Hard

The music video for "Hard" was directed by Melina Matsoukas and filmed in December 2009 in Los Angeles. It was the first Rihanna video directed by Matsoukas, who would go on to direct videos for "Rude Boy" and "Rockstar 101". Before the premier of the video, Rihanna told Kyle Anderson of MTV News: "It's couture-military. Everything is surrounded by the whole idea of something military. We have tanks, we have troops, we've got helicopters, we've got explosions. Tight gear, lots of cute outfits, lots of bullets. Crazy.

The video's first scene is set in a desert at night. Rihanna, wearing a garrison cap, sunglasses, and a stylized white top, stands in front of an army. This scene is inter-cut with scenes of Rihanna in a bunker; she wears an army hard hat, pink lace up boots, and a skin-coloured top with small black rectangles covering her breasts. Half way through the first verse, the scene changes to a daytime desert scene in which Rihanna wears a low cut, short black dress with spiked shoulder pads, and walks through the location as small explosions occur around her.

As the first chorus begins, earlier scenes from the video are inter-cut with each other; Rihanna is shown commanding her troops, firing a machine gun, and dancing in the bunker. As the second verse begins, Rihanna is seen with slicked-back hair wearing a metal bikini top, rolling in mud and surrounded by troops on a stone structure before a mountainous backdrop. She is shown gambling with (and winning against) soldiers in another bunker.The video's first scene is set in a desert at night. Rihanna, wearing a garrison cap, sunglasses, and a stylized white top, stands in front of an army. This scene is inter-cut with scenes of Rihanna in a bunker; she wears an army hard hat, pink lace up boots, and a skin-coloured top with small black rectangles covering her breasts. Half way through the first verse, the scene changes to a daytime desert scene in which Rihanna wears a low cut, short black dress with spiked shoulder pads, and walks through the location as small explosions occur around her.

As the second chorus starts, Rihanna, wearing a bullet bra and a helmet similar in appearance to the ears of Mickey Mouse, stands on a pink army tank. During Jeezy's rap verse, Jeezy is seen in the middle of a crosshair, and explosions occur around Rihanna. During the bridge and final chorus of the song, scenes of Rihanna from throughout the video are inter-cut with each other. In this sequence, Rihanna wears a high-waisted black bikini and waves a large black flag with a white "R" in the middle of it.

First Single

Prior to signing a record deal with Def Jam Recordings, Rihanna was discovered in her home country of Barbados by American record producer Evan Rogers, who made the necessary arrangements for her to fly to New York. There, she recorded a collection of demo's for a demo tape to be sent to record labels. One of the demo's recorded was that of "Pon de Replay", which was written and produced by Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers and Vada Nobles in 2004. The first to respond to the demo tape was Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed as president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, where Rihanna auditioned for him and music executive L.A. Reid, in his office. Looking back on the audition and meeting Jay-Z, Rihanna said she was so nervous and had butterflies whilst jay-z was sat across the table from her. During the audition, Rihanna performed Whitney Houston's cover of "For the Love of You", "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time", the latter two of which would go on to be included on her debut album, Music of the Sun. Initially, Jay-Z was sceptical about signing Rihanna, because he felt "Pon de Replay" was too big for her, saying "when a song is that big, it's hard for a new artist to come back from. I don't sign songs, I sign artists". It was soon released about became her number one single.

Rihanna

The accompanying music video for "Rude Boy" was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who also directed the video for Rihanna's previous single, "Hard". The video relies upon the use of green screen, and contains strong references to critically acclaimed famous artists, including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Salt-n-Pepa, M.I.A. and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In an interview with Carson Daly on his radio show, Amp Radio, Rihanna described the video as "completely different from any other video" she had done before and "pretty freaking cool". She explained its artistic qualities, and said, "A lot of my videos are really dark and edgy and tough. 'Rude Boy' is more playing along the lines from my roots. We used a lot of colour, but also the costumes were very Jamaican dance-hall-queen type." This is the type of fashion and styling Rihanna uses but it is different to other music videos she has done as it uses a more fun a vibrant side to it.

The video features Rihanna in a multitude of vibrant, brightly coloured, Caribbean inspired scenes. In the opening scene, Rihanna approaches a drum kit, which she plays as the song progresses. During the rest of the video, Rihanna engages with and plays with a variety of props, including a male extra, a zebra, a motorcycle and a stuffed lion; these scenes are inter-cut with scenes of Rihanna playing the drum kit. Rihanna wears a variety of outfits in the video, including a gold net bodysuit and a black and white zebra print catsuit, which she wears while sitting atop a stuffed zebra. Rihanna performs various 1990's dance-hall dance moves, such as the Bogle.

Inside To Rihanna

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born February 20, 1988. She is known by her stage name Rihanna and is a Barbadian recording artist, actress and fashion designer. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, she began her career as a result of meeting record producer Evan Rogers in late 2003. 

At age 16, she moved to the United States to pursue a recording career and began recording demo tapes under Rogers' guidance, subsequently signing a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for Jay-Z.

Rihanna's debut studio album, Music of the Sun made in 2005, peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 and features the Billboard Hot 100 top five hit single "Pon de Replay". Her second album, A Girl Like Me made in 2006, peaked at number five in the United States, and produced her first Hot 100 number one single, "SOS". Rihanna's third album, Good Girl Gone Bad made in 2007, spawned the international hit singles "Umbrella", "Don't Stop the Music", "Take a Bow", and "Disturbia". The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella". Her fourth album,Rated R made in 2009, produced the top ten singles "Russian Roulette", "Hard", and "Rude Boy", with the latter achieving the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Rihanna's fifth album, Loud made in 2010, spawned the number one hit singles "Only Girl (In the World)", "What's My Name?", and "S&M". Her sixth album, Talk That Talk made in 2011, served the worldwide chart topper "We Found Love" and the top five single "Where Have You Been". Rihanna's seventh and most recent album, Unapologetic made in 2012, was preceded by the lead single "Diamonds", which became Rihanna's twelfth number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2012, Rihanna was awarded by her label, Def Jam, for selling 25 million records worldwide and 75 million singles, since the beginning of her career in 2005, which makes her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She has achieved a total of twelve number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the youngest solo artist to achieve the feat. Billboard named Rihanna the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, and ranked her as the seventeenth overall artist of the same decade. In 2012, Forbes ranked her as the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012 with earnings of $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012. The same year, American magazine Time named Rihanna one of the most influential people in the world.

Essay

Essay

Post Production Essay

Post Production

Theories

Creativity: 

• "A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a commonability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993)

•  "The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)
• "Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culturethat contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and afield of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996) 
• "There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thingwith another." (Donald Larning)
• "Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production." 
• "A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity."
• "Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts" 
• "The creation of bringing something new into existence"
• "This particular understanding of creativity involves the physical making of something, 
• "If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational,then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users" (Banaji, Burn and Buckingham, 2006).

Research & Planning

DIKW Triangle

• "A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity."Using Conventions from real media texts :
• Irony, parody, pastiche, bricolage, intertextuality
• "Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts" 
• "The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)

Digital Technology: 

DIKW triangle

• "Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production."

Post Production 

• "Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production." 
• "The creation of bringing something new into existence"

David Bowie

• David Robert Jones (born 8 January 1947)
• known by his stage name David Bowie
• English musician, actor, record producer and arranger
• Bowie has been a major figure in the world of popular music for over four decades, and is renowned as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970's
• He is known for his distinctive voice as well as the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work
• He is also known for having a different theme/genre for every album

Discography:

David Bowie (1967) Space Oddity (1969) The Man Who Sold the World (1970) Hunky Dory (1971) The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) Aladdin Sane (1973) Pin Ups (1973) Diamond Dogs (1974) Young Americans (1975) Station to Station (1976) Low (1977) "Heroes" (1977) Lodger (1979) David Bowie could be seen as post modern because of the way he had created an new identity for himself. David Bowie's imperial period is often cited as a break through of post modern ideas into popular music. His musical genre is a wide range of lyrical influences that make his music endless jumble of subject matter. He describes himself as a xerox machine and a pseudo-intellectual which is someone who doesn't innovate himself but recombines other peoples innovations and uses intertextuality references in his songs. This is 'the next day' album cover which will be Bowie's first album of the new material since 2003 over ten years ago. Shocking fans with his newest album which was realised on his birthday as he then again surprised them with a free streaming of the album on iTunes before the official release. The cover is a adapted version of Bowie's 1977 album 'heroes' which is a new art cover. This is a perfect example of bricoloage, taking something existing and changing it to become something new and inspirational. This is the original album cover which David Bowie used again for his new album but by making it more exciting and up to date. He did not use any guest on his album but he did use some of the musicians he's worked with in the past, including Earl Slick who recorded his parts for the album in July 2012. Gail Ann Dorsey who is a bass guitar player and sterling Campbell who plays drums who both  worked with Bowie since the 90's, who also contributed to the album.

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) Let's Dance (1983) Tonight (1984) Never Let Me Down (1987) Black Tie White Noise (1993) The Buddha of Suburbia (1993) Outside (1995) Earthling (1997) 'Hours...' (1999) Heathen (2002) Reality (2003) The Next Day (2013)

Post Production

AS Coursework:
When it came to editing my photographs I decided to use the Iphone. I could use cropping tools (magic wand), colour editing tools (brightness, lightness, contrast, colour replacement ect) also image improvement tools (red eye corrector, airbrush, smudge).
Strengths and weaknesses whilst editing my photographs on the Iphone- I used photoshop for my preliminary task which was a weakness of mine as i found the tools hard to use and needed to spend extra time on learning what everything does. However when it came to taking my final photographs i decided to use the Iphone as this was very simple to use as I could crop the size of the image instantially which was one of my strengths within As post production that also looked professional and realistic. Some tools I wasn't to sure on which is a weakness but I asked my friend how to use each individual tool to make my photographs as good as possible. Editing was quite straight forward after learning the tools and my image improvement skills to get them to a good level and to produce a more professional finish. This programme was unfamiliar at first but was pretty straight forward to use and gave the final images a very realistic look.
Software pros/cons- there was positive and negative elements to using the Iphone for the post production stage of my AS coursework. The positive elements of using the Iphone is it is quick and straight forward to use and gives a professional finish to my product as it provided me with the necessary tools to make this work. The negative elements of using the Iphone  is that it doesn't have all the tools and software like the photoshop technology does which means the photographs weren't as detailed.

A2 Coursework:
When it came to my editing in A2 I used photoshop for my ancillary text and final cut pro for my music video. Photoshop I used cropping tools (lasso, magic wand, select tools ect) colour editing tools (brightness, tint, lightness, contrast, colour replacement, saturation ect) image improvement tools (red eye corrector, blur, smudge, airbrush, paintbrush ect). Final cut pro I used cropping tools to shorten the clips, the speed up and slow down tool making the clip either x2 or -2 to get a exggarated effect, colour editing or effects that can be added to each individual clip to give it a brighter, darker or blurred look.
Strengths and weaknesses whilst editing my photographs and music video- I used final cut pro for my preliminary task that allowed me to gain skills through the making which gave me more confidence when it came to making my final music video. I also gained skills from using the different types of tools on photoshop such as various cropping tools which I felt gave me a strength in my A2 post product. The weakness of using these software's is that I had to watch a few tutorials on youtube which explained how to use each tool when making my ancillary text on photoshop and on final cut pro to make my final products look professional and realistic and become one of my strengths. I also had to spend a lot of time on making the colours work on both of my products and change the brightness to give it a high level look. Doing these elements to my product took a while to learn as I was not familiar with the final cut pro program and had to start at the basic level and extend my knowledge through teaching myself the tools.
Software pros/cons- There were positives and negative to using photoshop and final cut pro for the post product stage of my A2 course work. The positives were that using photoshop included a professional software package which helped me to product a much more professional finish on my ancillary texts. Final cut pro was a high level software package that is quick and has a good range of different tools to make my music video as realistic and professional looking as possible. The negatives of using photoshop is that it would cost a lot to have the package at home on my laptop and therefore I was limited to using this technology in school which is similar to the final cut pro negatives as it only works on the mac computer's and also can afford a lot to download to home computers so a lot of time was spent on these software's at school.
Key Media Concepts (A2 main product & ancillary texts):

• Institutions: I used Simon Cowells famous syco label brand. This is well known for Pop music and the mainstream music that can be seen in the charts. I believe this label fitted the product very well as it shows the style of music Iv chosen and it is also a very well known label that everyone listens to. This allowed the band to communicate with the right target audience.
• Media Language: I used a blue white and red colour scheme on my ancillary texts and black text as this is a well know colour used to make the words stand out on the page. These colours were also used in the music video giving it a fun and exciting look.
• Representation: The girls in the ancillary texts are wearing high street products that a lot of people wear and can relate to. This shows a realistic young group of people and was also the same in making my music video and using similiar clothing style to fit in with the genre I was doing using a budget video shoot. Using a simple background for the magazine gave the indivdual artist a clean clear look and stand out. I did the same thing in my music video but decided to make the girls wear simple smart clothes and give them interesting background to show their personalities and individual styles.

DIKW pyramid- Theory

Data- finding music videos and magazines
Information- anaylsising videos and magazines
Knowledge- understanding the information and able to create
Wisdom- reflect on what I made and what I could change (evaluation)

• Useful theory to apply to the areas of research and planning as well as digital technology. How its applied to me coursework:

Data- making prelimary work, first time using the technology and learning the tools
Information- know the key features to use on the magazine and video
Knowledge- know how to use the technology to make my products look professional and realistic
Wisdom- what I could of done better second time round to get a higher grade

Digital Technology Essay

Digital Technology by

Drive

Actors:

Ryan Gosling- 'the kid'

Carey Mulligan- Irene

Bryan Cranston- Shannon

Ron Perlman- Nino

Albert Brooks- ?

• Uses lights in the lift to change the mood- self reflexive/ romantic. Focuses on just the two actors.
• Hyperreality- A constructed of reality.

Gangsters: They use sterotypical scary gangesters that have a lot of money and invest in 'the kid' but when things go wrong they go looking for the kid and try to kill him and the people he loves. Nino is you typical ganster has a say in everything and seen as the well off over the top ganster. Irene is the boss and is a bit shamy and doesnt look like a typical ganster expect through the way he talks. It all becomes clear in the last scene of the film what his real like when he goes to stab the kid.

Hero: Tragic hero- gets involved in the girls life which is bad luck for him. The kid who kills two men to save the lady but then leaves her to live more and go on new adventures. Anti-hero/ criminal/ brutal killer (said to be a psychopath) this is shown in the elevator scene when he kills the men.

Violence: Shannon cuts down his arm so he can kill him self quickly. Kicking someone to death and making their face collapse in. brutal murders comitted by the kid to the kit men. Every kill is quite grusome and is done quite simply.

Fairytale: Has expected characters- hero, princess, villain. modern grimm fairytale. Hero saves girl but being denied the "happy ever after ending". Not typical ending to a fairytale (don't end up together). goes through a journey as he kills people to save her life. He killed 2 hit men in the motel, 1 man in the elevator and Nino and his driver, also the boss.

The City (setting): No people or cars around in the scene (empty) this isn't normal for Los Angeles. The camera is looking down onto the city looks like a shot from grand theftorto the driving game. The only cars that are on the road through the film is the kid and the police there is never other cars and if there is there is few of them which gives a main focuse on the characters.

Music: The sound track for the film is 80s-style, synth-pop. Martinez built the film’s sonic landscape from ideas pioneered by European electronic bands, such as Kraftwerk. This gives the overall film a chilled and relaxed feel. Each song shows a different scene and gives you a feel of what the charaters are feeling.

Ending: In a lonely and isolated existence the same as the beginning of the film. Not a full ending. He leaves money so the people don't go after his girl and kill her. It isnt the typical ending you want and you dont know what will happen next. Finishes with the audience having doubt on what happens next could be another film.

Dialogue: Does not talk much the main actor (kid) which is the same as the weston films (using simple illiterate).