Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Analysis#2- Eminem Ft Rihanna- Love The Way You Lie


This is not a film, but it is one of my favourite Rhianna songs. The homely mise en scene within the video is similar to how I plan for my production to be, the dark, gloomy setting creates a trapped feeling for the character as they feel there is no escape.
The video illustrates the different perspectives and roles of both the boy and girl in a relationship. It shows the difference between two opposite genders (Levi-Strauss’s theory will describe the whole video as a conflict between two binary oppositions).

The video starts with a close up shot of Rhianna; this automatically gains the attention of the viewers. The female character’s feeling is presented through Rhianna’s voice whilst the visual helps the audience understand what is going on in the video and also the meaning of the song.

As Rhianna continues to sing, there is a cross cut to a girl and her boyfriend sleeping on the bed and there is also another cross cut to the same girl sitting in the sitting room with fire in her hand, the fire connotes the girl’s state of mind, which also links back to the beginning of the song where Rhianna starts singing, there is fire in the background, this could represent a sense of destruction, chaos and war the girl or the female viewers feel when they know their partner is cheating on them.

The fire gives a literal meaning to the lyrics of the song where sings “Just gonna stand there and watch me burn”. Back to the scene of the bed, the female character suddenly opens her eyes, then Eminem’s aggressive voice breaks in, his voice represents the male character’s feelings, his lyrics fits in with the visuals, this is shown when the  boy is pushing himself to her in a forceful and aggressive manner, trying to convince her of what she’s thinking.  Then she tries to push past him but he’s  not allowing her, he gets really angry and punches the wall right next to her face, as this is going on the lyrics correspond to it when Eminem raps “ I laid hands on her, never stoop so low again. you know when you love somebody so much you can barely breath, have that warm fuzzy feeling, getting chills, you now getting f***ing sick of looking at them” this shows that at the beginning of their relationship the two characters were well and truly in love, but now looking at her irritates him, and they have ended up in an abusive relationship.

Although my production isn't a music video, this is similar to the idea I had for my film. The main  characters in my film start off with a loving, caring and violent free relationship then all of a sudden the guy changes just as the guy in this music video did, he doesn't care for her as much as he used to, he is violent towards her, the spark that they had is now gone.

I love the song and the video this is because it has a story line just like a short film; I never get board of watching or listening to it. It tells a story both visually and for those listening as well, and if a person is watching and listening at the same time the video fully relates to what is being said in the lyrics. 

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