Reverend & The Makers- Heavyweight Champion of the world analysis

The scene begins with a transition fading from black showing Jon “The Reverend” McClure sat at a bar all alone looking fed up. The bar appears very dark and dingy with no natural light being shone on the set. This is to emphasize the dullness of the Protagonists life and makes him appear as a rather dark character. However as the song begins to play the shot cuts to a side perspective and Jon begins to sing. The shot becomes a little bit livelier with more light being shown. There is also a random drum kit in the background, which matches the colour of the set. This prop was used to show one of the instruments used to create the song. Between the two shots it also shows the amount of liquid in the glass has changed, being symbolic of if they see life as “a glass half full” or “a glass half empty”.

The shot then cuts to something completely different. Jon is then presumably at work wearing overalls as appose to the more casual clothes he was wearing at the pub. Once again the set becomes darker with only one visible light source portraying how dark and uninteresting his everyday life is.

As the songs reaches the chorus Jon stands up and removes his overalls and climbs up onto the platform. Many other workers can be seen in the background stood still and expressionless showing how mundane every day life is for these people, this is also shown through the dark lighting used in the shot. A high angle shot is also used to show how unimportant these people are in every day life.

In the next shot Jon is seen strolling down an empty street at dawn. A continuous theme throughout the video is the dark shadows, which appear in a vast majority of the shots in the video. In this shot an artificial light source can be seen in the form of a streetlight. This could be symbolic of the bright future he had once had.

In the next scene a lot of quick cuts are made between shots. The shots show Jon dressed up as various characters with the lyrics of the song repeating, “Just be like everybody else”. He seen dressed as a butcher, elderly women, judge and a slacker. This ties in with the lyrics as it shows a variety of different people with different social classes and all living completely separate lives. However the lyrics are using an imperative sentence to order the audience to conform. Although it’s implied that this is being sarcastic, when in fact the actual message is to be you as appose to being just like everyone else. This sarcasm is

In the next scene we see Jon walking the wrong way down a street into oncoming traffic. The cars are all black and only the headlights provide light onto the street. Continuing with the darkness theme there is still very limited light sources being used on set.

It then cuts to a slightly more humorous shot with Jon’s head being disproportionate to his body. This matches the lyrics in which he says, “When I was in school I dreamed of being Bruce Lee”. The director decided to add a comical side to show that the song isn’t all doom and gloom, like the last scene would suggest.

In the next scene a lot of quick cuts are made between shots. The shots show Jon dressed up as various characters with the lyrics of the song repeating, “Just be like everybody else”. He seen dressed as a butcher, elderly women, judge and a slacker. This ties in with the lyrics as it shows a variety of different people with different social classes and all living completely separate lives. However the lyrics are using an imperative sentence to order the audience to conform. Although it’s implied that this is being sarcastic, when in fact the actual message is to be you as appose to being just like everyone else. This sarcasm is

As we approach the end we finally see Jon dressed in his normal attire again with just a regular close up as he syncs up with the lyrics of the song. For the last few scenes we have a contrast in the light, as it is both light and dark in some places, showing the ups and downs of his life and can be seen as both good and bad.

In the closing scenes Jon is brought back down to the harsh reality of his boring life as he is seen chasing a bus down a dark, empty street. As this is an everyday struggle for some during their regular daily commute to and from work. Once again symbolizing that he is no different from anybody else and the hopes and dreams he once had are just a distant memory.