Alone I Break Korn August 20, 2002 Treatment by Roger Tinch The video is bathed in a sepia tone of browns and golds. Watermark damage, out of focus corners, and furred edges of the footage further drive the gothic tone of this piece. We open on a coarse brick wall, the camera speeding by every crack and misplaced mortar patch as the first strings of the song pluck along. The camera pans right revealing a high perspective view looking down on a seedy alleyway. It’s lit only by the overcast sky that provides just enough light to spot a hunched figure draped in a home-made burlap overcoat (Jonathan in costume). He’s using the wall as support, trudging along through the alley at a pace that seems as if he’s trying to escape from something. It’s the year 1821 and an old America skyline can be seen in the distance composed of angled roofs and towering churches. The camera closes in on the figure’s face, but only his mouth is visible since the rest hides under the shadow of his hood. He sings the words to the song: “Right here, right now I'll stop it somehow…” A dark red spot seeps through his coat from a fresh wound. The figure with his bare feet steps on cobblestone laden ground and then into a large water puddle that ripples on impact. The ripples reveal the reflection of the band and of Jonathan singing into his microphone: “I will make it go away…” The camera descends into the puddle and emerges from the other side of it. The band is no longer just a reflection, but in live form as they perform amidst the backdrop of a 17th century surgery lab. A cylindrical room with 2 stories of stacked viewing decks house old drooped faced men who peer into the center where the band plays. They’re cold gaze is judging, they’re leathery hands taking notes. This scene of the band is to be intercut with the story element of the video. The figure makes his way out of the alley passing a tattered warning poster that reads “The Fiend at large”. He looks back making sure whatever it is following him isn’t there yet. The figure enters a street market where a dozen or so carts and their grey haired clerks sell cheap produce. He looks behind himself staring down the long empty corridor he just left. A flash cut: slow motion sequence of a mob with torches in hand and anger in their faces interrupts. The figure quickens his pace. Intercut between the “Jonathan Figure” and live band Jonathan as they sing in unison. “Now I see the times they change Leaving us, it seems so strange…” Some peasant kids take notice of the mysterious figure and begin to point and talk amongst themselves. Adults take notice of the figure as well and one in particular, a burly bearded man, pushes the figure against a wall. He pulls back the coat hood revealing two nubs protruding from opposite sides of the figure’s forehead that appear to be small fleshy horns. A gathering crowd gasps in horror. The figure breaks free of the man’s grip and dashes away. “All the s**t I seem to take…” The figure arrives in an empty town square, a flock of birds fly off in the distance. A huge clock tower looms just behind him. His hood is in place once again only revealing his quivering lips. He mouths: “Shut me off I'm ready” The figure begins to have flashbacks: doctor’s looking at hand drawn schematics of the figure’s mangled body, point-of view shot of the figure looking up at hospital lights as a dozen silhouettes stand over him, a door closing enveloping the figure in the darkness of his cell. The angry mob crushes through the street market while onlookers point down towards the square. “I will make it go away…” The figure has crossed the town square and is making his way towards a pier. “Seems this is the only way I will soon be gone” Flashback of him drawing on discarded paper in his hospital cell. Pull back to reveal the wall behind him covered in exquisitely crafted pencil drawings. “These feelings will be gone…” He comes to the pier’s edge and in the water is the reflection of the band. “Jonathan Figure” and live band Jonathan look at each other as they sing together. In the background we see the frenzied mob rushing closer. “Now I see the times they change…” The mob has reached the figure and begins to surround him. They force him to step back closer and closer to the edge of the pier. He screams the lyrics out as if pleading for mercy: “All alone I seem to break I have lived the best I can…” The figure plunges into the water and splashes through the bands reflected image. We’re now in a dreamy slow motion environment with the figure swimming under the water. Lit torches, rocks, and pitch forks hurtle into the water’s surface. This scene is played in slow motion so that every movement is poetic, every gesture a masterpiece. The band’s image is integrated into the water as a background element. They’re image wavers consistently with the disturbance of waves and currents. The figure struggles to swim away, as he sings: “Am I going to leave this place? What is it I'm running from?...” People jump into the water to pursue the figure ”Am I going to win this race? Am I going to leave this race?...” A group of five men close in on him. “I guess God's up in this place? What is it that I've become?” They collide into him sandwiching the figure in the middle. A hand reaches and pulls the figure’s head out of the water by his hair. ”Is there something more to come?” The camera follows this action and as it breaks the surface of the water it emerges in a new environment. ”(More to come)…” The figure sits in the middle of a cell. He’s drawing upon the floor with a white rock. Two men escort him out of the cell, the camera tilts down to reveal the detailed drawing of clouds and an angel perched atop a sun. The figure is pulled into an open courtyard where hundreds of townspeople have gathered in front of a hanging stage. He’s ushered to the top where a noose is placed around his neck. The camera closes in to a close up of the figure’s face. He sings: ”I have lived the best I can Does this make me not a man?” The figure falls below the frame of the camera and the rope he’s hung with comes into view. It becomes taut and slowly sways side to side. END This concept literalizes the public’s view of the outcast in the most extreme manner. It is meant to tell the story of one poor soul while simultaneously symbolizing the struggles of people that society deems as outsiders whether it is because of beliefs or of looks.