Semiotic Analysis of a Similar Existing Music Video:‘Love the way You Lie’: ft. Rihanna.

This video featuring Eminem and Rihanna represents a huge contrast between the 2 opposite genders. Levi-Strauss will describe the whole video a dictation of a conflict between two 'binary oppositions.' Regardless of both Eminem & Rihanna not being physically part of the narrative, the use of their star power helps us imagine how they would of felt if they were in the position of the fellow actors. It helps us as an audience to relate to the celebrities.

The video compares the different role of the boy and girl in a relationship and also represents the difference in perspective of the two genders. As for our creative choice, we have not emphasised any conflict but have just decided to illustrate a life of a normal everyday couple through the eyes of a vocalist and are mainly considering the structure that Torodov proposed about the equilibrium and disruption.

The video starts with a close up Rihanna which immediately engages the audience - especially those who are Rihanna fans. Here we are encouraged to follow and understand the girl’s feelings through Rihanna's voice and simultaneously the visuals help us understand the main theme of the video because the lyrics illustrate the meaning of the song (Goodwin). For our video the lyrics just representation girl’s love for a boy but we have, by no means, intended to provide an exact literal representation of ‘The One,’ however right at the very end; the idea is that the girl realises that he is the ‘one,’ for her and that they are made for one another which results with the new equilibrium (Torodov) in the form of a happy ending.

As Rihanna is singing, we see cross cuts to a girl and her boyfriend sleeping and cross cuts of her sitting with fire in her hand. This portrays the 'original equilibrium' of the video (Torodov). For our video, we tend to begin with the conflict/disruption and hence the ‘original equilibrium’ will be shown through the flashbacks of their past lives.

The fire connotates the girl's state of mind and noticeably, there is also fire in the background when Rihanna is singing, which represents the destructive mood the girl is under when they know that their guy may be cheating on her. This concept goes back to the general ideology of males being the dominant, cheating figures that see women as mere objects of sexual desire (Mulvey) and therefore don't think twice before committing adultery. The fire seems to give a literal meaning of the lyrics ''....watch me burn...'' s for u8s, the main vocalist will be a girl and therefore the couple will, for a

change, be seen through a female’s perspective which subverts from the norm and provides something different for the audience. This therefore allows women in particular to relate to the relationship better.

Suddenly the girl's eyes open, we hear a sudden breakthrough of Eminem’s powerful voice that goes hands in hand with the aggressive lyrics that the song has to offer. The voice of Eminem introduces the 'disruption' in the video (Torodov). The lyrics correspond with the visuals where we see the boy pushing himself onto her and almost trying to forcibly convince her. All throughout the portion sung by

Eminem we see the aggressive conflict between the couple and the visuals seem to conform to the idea of male dominance because conventionally men have always managed to get it their way however for our video men have not been represented to be the heartless one in fact towards the end of our video, you’ll realise that the boy, all along was the one who wanted to resume the relationship and in contrast the girl was the more unforgiving of individuals. Interestingly what struck my attention were the equally harsh actions the girl responded the boy back with which allows the women of this generation to relate with and in fact allows them to feel in power.

Rihanna re-enters the visuals once the chorus approaches which to some extent Goodwin will believe amplifies the lyrics as the star power accompanying the lyrics helps enhance and exaggerate the meaning and the main theme of the song. It emphasises the fall out however interestingly, the visuals seem to contradict the meaning of the lyrics because it shows the couple making out when the lyrics are referring to a break in their relationship. The contradictory visuals to the lyrics reflect the confused relationship the couple holds.

Just before we experience another breakthrough of Eminem's rap we see fast edits between Rihanna singing and Eminem just wandering which hints the audience and prepares them for another portion of visual coming from a perspective of the boy. Throughout this video the audience is able to understand the conflict of the couple from the two gender perspective and Rihanna and Eminem's star power defines the relationship and also allows us audience to relate to the situation and in some cases we are encouraged to follow one's narrative more than the other's due to mere star attraction. As for us, the vocalist are not aimed to enhance the relationship as we believe the relationship using ordinary people are sufficient to attract viewers as it adds to the realism of the situation and so the vocalist will act like any other viewer, viewing this relationship and possibly relating to the couple’s life herself.

As Eminem is singing, the visuals of the isolated boy sitting down encourages us to believe that he may be regretting his actions and possibly seeing himself in the wrong. Here Torodov will describe to be the 'recognition,' portion of the problem in the narrative. This cuts to visuals of flashbacks showing how the couple initially met which allows the audience to follow up the narrative however it always cuts back to either show the girl

crying or the boy screaming and so the fast edits provide a comparison in which we see the contrast between their current state and their previous state of relationship.

After all these visuals, we see the whole video coming to a new equilibrium (Torodov) and visuals are seemingly slowing down. The visuals of Eminem offering a teddy bear to the girl provides a literal understanding of the new equilibrium and it shows some hope of the couple possibly getting back together. We also decided to show this ‘new equilibrium,’ when the girl turn back and hugs the boy

thereby our video aims to demonstrate a simple story of a simple couple’s life with all its ups and downs.

Yet again Rihanna enters the visuals along with the chorus but this time we also see Eminem accompanying her which to some extent reflects the reunion of the two individuals through the stars. This time we see the couple becoming intimate again however we see elements of flashback in which the boy goes attacking a boy for the girl. This ideally show how the relationship initially worked out. The action code excites the audience in wanting to resolve the problem (Barthes). Here we see the constant conflicts that the couple have managed to overcome. Throughout the whole video the 'men' have been represented as the 'villain,' (Propp) whether its Eminem's aggressive tone or the boy's aggressive attitude in fact you see the boy breaking the mirror with his fist as if he's given up but we then see the girl smiling at him from the background but for our video, there is neither a villain or a princess and instead it is a representation of an ideal happy fairy tale where everything ends well. Here Dyer will argue that this video provides an imagery of a perfect ideal relationship that all couples aspire for.

Eminem begins to rap again and this time the lyrics illustrate the meaning of the narrative because the voice is accompanied by several close ups of the couple which builds up the intimacy and also hints the couple resolving the issue however to a surprise we see the girl walking again which irritates the boy again and this time he begins to destroy the bedroom and forcibly grabs onto the girl. Propp will say that the girl at this moment is represented as the 'princess,' as it shows her in a vulnerable situation.

A lot of fire is shown during the series of images as it enhances the idea of destruction in their relationship in cast we see the girl lighting off a flame in her hands which conotates the end of the relationship and we see a literal translation of the lyrics ''....watch me burn....'' when the boy is set on fire downward up and the girl is in flames. The mis-en-scene of the teddy on fire signifies the idea of the end of love and innocence (Barthes) and we see a shot with Rihanna and Eminem looking up

at a burnt house which portrays a very tough and destroyed relationship but all this comes to an end with a simple shot of the couple lying in bed together which noticeably is the shot that the whole video began with. The last shot implies on a possible nightmare and thereby suggests that there is more to the story than all that we are presented with hinting on a post life after the video ends. This leaves the audience wondering about the whole concept and the use of enigma code (Barthes) will interest the audience to watch it again to possibly resolve this problem.

From this video, I am highly influenced by the concept of disruption and equilibrium (Torodov) and thereby have taken this further into our final music video which will portray a life of a couple going through all their ups and downs in their relationship. Our video will start off with a problem that will be seen resolved throughout the duration of our music video along with visuals of their flashbacks that implies on their recall of memories and their time spent together.