Deconstruction: Drake- Take care ft. Rihanna

Drake ft. Rihanna- Take care

The song 'Take Care' is from Drake's second album, released on the 15th November 2011 by Young Money Entertainment. He is a Canadian hip hop recording artist. From this album he released a song in May 2011 on his very own blog stating that this is the first single from the album 'Take Care'. The album was originally going to released on the 25th of October; however they had to push it back to November. After the album was released, the artist stated that the tour would be after Christmas/New Year,the tour was originally going to be in November.  This music video is a concept based music video, this is because the lyrics have no relevance to the music video however there are a lot of symbols that portray the meaning for example in this particular video they use a bull, arrows, birds etc. 

1.

This is the first shot of the video and it plays for 4 seconds at the start. This shot is mysterious as the audience doesn't see the person and they only see the outline of them; this is backed up by the fact that the shot after this is also an owl flying up in slow motion which again does not reveal much. There are feathers which the viewers see coming from the person and they have their hands in the air like they are about to touch something. As well as this, the background is white and we only see a shadow of the person in the video.

2.

This is the third shot in the music video, at this moment the viewer only hears music and no lyrics at this point. This is a tracking shot through the clouds that the audience sees which starts off with misty white/grey clouds then goes through the clouds to see the clear image of white mountains. 

3.

This shot zooms out from this character who is one of the main characters in the video. When this zooms out her position stays the same; however, the lighting changes from light when you first see her to dark lighting when it's zoomed out. The position that she is in is very interesting because of the way that she is standing. It looks like she is holding onto something which may be from her past. She is also looking down and the audience does not see her face properly, which again could suggest she is remembering or thinking about something. The focus is on her as she is in the middle of the shot, the background surrounding her is plain which clearly suggests she is the salient figure that the audience should focus on. The colour scheme in this shot is white and grey. The woman wears these shades as well; they are very dull and emotionless, which could link to the way she is positioned.

4.

This is another main character. Again, the viewer sees the person but cannot see their emotion, which keeps the audience interested and guessing as to what will happen next. The colours in this are black and grey rather than white and grey. The black in this could symbolise power or darkness; this is another zooming shot; however, this time the camera zooms in rather than out like it did in the previous shot ,and the colour changes from dark to light whilst zooming in. This could show us the difference between these two characters because the shot before was zooming out and going into darker lighting whereas this shot is zooming in and goes into a lighter setting. 

5.

The man is breaking the fourth wall in this shot by looking directly at the camera. The lighting is still the same as before (grey and black). The scene starts off with a side shot of him singing, then he moves back while the camera stays in the same position and which results in him looking directly at the audience while singing. This carries on for a while with a few shots of a bull's horn, and Rihanna and the mountains in between, but then transitions back to him singing. Every time that the viewer sees the man, the background is black or dark, and while the camera stays still he is moving around while he sings. Between 30 seconds and 40 seconds there is a montage of different shots ranging from close ups shots, extreme close ups  and full length shots with different angles (high, low, medium) all while he is in the same clothing and same background.

6.

Throughout the video, the lighting seems to be consistently dark. Even when it's light it still remains darker than usual. This is a close up shot of the character and as the other main character keeps singing random shots of her appearing every now and then, suggesting the song is about her. She also looks directly to the camera, breaking the fourth wall without speaking. In this particular shot she looks really empty and emotionless inside, which is partially shown by the lighting/colour and her body language. The lyrics say 'Tears all on the pillowcase', as the audience sees her and she opens her eyes slowly to match the lyrics. 

7.

This is another mid close up where the camera zooms in and the lighting stays the same through the zoom. Both of their eyes are closed and the way he holds her her could suggest that he loves her or has feelings for her. The lyrics for this scene are 'I would care for you / I keep thinking you just don't know', which shows the feelings he has for her due to his actions - how he holds her. 

8.

This particular shot is supportive of my interpretation about him having feelings for her, due to the way that he holds her. slowly. This is supported by the lyrics 'We'll change the pace and just go slow'. In the song so far, Drake predominately sings about the woman, and the audience is reminded of her through a few shots of her intermittently The viewer doesn't see either of their faces here, but from how they are positioned it shows that he is comforting her. This shot is a mid close up. The lighting is the same as before, the costume for both characters remains consistent with previous shots.

9.

In this shot Drake slowly turns around while he sings 'You won't ever have to hide'. This is a low angle shot, and the lighting is very dark in this particular shot because he wears black clothing complemented by the dark grey/black background. This shot and lighting could suggest that he is important due to the low angle camera shot whereby drake looks like an authority figure with power. Also, black is a colour of power, mystery and elegance however it also connotates death. Up to this point most of the video has remained mysterious as most of the colours are dull, simple shades and this applies for their clothing as well as we mainly see them wearing dull colours that are similar to the background. The focus is on him as everything around him is black and he is the only person there in focus, this could be because he is the one singing which reinforces the fact that the audience should be focused on him. 

10.

This is a long shot. Again, she is the only person in shot and is takes up most of the foreground, suggesting that she is now the central focus. The lighting in this shot is lighter than before; however, it doesn't show much as it seems very mysterious because the audience don't get to see a lot in this shot. This is the first time that she sings in this video: 'cause if you let me.' The position that she is in looks like she's thinking about something serious and as if something is on her mind. The camera zooms in and the lighting goes from dark to light; however, the camera stays put. 

11.

In this shot it looks like she has gone to him for comfort and the positioning backs this up because he's got his head in her shoulder. The focus is on them as they are in the middle taking up the foreground and they are in sharp focus which tells the audience that we should be looking at them and listening to the lyrics. The lighting in this particular shot is a bit lighter then it has been in previous shots which could show us that they are both feeling better about themselves and moving forward rather than looking back. 

12.

In this shot she sings 'I've loved and I've lost' and she is standing in a way where the audience feel like she's still holding onto what she has lost because she's holding her own hands and looking down at them. The lighting keeps getting darker than it was before, when we first saw this character in the video the lighting was always dark on her which could suggest her previous relationship was dark and miserable. However as we carry on watching the video we see she has lighter lighting on her compared to the shot of her before which could suggest that she is moving on. Again she is in the center of the frame meaning that the audience should be focused on her as there is nothing else around her to focus on. She is wearing the same clothes as before and they are very dull and simple just like the background of this shot as it is grey.

13. 

In this shot the lyrics do not match the video, the lighting in this shot is very light compared to the shot before. The focus is on them as there is nothing else to look at in the background and they are taking up most of the shot. The clothing that he is wearing is a black top which could suggest power which is juxtaposing the top that she is wearing which is grey and could suggest vulnerability or delicacy. This is a mid close up shot of the two characters. 

14. 

This is a long shot and one of the few shots where we see that character in full because most of the shots that we have previously seen are either close ups or extreme close ups. He is wearing all black which could suggest power or mystery. The lighting is again light and he is in focus which tells the viewer that we should be focused on him, as well as this there is nothing else to look at in the background which emphasises the fact that we should be focused on him. 

15. For these next few shots there is a montage of these shots from similar angles however as the music gets fatser and more upbeat in this section the faster the montage is, there are no lyrics its just the beat of the music. The lighting stays the same in most of this apart from right at the end when it goes to the forest fire. 

16. 

16. 

These are the last two shots before the music video ends, when the audience sees these shots they only hear the music while it gets quieter because it's finishing. As you can see that for the whole video these two characters were really close however right at the end they are separated and thinking about things from what the audience sees. The colours that are used in these shots are the same as the whole video which include black, white and grey. The lighting looks lighter in one of the shots compared to the other as well as this the camera zooms in when we see the girl and it zooms in fast but the cameras stays there however when its his shot the camera does zoom in but not as noticeably as it did for her.  The shot is a close up for the first one with the girl in it and the second one with the guy in it is a mid close up. 

Album Cover analysis 

This is the album cover for 'Take Care' which is his second album. The only writing in this album is the title of the album which is take care, the audience don't see a name of the artist or the release date on the cover. The shot is a mid shot and the lighting is neutral. The props and costume in this album cover are a lot more than other artists would usually use. For example the clothing is just a black jacket with a gold chain however he uses many props with him which all have the same colour theme. The colour theme is black and gold and all of the props he has are gold which include a small statue of an owl, a candle and a wine glass. He is also sitting down at a table and has 2 big portraits behind him. The fact that his props are all gold and he has 2 portraits behind him could symoblise wisdom and wealth alongside the black which could symbolise power. There is a lot going on in this album cover because if you look at his other covers they are very simple and the focus of them is all on him, in this one the focus is on him however there are other things that the audience could also look at which takes the focus away from him. The way that he is positioned tells the audience a lot as well because he looks like he is focused on something or someone which is what the album could be about. With all of the props and the colour of them alongside the positioning of him could show the audience that the album is about his story and how he grew to wealth and is thinking about that. 

Focus group

I asked my focus group what they think of this song:

• "I always remember the bull in the video."

• "I like the black and white effects as it's like they're on about how it's the past and it's over and the birds flying at the start relate to being free."

• "It's like they are singing to each other when they have the different shots in the video. The way Rihanna looks to the side and Drake looks to the side as well even though its different shots definitely looks like they are talking to each other." 

• "The part at the end with the darts being thrown at the bull could represent all of the anger, while the bull moving expresses rage; this is all happening when there are no lyrics  in the video and a guy making muffled noises which could represent the argument as it is unclear to the audience what he is saying." 

• "The fire at the end is like the relationship is being destroyed."

Going through what my peer group said; I find this feedback valuable as it helps me understand the video through different perspectives.