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"