Jade Ashworth analyzed Rihanna's music video for "We Found Love" using Lacey's Repertoire of Elements framework. The video tells a narrative story about Rihanna's character being in a relationship that shifts from happiness to unhappiness, reflecting Rihanna's real-life relationship with Chris Brown. Through its use of lighting, camera techniques, settings and Rihanna's portrayal, the video represents both the positive and negative sides of love and relationships. Analyzing the video's elements helped Jade understand that unlike the song's lyrics, the video is actually about Rihanna's unhappiness in the relationship rather than how in love she was.

1. Jade Ashworth
I chose to analyze Rihannas music video ofher song ‘We Found Love’. The genre ofthe song is pop
and dance. The song shows Rihanna to be in a relationship, the video has a narrative effect in the
sense that it starts of telling a story with clips ofher and her boyfriend looking ateach other with hatred
and upset, this engages the viewer into making them want to know what has happened and why they
have fell out. The narrative story telling at the beginning ofthe music video consists ofwords like
‘ashamed’ and ‘hopeless’which contrasts against the song which is an upbeat, dance song. The end of
the narrative speech concludes ‘wishing you could have itall
back’ which is when the song starts and it shows when the
couple were happy enjoying themselves.
The lyrics in the song state that Rihanna and her boyfriend
fell in love
Rihanna is a very popular star and her relationship with RnB
star Chris brown has been highlighted in the press
frequently as she had a very happy relationship (to start
with) which ended in violence and sadness which in a way
reflects on the video.
I used Lacey’s Repertoire ofElements to analyse the text.
Rihanna is the main character in the video. there aren’t
many people in the video, it consists ofjust Rihanna and
her partner, and if
they were ever in a
busy place the
background would
be blurred and spin
around portraying
that Rihanna and her
partner were the only
one that matters to each other. Rihanna plays the main
character as she does in mostofher videos, her videos are
Rihanna is stating that relationships can be happy and fun,
but they can also have a downside and be very
heartbreaking. Her character is potrayed to be happy in some
scenes, laughing and enjoying herself, where as in other
scenes she is fighting with her boyfriend with mascara down
her face portraying that she has been crying.. Shes wearing a mixture of outfits throughout the video
including a lot of denim and casual outfits, but also in some scenes she is wearing stockings, which is
iconic ofher and contrasts with her sterotypical label ofbeing a ‘sex symbol’ Straightaway as soon as
the video appears the viewer gets the idea that they are both young and working class due to the flats
which appear showing where they may live together as well as the mise en scen influencing that they
do nothave much money and what money they do have is probably spenton alcohol and smoking.An
example ofprops which influenece that the two ofthem don’thave much money is the way in which a
lamp is balanced on a amplifier, as well as the fact they have a tiny flat with hardly any furniture. It’s
also potrayed that they are rebellous due to them smoking and drinking. The beginning of the video is
slightly depressing and serious with very low key lighting and close ups. Where as when the song
starts, the mise en scene is all brightand colourful reflecting the fact that rihanna and her partner happy
together. The music video represents love In a positive and a negative light, rihanna is singing about
falling in love, the way she potrays herselfto be happy shows it’s a good thing however the parts in
between show them to be argueing, fighting and crying which portrays relationships to be a bad thing.
The entire music video based around a narrative piece as ittells a story. There arent any performance

2. Jade Ashworth
aspects to the video as itfocuses on Rihanna and her partners relationship alone. Rihanna is
represented as a loved up celebrity who is confused and having trouble. She looks rebellious as in one
scene she is sneaking things in her jacketand smoking and drinking, as well as the range of tattoos
she has on her body, however in some sense, itcomes across as ifher partner is the bad influence on
her, similar to her reality story with ex-partner chris brown. The narrative events in the music video
seem to be telling a story about their life. The lyrics in the song are wrote about her relationship and
how they fell in love, shes stating that she was in love and happy and ifyou werent to see the music
video, veiwers would justbelieve that was the story line to the song, however the music videos shows a
different aspectand shows that she is singing abouthow it used to be. The music video shows
continuity edits ofdifferent stages ofaround a week, They edits show her enjoying herself
skateboarding and saatin her trolly being mischeivious and then cuts to her being upsetin a bath with
mascara down her face. Iconography in the video includes thatrihanna wears a range of american flag
clothes including a bra-top. There is also an american flag in the background when they are kissing.
There is also a range of flashing lights and arcades, cigarettes, drugs and beer which are icons of
rebellious behaiviour. Rihanna is known for being a role model to many young girls, Ithink this video
sets a bad example due to the use ofdrugs, cigerattes and alcohol..
There are a range ofdifferent settings in the music video, the main setting in which the video refers
back to is their tiny flat. Amongstother settings including a skateboarding place, a corner shop,a café
and a carpark. The technical and audio codes ofthe music video include the use ofcamera, the
camera skills used are very quick and intense in some parts, as the music is very upbeatand dance-
like, at times the brightlights flash and the fast pace camera
movements including panning around in a circle. The editing
is also very fast paced in these scenes too.However before
the music starts, at the beginning ofthe video where the
narrative begins,
its very slow
editing
techniques
consisted ofcamera movements like close ups which help
emphasize that its an upsetting tiem for the couple. The
slow paced edits and the fast paced edits contratwith one
and other in order to create a very effective video, it shows
that the music video is fun although slow paced close ups
tell us differently. Although in some stages there are extreme close ups which enhance her smile. The
camera panned a lottoo create fast, upbeatvibes.
The sound in the song was non diegetic the whole way through. Even the speech atthe beginning as it
was added to the song to contrast with both of their straight and upsetfaces. The lighting in the music
video is a mixture of both high key lighting and low key lighting depending on the mood,When they
were happy it was very high key- day lightlighting, whereas you could tell they had an argument in
some stages ofthe video due to the low key dark lightimg, aswell as their provxemics to one and other,
pushing and shoving, with a facial expression suggesting anger.
In conclusion, using Lacey’s Repertoire ofElements to analyse the text made me understand the
conceptof Rihannas music video much more, Iunderstood that her video wasn’tabouthow in love
rihanna is, its about how unhappy she is, but how happy she used to be.