PLANNING

Song Selection

For our final music video task the song that we have chosen is "Love the way you lie" from the album recover. It has a variety of genres including pop, rap and hiphop.

Song: Love the Way You Lie

Artist: Eminem and Rihanna

Composer: Eminem

Skyler Grey

Alex da Kid

Song writers: Eminem

Skyler Grey

Alex da Kid

Label: Aftermath

Shady

Interscope

Genre: Pop Rao, Hip hop

Producers: Alex da Kid

Makeba Riddick

Duration: 4:27

Lyrics and Meaning

Lyrics

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
But that's alright, because I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

I can't tell you what it really is
I can only tell you what it feels like
And right now there's a steel knife, in my windpipe
I can't breathe, but I still fight, while I can fight
As long as the wrong feels right, it's like I'm in flight
High off of love drunk from my hate
It's like I'm huffing paint and I love it the more that I suffer
I suffocate and right before I'm about to drown
She resuscitates me, she fucking hates me,
And I love it, wait
Where you going, I'm leaving you
No you ain't, come back
We're running right back, here we go again
It's so insane 'cause when it's going good, it's going great
I'm Superman, with the wind at his back, she's Lois Lane
But when it's bad, it's awful
I feel so ashamed, I snapped, who's that dude
I don't even know his name, I laid hands on her
I'll never stoop so low again, I guess I don't know my own strength

You ever love somebody so much
You can barely breathe, when you're with them, you meet
And neither one of you, even know what hit 'em,
Got that warm fuzzy feeling, yeah them chills, used to get 'em
Now you're getting fucking sick, of looking at 'em
You swore you've never hit 'em, never do nothing to hurt 'em,
Now you're in each others face,
Spewing venom, and these words, when you spit 'em
You push, pull each other's hair, scratch, claw, bit 'em,
Throw 'em down, pin 'em, so lost in the moments, when you're in 'em
It's the rage that's the culprit, it controls you both
So they say it's best, to go your separate ways,
Guess that they don't know ya 'cause today, that was yesterday
Yesterday is over, it's a different day
Sound like broken records, playin' over, but you promised her
Next time you'll show restraint
You don't get another chance,
Life is no Nintendo game, but you lied again
Now you get to watch her leave,
Out the window, guess that's why they call it window pane

Now I know we said things, did things
That we didn't mean and we fall back into the same patterns
Same routine, but your temper's just as bad, as mine is
You're the same as me, but when it comes to love, you're just as blinded
Baby please come back, it wasn't you,
Baby it was me, maybe our relationship isn't as crazy as it seems
Maybe that's what happens When a tornado meets a volcano
All I know is I love you too much, to walk away now
Come inside, pick up your bags off the sidewalk
Don't you hear sincerity, in my voice when I talk,
Told you this is my fault, look me in the eyeball
Next time I'm pissed, I'll aim my fist at the dry wall
Next time, there will be no next time
I apologize even though I know it's lies
I'm tired of the games, I just want her back, I know I'm a liar
If she ever tries to fucking leave again
I'm a tie her to the bed and set this house on fire

Meaning

The lyrics describe a couple's refusal to separate despite having an abusive relationship. It's a display of romance in Eminem style. The words are too strong, abusive and violent but the theme stays the same throughout. Rihanna's part in the song i.e.
"Just gonna stand there and watch me burn
But that's alright, because I like the way it hurts.
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry
But that's alright, because I love the way you lie.." gives us an affectionate display of how a girl still,truly loves her male counterpart even though he has shortcomings in various aspects of life. Eminem's verses are committed towards the love and hate relationship.

"...When its bad,its awful-I feel so ashamed.." gives us an idea of the amount of regret the male protagonist feels when he does anything bad for the relationship. The lyrics transition from discussing positive aspects of love to describing violent events.Eminem raps, "It's the rage that took over, it controls you both, so they say it's best to go your separate ways.

Guess that they don't know ya, cause today that was yesterday."These lyrics can be interpreted as the rapper's confession to having abused Kimberly Scott(his ex-wife) as he "turns the anger and accusations toward himself".

In the second verse, Eminem accepts the outcome after feeling sorry, admitting, "Yesterday is over, it's a different day."

His frustration increases and he raps that two personalities can clash and devastate: "maybe that's what happens when a tornado meets a volcano". The described love-hate relationship worsens and leads to domestic violence.

Eminem admits to lying about promises he makes and says late in the song, "If she ever tries to fuckin' leave again, I'mma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire",a reference to Rihanna's lyrics.

It is the previous relationship of both artists' that influenced the song. The song would not have been effective if it had featured only Eminem's point of view and feelings of regret; he wrote that Rihanna's representing the opposite side of the relationship shows "proper storytelling" and "sends a message" because of her breakup with Brown.

But the words. The song's intense depiction of a violent relationship raises questions powerful enough to attract interest not just from Eminem fans, but also from educators, domestic violence activists, feminist bloggers, and an unusually broad slew of commentators concerned about Eminem's influence on teenagers and about his seemingly unguarded misogyny.

Far from distancing her own personal life from the song, then, Rihanna gave listeners a certain degree of license to speculate about the connections between the song and both performers' own troubled histories—Rihanna as a victim of domestic violence, Eminem as a perpetrator. "It was authentic, it was real," Rihanna added. And for millions of people, the subject matter is real—not just because they've seen news reports about Rihanna's abuse by Chris Brown, but because millions of people experience violence in their own relationships.

Unlike some of the previous angry warnings against abuse found in popular songs, this one has an edge of highly personal knowledge. And unlike more than a few popular revenge ballads, so extreme that they can almost be taken lightly, "Love the Way You Lie" is clearly not a joke.

The song refers to semantics and the ability to over haul the truth by simply bending words, and using duly defined words or phrases. Semantics are used by people who have a conscience non-the-less whether they are hiding something which is either unimportant enough to glaze over, or to otherwise protect information that the "wordy" person who uses truth bending tactics.

Eminem is clearly singing from the point of view of an abuser in a relationship. They have some good times together, but when they fight, he's abusive. When she tries to leave, he sweet-talks her into staying, but during the next fight he's even more violent. Rihanna seems to be singing from the point of view of his partner. She knows that what he's doing is abusive, but every time he promises to reform, she wants to believe him. She listens and stays in the relationship, even though she's had enough experience with him to know that he won't live up to his promises.

Permission Letter

Since we are using the original song from Eminem and Rihanna, and not singing it ourselves, it is mandatory and a requirement for us to ask for the copyrights (permission of the singer), so we sent a message to him. The above (on the left) is the official page of the singer (Eminem). We sent him a formal message requesting for his permission (on the right) in order to produce our music video.

Initial Ideas

The above was the initial idea for our music video. However the song that we first chose was too slow and the story board that we thought of became too boring and depressing. The overall pace of the story was quite slow so decided to reject the story. We also wanted to add singing parts in our music video and the above idea did not have it. Thus this made another reason to reject the storyboard.

Synopsis and Storyboard

For our final music video, we will use a variety and a combination of both bright and dull colors since the music video will have both happy and sad moments. The dull colors and the dark color would be used to show when a depressing shot is being shown and bright colors would be used where happy moments are shared with the audience. The singers in our music video would would also sing in the dark with just one spotlight above them to create an emphasis on the actual sadness of the story. Our music video would have many transitions and effects and split screen to further enhance and attract the target audience. Online green screen blood splatter would also be used and added in to the video.

The main plot for our music video or the main synopsis is that an already committed young couple is happy with their lives and and all is going well. One day after their date the girl come back home and finds a letter from the hospital she opens it and finds out that she has leukemia. The following day was her birthday. The boy came to her house with gifts and with the intention of proposing to her. When he enters her room he finds her sleeping with another boy. He's heartbroken and eaves and starts to drink. He again sees his girlfriend with another boy while drinking. One of both the boy's and the girl's mutual friends sees the scenario and rushes to the boy's house to tell him the truth of why the girl is doing this. After hearing that the girl has leukemia and wants to create distance from him because of it, the boy rushes to the girl's house. He finds another letter from the hospital and opens and reads it. He finds out that the results were mixed up and that the previous report was invalid or false, which means that she did not have leukemia. The boy rushes inside. Meanwhile the girl is too sad and traumatized and decides to take her life. She opens her drawer and takes out her gun and points it to her head, remembering all her memories with her boyfriend. As soon as the boy enters her room she shoots herself. The boy is in shock and immediately falls to his knees. He just lost the person he loved the most who did not even know the truth.

Album and Artists

Our album's name is “Remorse” which refers to deep regret. The main track's story, which is named “Love the Way You Lie” is derived from this word. The whole story has deep regret. There are two artists performing in our music video. They are as follows:

Aroob Khawaja

Danial Ahmed

Mood board

Record Label

A record label for publishing our music video was required so we decided upon Universal Music Group. Universal Music Group is an American global music corporation that is a subsidiary of the French media conglomerate Vivendi. They have declared themselves as the world's leading music company. They are ommitted to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship and own and operate a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising, and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries.

Theories, Codes & Conventions

Andrew Goodwin

Our music video is linked to Andrew Goodwin's theory in terms of its aspects of the relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with visuals. For example when the lyrics say "who's that dude I don't even know his name," the boy point of view would be shown when he sees his girlfriend sleeping with another guy. Another instance would be where the girl takes out her gun, the lyrics, "Next time, there will be no next time" would be sung. The tone and atmosphere of the visual would reflect that of the music.

Sven E. Carlsson

According to his theory, our music video follows, both, performance and conceptual. In the performance, the two singing with full passion and devotion, feeling each lyric's meaning. As for the conceptual part, it gives a message. It can be seen from the perspective of both, male and female. The girl has her reasons for keeping distance from her boyfriend. However it also covers the issue that there should be communication in a relationship. Our music video would show sacrifice.

Katz and Blumler

According to them different audiences gain different pleasures from a media text as a way for escapism. It can use surveillance to give information to audiences and can also be discussed on forums and blogs as a form of developing personal relationships. Personal identity can be developed with audiences who relate to certain characters more than others. Such characters would be found in our music video.

Codes and Conventions

Shows the singers in dark clothes, which matches the theme of the song.
Mostly low lighting was used to show dramatic scenes.
Editing follows slow shots and fast cuts.

Mise en scene

Props:

Envelope
Letter of cancer and default
Hookah
Alcohol Bottles
Party Poppers
Glass
Teddy Bear
Wrapped gift box
Card
Money Stack
Gun
Bullets

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Makeup and Hairstyles:

The makeup throughout the video will be kept casual for the girl since it is an everyday story. However when the girl is about to shoot her self her makeup would be smudged with messy hair to indicate how much she had been crying. Since teenagers do not do dramatic makeup looks everyday so we wanted to keep it simple as well. We will do different hairstyles of the girl like straight hair, low ponytail, high ponytail and a messy bun. For the male character not much makeup would be done only where the boy cries we would use red eyeliner to make his eyes look red and puffy because of continuous crying. His hair would be messy in those parts where he is drunk.

Setting, Background and Lighting