Rihanna’s ‘Take a Bow’ starts with a medium close-up of the singer’s outstretched hand, as the camera pans up to show the singer looking down at it. Rihanna then turns to the centre of the frame, whilst singing, to create a relationship with the audience, in order for her words to be heard and felt. Moving images of the singer and the male in video are edited in between the close-ups of her singing, as a way of telling the story behind the words. These images, although set in the past, are colourful in contrast to the present image of Rihanna dressed in black, before a plain black background. There are a lot of close-ups of the singer, highlighting her status and part in the video, common within the R ‘n’ B genre. When the male counterpart is in the frame, he is for the majority shot alone or far away from Rihanna, as the song is about the hurt he’s caused her and her revenge. Rihanna is shot holding one side of the door, where as he is shot holding the outside (‘standing outside my house’) trying to be heard but she doesn’t want to listen. Rihanna’s costume throughout the video connotes power through the use of the colour black, skyscraper heels and leather jackets. Her costume is also sexy in a subtle way, showing the right amount of flesh, her jewellery, piercings and tattoos. Her power and wealth are also shown in location and props, such as a silver sports car, with him running down the road after it! As with the Ne-yo video, the locations in the video are very simple, with this one set in what is supposedly Rihanna’s home, creating a bond with the audience immediately.
