self therefore a Jester’s hat would make that clear for the audience.

Puppet strings- We would use Puppet strings in our music video to make our artist look like he is being controlled by someone. The strings would be attached to both arms and our artist would move in a robotic fashion.

Crucifix- The original artist makes references to Jesus in his lyrics therefore a crucifix would be appropriate for the music video.

Clock- Throughout the music video the alter ego is making his normal self even worse and he is struggling to fight it therefore having a cutaway to a clock during the music video would show that time is running out for him to overcome his alter ego.

Dreadlocks wig- The original artist makes references to “Anwar’s dreadlocks” in his lyrics therefore using this as a prop would be appropriate for the music video.

Hammer and Knife- The alter ego person in the music video has to look evil and threatening therefore a Knife and a Hammer in his possession or in the background of a location would do that for him.

Alcohol bottles and used Cigarettes- In our video we need to show to the audience the alter ego person is a very mental, disturbed and eerie. Cigarettes and alcohol have very bad reputations and they can both lead to serious illness therefore these props would be suitable for what we are trying to achieve.

Conventions of our genre

Levi Strauss and Todorov's Theory

A binary opposite is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.
Todorov's narrative theory suggests that all narratives follow a three part structure where they begin with equilibrium, where everything is balanced, progress as something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium is restored.

The theory we will focus on is Levi Strauss's which is called Binary opposition. We have chosen to go for this theory as our song is about someone having a personal conversation with his alter ego. Because of this, the Binary opposite we have decided on is Good vs Evil. In the second video above we have used a range of different editing techniques, props and costumes changes to bring our idea to life. Firstly, we have used a yellow flower to represent the good in our artist. We have chosen this because flowers and the colour yellow have good connotations that will present our artist in a positive light. We have also alternated between black & white and a normal filter to show the binary opposite (good vs evil). This will show that he is trapped inside the head of his alter ego and is attempting to escape. At the start of the clip he is playing with a lighter which presents the evil in the alter ego character. This is because it shows that he has bad intentions. My group and I filmed this video in front of a Church which connotes that he has good inside of him trying to come out. For costume we chose a grey hoodie for our artist to wear. This is because hoodies have negative connotations and bad reputations. We also can use this item of clothing to cover his face which also covers his identity. This would be effective because the alter ego is trying to take control of his normal self therefore ruining his identity and covering up his real personality. Our intention of this would be to show a true battle of a good side and a bad side whilst using one person.

In the final version of our music video we plan to include a variety of different things that will represent the evil in our artist such as hand cuffs, chains, straight jackets, Black jumpsuits and many more. This is because these items all have negative connotations and it would best show the story of our music video. To represent the good in our final version we will be using white backgrounds, white costumes, jesters hat and many more. This is because the colour white has many positive connotations such as purity and innocence. 

In the first video above we tried to present Todorov's theory. The problem was that he had just been trapped inside of a shed and we attempted to show the solution by having him walking out of it looking enraged at the fact he was trapped for so long. 


In conclusion, we feel Levi Strauss's theory of Binary opposition best gets across the story of our music video much better than Todorov's theory, therefore we are going to use it in our final version.

30 SECONDS

In these pictures we attempted to produce the theory of Carol Vernallis who recognised that music videos typically consist of a montage of different shots which may be connected via the lyrics of the song.