Class Meets Creativity: The Case of IC Omo Allen’s ‘Elale’ video directed by Patrick Elis.
What can one say about Patrick Elis’ visual interpretation of IC Omo Allen’s Elale (Superstar)?, well, let’s see… The video is cleverly woven around a simple premise: cute guy meets pretty girl, pretty girl blows him off saying: “I don’t roll with regular guys, I only roll with superstars”.
Feeling slighted and a bit challenged, the guy is compelled to give her a sneak peek into the lifestyle of a superstar in the making by giving her a scenic, yet beautiful cruise-styled tour of his neighbourhood in an attempt to convince her he’s a superstar – from the streets to the studio, he woos her with what can be deduced to be a modest version the superstar lifestyle. Whether he succeeds with this less-than-subtle, yet, less-than-flamboyant wooing technique is left for the viewer to imagine. And that’s the video.
That simple and almost basic; yet delivered with stunning cinematographic creativity, presenting the beautiful skyscape of Lagos with lush romantic idealism. Unlike the video which illustrated the essence of the song with near-zero pretensions. Patrick Elis, the video director scores a huge point with the depiction of IC Omo Allen’s love interest, the video vixen, Yohana as a groupie chick without embellishing her role with profuse nudity or vanity dress-up.
The video manages to be sexy, classy, and crispy without being profane or encouraging irresponsible behaviour as has been the norm with a large chunk of videos of this nature coming from Nigeria.
The cinematography stands out – shot on a RED Mysterium X and a Canon 5D Mark II, the pictures of the metropolitan cityscape, the rustic convertible vintage Land Rover and the elegant cast are just as crisp as they are engaging with the right dose of sex appeal, as both the artiste and his love interest make for a stunning and attractive on-screen couple. (I’d keep a close eye on those two for a potential off-screen romantic têteà- tête…*wink* *wink*).
The beauty of this video is that it could pass for a tourism video for the beautiful city of Lagos, which ironically goes a long way to confirm that indeed, IC Omo Allen (who by the way spends most of his time in Atlanta, Georgia) may be in his right to tout his self-proclaimed position of the Baale of Allen Avenue (a popular neighbourhood in Ikeja, Lagos) – or better yet, it won’t hurt anyone to officially recognise this talented young singer as one of the fast-rising music ambassadors (of his beloved neighbourhood) – one with the social consciousness to project his music and the city that inspires his music in the best possible light. Overall verdict: Vibrant song; cute looking cast; captivating video content.
A video you can leave on replay throughout the duration of your lunch break. Mr. Amuta is a Lagos-based writer, poet, publicist and video director.
