Vernallis Analysis: Rihanna - Man Down

Narrative 

At the start of the video the narrative is set in some busy place outside. It doesn’t show an exact location, as the camera mostly focuses on the people walking, but it seems like a small cottage type of area. 

Rihanna made the video “Man Down” in which her character struggles with the choice to kill her rapist. The video opens with Rihanna's character taking aim at an unarmed man, pulling the trigger and fleeing the scene. As the video's powerful narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that Rihanna's character has murdered the man who raped her. The close up of Rhianna shows her facial expression and that she is angry but upset at the same time. As she pulls out the gun you see the next shot is a man dead. This builds the narrative as it shows the Rihanna is killing the person who raped her.

Soon after the she shot of Rihanna rapist dead on the floor the camera cuts to a different location. At this point the narrative changes. You see a close-up of Rihanna being happy and smiling. The location changes to her “home town”. It seems that Rihanna is enjoying herself know as she has got revenge to what happened to her.  Here the narrative is clearly demonstrated by the visuals.

The narrative changes again when we see a shot of Rihanna in her bedroom. Here she looks upset and angry as she says “i didn’t mean to end his life, I know it wasn’t right”, the narrative widens as it shows that she knew that what she did was wrong and now she regrets doing that. She also say “i need to get it out of sight before I end up behind bars”. Here a close-up is taken of Rihanna expressing her facial expression.

The camera then cuts between rihanna in her different periods. You first see rihanna singing about how she regrets what she’s done and expresses her feelings to be very upset, the camera then cuts to another life of rihanna were she is seen to be happy. Here the narrative is purposely hidden to the viewer. This drives the video forward as it shows her life before and after what she did.

The location then changes when we get a mid close-up of Rihanna singing next to the sea. She seems to look very stressed and upset, as her face seems to be very dull. She’s says “I didn’t mean to lay him down but it’s too late to turn back now” which again shows how she regrets killing him. The narrative seems to be going back and forth reminding us of what she did to then reminding us to what he did. We are then introduced to a new location where it seems she’s in some sort of club type place where people are dancing. You then see a man approaching her and later on you see the man harassing her, pulling Rihanna’s arms towards him almost forcing her. This brings the narrative back to the man who raped Rihanna.

Throughout the last section of the narrative we see various close-ups of Rihanna and you can see that she is crying and terrible upset, when she is thrown into some sort of dark place. It builds the narrative as it shows that the man who was in the club knew she had killed a man, they might happen to be friends or relatives of some sort.  

This video clearly demonstrates Vernallis four key concepts of how the video is constructed and how the narrative is developed as the video progresses. The narrative is shown by a visual concept as before the video even starts the viewer can assume on what the video is about. It tells the story in the beginning where Rihanna shoots a man who is seen to be her rapist. The video then develops this narrative through her feelings and emotions. This is done by the various close-ups taken. 

Editing

This video consists of many jump cuts from rihanna before and after. The lyrics clearly match the visuals as when rihanna says “man down” the camera cuts to the man dying. Here the editing is very sharp and quick as there are cuts within the lyrics. The editing then becomes slower when the beat changes depending on weather it is quick or slow. 

Camera Movement & Framing

Vernallis says that in most music videos you always get various close ups. This is true in this music video as there are many close-ups shown of rihanna from her being upset to her performing her dance routine.  The camera moves in time of the lyrics and the beat. The filming of this video is mainly in the centre, this is only when there are long shots shown. When close ups are shown the frame is always to one side.
Diegesis

There are many repetitions of diegesis in this music video. There are subsequent scenes that cut back to each other e.g. when rihanna is singing in the bedroom and when she is signing outside in the sea. There is also repetition of close-ups to show the artists facial expression showing that they are sad and unhappy.