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Angelica Jacques, Estefania Gutierrez, James Guijarro, Max Mosqueda

John Kubler
English 114B
1 May 2014
Im the Man
Throughout our semester of our English 114B class, we have furthered our critical
reading and academic writing skills acquired from the previous term. In this journey, weve
explored how human identity and the self-identity has shaped social relationships. We have also
examined the role that the Internet and social media plays in shaping and reflecting our persona.
In doing so, we expanded our understanding for the implications of our social interactions and
behavior in shaping individuals and ultimately society as a whole.
We chose the song The Man by Aloe Blacc for our music video. In choosing the song
for our music video, it was important to ensure that the following messages and ideals were
depicted: gun control and public security, the sexualization of American society, societys view
on obscenity, male gender identity issues, as well as those identity issues faced by transgenders,
and the performative-self issues. Alongside these themes, we also wanted to incorporate the
impact that the Internet has on personal expression, dating interactions, cyber bullying, and
social media. Since the lyrics of this song are so versatile it was the best song to which we could
almost perfectly matched portions of the lyrics to each theme and action we wanted to be
represented in this music video.
Throughout this music video, we follow eleven different people. Rather than have one
cohesive story with one to three main characters, we follow the ten different people of a
community and show how each of them portray one of the different themes being presented in
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the video. Since the this song begins with the chorus, the opening of the music video will have a
wide screen, portraying panoramic scenes of all the ten actors walking out in a calm, manner into
their neighborhood feeling accomplished displaying a combination of emotions from
gratification to toughness. This will all be to the opening chorus of the song: Well you can tell
everybody. Yeah you can tell everybody. Go ahead and tell everybody. Im the man, Im the
man, Im the man. Yes I am, yes I am, yes I am. Im the man, Im the man, Im the man. As the
actors walk are walking out, the camera captures them as if time was becoming still, captivating
the moment and all their emotions as all the extracts from the neighborhood are in normal pace
going about their own business. We will wrap up the beginning of the video with a wipe cut
transition ultimately replacing this scene with a new scene. For the transitions of each scene
there will be a flash effect between each transition. Because there isnt one main character but
rather a composition of eleven different ones, we will flash from one seen to the next. Each scene
will have its own unique framework to open up with.
We will conclude the video with the replaying the opening scenes of the video having the
camera slowly pulling away from the up close scene to having a street view and the characters
becoming smaller and smaller. Finally we will conclude the video with a straight cut, abruptly
ending the video and becoming black.
We hope you enjoy our version of the music video and our ideas that we have come up
with based off of topics we have learned this semester!
In demonstrating the importance of having gun control in society, we thought it would be
proper and fitting to have a police official. For example, someone who is capable of handling
dangerous firearm to protect and serve justice, cleaning his guns. In helping us convey this idea,
we chose to have the actor Ben McKenzie play the role of the police officer. He will be cleaning
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his guns and exemplifying the image of a man who maintains everything in order. Ben
McKenzies muscular and athletic physique demonstrates that he is a strong man who is ready to
spring into action and ensure safety to all. Ben keeps his hair short and trimmed and combed to
the side. With this hairstyle you can tell that he likes to keep it trimmed and fresh saying that he
is very concerned about hygiene and the way he presents himself. If his hair is in a neat order and
not messy he will tend to have more respect given towards him because it shows sophistication.
Ben will be wearing a white t-shirt, his uniform pants and boots. He takes pride in what he does
and this makes him feel like he is the man and that he can take care of others because they look
up to him for protection.
By having Ben McKenzie, portray an official of justice it was only appropriate to link this
scene of him cleaning his guns to hook of the song: Well you can tell everybody. Yeah you can
tell everybody. Go ahead and tell everybody. Im the man, Im the man, Im the man.
Ultimately, depicting the idea that it takes a real man to enforce gun control and provide safety.
For this scene, we will have Ben McKenzie in his office where he has all of his guns in a safe.
The light will be dim and every time he finishes cleaning a gun they will have some kind of
sparkle. He will have a more serious attitude while he does this because his guns are very
important to him and he is in work mode. The camera will be looking over him to see every
action he is making. For this opening of this scene there will be an iris wipe framing. This will
cause the scene to start off blurry and then it will slowly start to focus from the center and
become clearer and clearer until focus is completely restored to normal view.
To demonstrate the idea of sexualization in the American society, we thought it would be
best exemplified through the use of an exotic male character. We chose to have Channing Tatum
play this role! Channing Tatum is a young, tall, man whose beautiful hazel eyes attract the
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attention of many girls. Although Channing Tatums kind eyes and dashing looks keep many
interested, it is his cut up physique for which he is most sought out. Tatums rock hard abs, plus
his strong muscular arms and legs is what makes him the most desirable and envied. It is because
of his comfort in being hardly anything but his own skin that gives him praises from everyone,
boosting his ego ultimately making him feel empowering. Many people in our society would
view Channing Tatums job to be objectifying and degrading but to Tatum this over
sexualization of his is empowering, earning him recognitions and respect from many of his
followers. Therefore, in the video, we are going to give Tatum this exact look. He will be
wearing as much skin as possible to attract attention. He is proud of his accomplishments and is
eager to show them off. So, he will be in a tight muscle shirt that shows off his nice arms and
built body. He feels confident to wear this kind of muscle shirt, as most men do not. He feels
like his body is something to be proud of because most men do not have what he has therefore
wearing the t-shirt. Next, he will be wearing shorts and basketball shoes. He knows he gets the
attention he wants therefore boosting up his confidence. To make himself stand out even more
and to look cooler he wears sunglasses to show off that he is confident.
Given the sentiment on behalf of Channing Tatum towards himself it is fitting that we
illustrate his behavior with the following lyrics of the song: Ill be the quick relief to all your
stressn(this is my world). We are going to have Channing performing as a male stripper for a
group of girls at a house party. He starts to take of his clothes -in a stripper like manner- slowly
to emphasize his body. The girls at the party will then start to scream and freak out at what is
before them, his body. The light will solely be on him as he performs with a dim light on the
girls around him. It will then get darker and darker as the scene ends. For the shooting of this
scene we will have it open up slowly creating a slow warm up to the girls at the party and then an
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abrupt shot of Channing Tatum. Afterwards, proceeding forward with the rest of the scene in
normally shot frames.
To portray the issues surrounding obscenity and to distinguish between behaviors that are
acceptable from those that arent acceptable among society, we decided to have a man wearing
nothing but tiny shorts like underwear wanting to eat at a restaurant. To his surprise there is a
sign, which refuses service to anyone not wearing pants, shirts, or shoes. So, because he is in
tiny shorts flaunting his physique they refuse to serve him due to over exposure. To play the role
of this character we decided to have Dwayne (the rock) Johnson be our guy! Since Dwayne
Johnsons physique is freakishly large in every aspect, from being 65 tall to having muscles
equivalent to the size of a five-year old kid -on each arm-, he is widely known for his rockin
body. He is considered to be the epitome of sexual exploitation since hes always strutting his
massive muscles leaving him to wear as little close as possible. Not only does Dwayne Johnson
have a spectacular body but his strikingly bright, white smile, he sweaps every lady off their feet.
Johnson will be wearing nothing but tiny shorts that show off his muscles, nike running shoes,
and sunglasses.
Given Dwaynes exposure it is only fitting that this scene is filmed with the following
lyrics: Well you can tell everybody. Yeah you can tell everybody. Go ahead and tell everybody.
Im the man, Im the man, Im the man. Because Dwayne Johnson is proud of his physique he
doesnt care what society thinks about showing all of his goodies to world, the applied,
unspoken social rules by which most people abide by dont pertain to when, and where he
decides to show his body, because in his mind showing it off represents being a real man.
For this scene, we are going to have Dwayne walking up to a restaurant not wearing a
shirt- because he is hungry. When he first walks in, there will be wind blowing towards him to
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show a more dramatic entrance and then it will suddenly stop when he is asked to leave the
restaurant because he is not dressed appropriately. Ticked off, he leaves the premises to go find
a shirt so he can eat. For this scene, the frame in which we will use will be shot using a wipe
transition from the previous scene to this one ultimately creating a soft transition, to which we
will follow Dwayne from behind as he approaches the restaurant to when the focus is switched to
when he is denied service, to a frontal shot of his face coming to this realization and the camera
then drops when he looks down and the camera slowly rises shooting what hes wearing (from
toe to head) and then back to face showing his awe in not be able to enter slowly fading away,
becoming more and more transparent until he next scene has completely taken over.
For the topic of male gender identity issues in society, we chose the famous drag queen
Ru Paul to play our character who faces male gender identity issues. Ru Paul is widely known
drag queen, which openly embraces the gender issues he faces. He is a 64 tall man with a
super model thin like physique. He is very comfortable dressing up in womens attire from
head to toe. He is very comfortable with displaying his feminine side to everyone; so
comfortable that when addressing him you can use either pronoun him or she. Despite Ru
Paul being born a man, he truly feels an urge to dress up and behave like a woman without
leaving behind his male ego and behavior. In our video, we will have Paul dressed as a woman
in his full attire! From a hot red dress to fully done hair and makeup, you will not be able to tell
that she is really a man. While dressed as a woman it is shocking for people when they discover
that this woman is really a man.
Given this, we see Ru Pauls embracement as he demonstrates his content in taking on
both a male and feminine role despite what others may think thus, making the following lyrics of
the song appropriate for such embracement: Well you can tell everybody, yeah you can tell
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everybody. Im the man, Im the man, Im the man. As these lyrics play, he will be in his
dressing room transforming into a woman. The music will gradually get louder as he is adding
more and more things onto his body until he is fully dressed. In this scene we will have rapid
flashing picture like shots lasting three to five seconds of Ru Pauls dressing room from the
vanity desk, to closet, to him getting dressed. Afterwards him being all dolled up and ready to
walk to those steps, to finally having him strut the runway.
In the next scene, we chose Ellen Page to portray the identity issues that transgender
individuals face in society. Ellen Page best exemplifies these characteristic of that of a
transgender in every aspect. She has a strong attitude to accomplish anything that she sets her
mind to and her versatile beauty allows her to play both the male and female roles to perfection.
With her kind eyes and attractive smile she is able to reflect a manly appeal. In addition, her
casual style also complements her comfortableness she has in demonstrating the male she wishes
she had been born. With her petite, slim figure and soft lips she demonstrates those
characteristics of a female and plays this role that she is forced to take on by society. In our
music video we are going to have Page wearing her favorite rock band t-shirt covered by a red
flannel. As for bottoms, she will be wearing jeans that are not form fitting with a pair of old
vans.
Given her recognition that she was born to woman and not a man, she embraces her true
identity of being a male despite what others may say. This is making it proper to shoot the scene
to the these lyrics: I been through the worst but I still give my best. God make my mold
different form the rest. Then he broke that mold so I know Im blessed (this is my world). In
this scene, Ellen will be at school in her Physical Education class trying to compete with the boys
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in doing push ups. The struggle she goes through will be depicted through her facial expressions
and the loudening of the music emphasizing the lyrics.
Next, we will follow a rebellious character that lives to fill his desires, not caring about
the rules and restrictions society has created for his gender. This scene will portray the topic of
performative self-issues. This character will be portrayed by actor Taylor Lautner, whose
rebellious looking face and strong, muscle man-like physique equips him for demonstrating the
recklessness he is willing to do to satisfy his wants. In this scene, he will be going against the
expectations that society has of him being a well behaved, educated young man interested in
business but rather being a young man interested in uneducated things such as parties, therefore,
defying society. Because the society he lives in doesnt approve of his actions and they dont of
think of them as acting like a real man, Taylor is actual demonstrating to be a real man because
he lives by his own rules and expectations and doesnt conform to those of societys. Thus, he
perfectly represents the following statement make in the lyrics of this song: Paid for every heart
that I ever stole. I played my cards and I didnt fold.
For the opening of this scene, the will screen start off dim and work its way up becoming
clearer making out Taylor sporting a rebellious mean look for about two seconds. The screen
will then split in half on one side showing what society wants him to be and the other side will be
him fulfilling his desires. This will go on for about four seconds then it will quickly fade and
transition to the next scene. This scene will take place at a high school party. All of the guys
will be taking shots to impress the ladies. But, Taylor refuses to take one because he does not
show that macho side of a man that society has basically forced onto them. The music that is in
the background will than stop immediately to show how shocked the people are. He leaves the
party because he starts to feel judged but on the inside he is not ashamed of whom he really is.
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The lighting in the backyard will be dark due to the idea that this party is occurring at night,
which adds a more dramatic and serious feeling to the scene. The camera will be acting as
everything is being seen through another persons eyes.
In demonstrating the impact that the internet has on personal expression, we thought it
would be best to have an egocentric, really self-absorbed character taking many selfies of
himself and then having these pictures be plastered and uploaded on all the social media. This
character will be played by James Franco and since James Franco is an attractive young man
whose dashing good looks include his beautiful soft brown eyes, and adorable, charismatic smile,
captivates the attention of all of his followers leaving them wanting more and more of him. So,
for this scene in the music video, we are going to have James dressed in his suit and tie looking
very handsome! James Franco has many followers on his social media profiles, which only fuel
his self-promotion even more, thus making the statements of the following lyrics Im the man.
Go ahead and tell everybody what Im saying yall. Im the man, Go ahead and tell everybody
what Im saying yall.
In the beginning of this scene, many of the selfies that he has taken over the years will
flash quickly only lasting about two seconds. This will then be followed by a fading transition to
James Franco being in a his suit and tie taking pictures of himself on his cell phone in his
bedroom to then post on all of his social networking sites.
In illustrating the great impact that the Internet has had on dating and romantic
interactions we chose to have a man uploading a fake picture of him-self on an Internet dating
profile. The actors we chose to play these characters are Jonah Hill, and Henry Cavil. Jonah Hill
perfectly depicts the character of an unattractive, overweight, ordinary guy whom women are un-
attracted to. Jonah Hill is a nerdy looking guy with the glasses and freckles who no one pays any
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attention to. Due to this lack of attention he receives he believes that the only way a girl would
be interested in him is if he looked handsome. So, thanks to the Internet, a door opened for him
to steal the picture of an attractive looking man who he could pass off as. Henry Cavil is the
man in the picture that Jonah pretends to be. Since Henry Cavil is a gorgeous, tall young man
with a muscular, athletic physique and has the most beautiful electric blue eyes, he would have
any girl falling head over heels for him. Since Jonah Hill is lying about looking like the man in
the picture he posted, the following lyrics exemplify his actions done in the scene: Its a thin
line between love and hate. Is you really real or is you really fake. Im a solder standing on my
feet.
We decided to have the scene open up blurry and dark. Then slowly, it will become a
lighter and lighter. The camera will slowly be creeping up from behind him from a corner of his
bedroom. Then the screen will display two different images, one of him being is true self and the
other of his dream looks.
In order to demonstrate the effect of the Internet and its expression of the issues on cyber
bullying, this scene will have a main character that will be cyber bullied. We chose Michael Cera
to play the main character in this scene. Michael Cera gives off the appeal of being a poor,
defenseless guy who always thinks the best of everything and everyone. Since he has an
ordinary non-attractive, slim, scrawny physique this ultimately presents him as weak leaving him
and an open target to be bullied. This scene opens up with him loading a video of himself on the
internet which is then followed by negative, unkind comments, and so faces the cold reality that
follows; him cyber bullied. This scenario is best portrayed by the following lyrics: Its time to
do what must be done, Be king when kingdom comes.
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For the shots in this scene the scenes, we will replicate those of a reality show displaying all
of the actions that go on throughout the course of his day. There will be three scenes to this
scenario one as he up loads video, the other of kids watching video at school, and the other as he
sits and view the harsh comments which lightly shadow over this scene of him reading the
comment, each scene lasting three to five seconds. During the series of 5 seconds, we will see the
happiness that Michael has while he is making his video, the hateful thoughts that kids have
towards his video, and then the heartache that Michael feels when he reads the hateful
comments.
In demonstrating the effect of heavy usage social media and the internet has on us, we
thought is best to have the main character minding his own business at his job when suddenly he
conducts a search on Google and feels the presence of others inconspicuously watching him
conduct these actions. He knows that there is nowhere he can turn to for shelter and to hide. For
this scene, we chose the actor Patrick Fischler to play the role of the paranoid man. He has a
small, scrawny figure, which perfectly depicts the characteristics of a paranoid person. His big
and wide black eyes also contribute to his characteristics of being a paranoid man whos always
on the lookout for someone watching. In the scene, Patrick will be wearing a blue collared shirt
and dress pants. His hair will be combed over to complete his professional look.
Since Patrick Fischler comes to the realization that the heavy usage of social media and
the internet have negative implications such as someone spying on their interaction and searches
done online, these lyrics complement his feelings of paranoia: Stand up no and face the sun,
Wont hide my tail or turn and run. This scene will take place in Patricks cubicle at work. He
will type the letter C into his computer and all types of cars will pop-up because he is obsessed
with them. This whole scenario will consist of flashing transitions from one action to the other
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all slowly starting up with dark gloomy shadows over each frame giving off that mysterious
hidden appeal.
All in all, we really hope you enjoyed our version for the music video of the song Im the
Man. We had fun pretending like we were actually going to film this video. From the characters
to the simple camera angles, we believe that this would make a great music video that people
would actually enjoy watching!