Casting
David Aderogba [MALCOLM]
I, David, act as Malcolm, one of the main artists in this music video. My role is to enact scenes within the storyboard, occurring in most of the scenes as I am important to the narrative of the video. Apart from being a co-creator of this music video, the reasons I have been chosen for this video is mostly because I meet the basic requirements of our main male artist: I am a young (16-18) black male that knows the lyrics of the song, can recite the lyrics, and am not camera-shy. Also because I really like the song and the artist and wanted to present myself as the forefront image of this project which I am excited about.
Maurissa [WENDY]
Maurissa is the main female artist of this music video. Along with myself, David, she will also be acting within narrative scenes set in the video as a core character. Being a young female, Maurissa is suitable for the role, given the fact that our casting requirements are standard and non-specific. Maurissa is a light-hearted and enthusiastic person and having her as a co-star will help make a good music video.
Nabil Ahmed [NABIL]
Co-creator Nabil will have a few cameos in this music video as he is the main cinematographer for the project. Nabil is a good person for his role because he is young, handsome, and has really good hair. Also, we wanted an actor of an ethnicity other than the mass of black people in our cast, but still relevant to the ethnic struggle hinted at in the song. Thus, an Asian was appropriate, and that Nabil is. His appearances will occur in the café scene and in the boxing gym.
Osa and Rayo
[CAFE FRIENDS]
Osa is a young male associated with both Nabil and myself. He has a short role, acting as a friend of Nabil in the café scene. Rayo is a young female who has the same role. These two were both chosen because of their lively, “swagged out” personalities, they suited the young, urban theme of the video and were willing to help with the project.
Fatou
[EX-CRUSH]
Fatou plays the ex-crush of the male artist – who shuts a door in my face, twice. This detail isn’t massively significant in the music video, just referred to in the song lyrics and so we decided to include it. Fatou has a clean, simplistic style and an appealing nature that’d be fitting for her role, supporting the narrative in the music video (Malcolm “struggling with love”, particularly failing to reach the standards of a crush or love interest and consequently getting rejected).
Ade
[GYM MEMBER]
Ade is a friend of ours, of moderate build. He will be seen training with gym equipment in the boxing gym scene. Ade was chosen mostly because of his familiarity (necessary for consensual filming in a gym), and also because he’s a person of colour, a theme of our music video.
The main idea for casting was to have a majority (or all) of our cast to be black or other ethnic minority. This is because the song mentions “slaves” and includes the line “I don't need to see a Sphinx to know they noses was black”, denoting that Egyptians were actually black and are being overlooked and under-represented in media and society. This same fact applies to many or all other racial minorities so having them as the main focus of the music video helps portray this meaning, hopefully.