RM - Chris Cornell - You Know My Name Deconstruction

Artist: Chris Cornell
Song: You Know My Name
Genre: Rock
Director: Michael Haussman
Audience: Fans of the movie (Casino Royal) especially 15-24
Year Released: 2006

Film Footage from James Bond: Casino Royal

Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” is a concept video which features elements of a performance music video. The concept part of the music video is broken down into two elements. One element is the film footage from “James Bond: Casino Royal” the other two elements are Cornell acting as spy throughout the music video and towards the end of the music video where he reaches the stage which he is performing on. The main focus on this video is the film footage this is because the single was written for the James Bond film “Casino Royal”. This also goes against the common convention that says the lead vocalist receives the majority of the focus from the audience.

Chris Cornell performing "You Know My Name"

During the performance elements the shots used are mainly close-ups, which anchor that the focus is on Cornell however in the entire video he isn’t the centre of attention. As well as this there are medium shots of Cornell playing the guitar. During these scene Cornell is lip-syncing this is another type of convention however this one applies to the video.

Throughout the scenes where Cornell is acting like a spy the majority of shots used are close-ups, this also applies to the majority of film footage used for the music video. As well as this how the music video has been edited together allows the shots to follow on from each other. For example when Cornell is on a plane he looks out of the window, the shot cuts to film footage which features a high angled extreme long shot featuring Bond chasing down an enemy (Pictured to the right).

At the end of the music video there are three ends, one featuring Bond, the protagonist, trying to rescue the prize (thus according to Propp’s theory) the other two featuring Cornell and a woman in a hotel room and a microphone on stage. These signify all three needs or wants throughout the music video, or in case of the film footage what the protagonist wants during the film.