Rihanna, a singer from Barbados living in San Diego, has hit the MTV charts with the music video for Umbrella, with five nominations in the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, Female Artist Of The Year, Monster Single Of The Year and Video Of The Year, along with Director of the Year. The single from Rihanna’s album, Gone Bad, written by Jay-Z, Terius Nash and Christopher Stewart, premiered in March 2007. The music video was released a month later in April.
The video starts with Jay-Z the rain man rapping in a rain of sparks. Rihanna enters as a show girl singing in a room full of steam. Later, Rihanna is seen nude and painted silver, in various positions. In the endcap of the video, she dances with her umbrella amid a shower of sparks falling like rain.
Click on the image below to play the Umbrella (Orange Version) video.
Credits
Filming was shot in mid April 2007 by director Chris Applebaum via Reactor Films with producer John Hardin, director of photography Pierre Rouger, editor Nabil Mench. See some of the background on Chris Applebaum’s work on the video at MTV.
Makeup artist Pamela Neal concocted a mixture that gave Rihanna the silver look. Applebaum said they had to repaint Rihanna every minute between takes to ensure she was completely covered. The set was closed for that shot, with only the singer, director and his assistant present. Applebaum said the beauty of the scene actually brought his assistant to tears.
Visual effects at Kroma were supervised by Bert Yukich and produced by Amy Yukich. A key part of the video is a 24-second visual effects sequence in which Rihanna is surrounded by silvery strands of liquid that crisscross the frame in graceful arcs in response to her movements. Water elements were recorded on a special effects stage using a high-speed 35mm camera. KromA Visual Effects Supervisor Bert Yukich then composited them into the scene with the singer. He then added lighting effects to the practical water elements to give them the mirror-like texture of mercury.
“Because water cannot be precisely controlled, it required digital manipulation to make it flick off her arms and conform to the contour of her head,” recalled Yukich. “We painted the footage frame by frame, in essence, choreographing the movement of the liquid through the frame while retaining its organic quality and feel.”
Yukich also mapped imagery onto the surface of the liquid. At one point, the singer’s face floats on the surface like a reflection in a rippling pool. “I used stock imagery of clouds as a reflection map on the surface of the liquid,” Yukich said. “When it splashed onto the screen, we transitioned from the reflection map to the close up of her face.”
Lyrics for Umbrella
Jay-Z:
Ahuh Ahuh (Yea Rihanna)
Ahuh Ahuh (Good girl gone bad)
Ahuh Ahuh (Take three… Action)
Ahuh Ahuh
No clouds in my storms
Let it rain, I hydroplane in the bank
Coming down with the Dow Jones
When the clouds come we gone, we Rocafella
We fly higher than weather
And G5’s are better, You know me,
an anticipation, for precipitation. Stacked chips for the rainy day
Jay, Rain Man is back with little Ms. Sunshine
Rihanna where you at?
Verse 1:
You have my heart
And we’ll never be worlds apart
May be in magazines
But you’ll still be my star
Baby cause in the dark
You can’t see shiny cars
And that’s when you need me there
With you I’ll always share
Because
[Chorus]
When the sun shine
We’ll shine together
Told you I’ll be here forever
Said I’ll always be your friend
Took an oath I’ma stick it out till the end
Now that it’s raining more then ever
Know that we’ll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella
You can stand under my umbrella
(Ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(ella ella eh eh eh)
Under my umbrella
(ella ella eh eh eh eh eh eh)
Verse 2:
These fancy things,
will never come in between
You’re part of my entity,
here for Infinity
When the war has took it’s part
When the world has dealt it’s cards
If the hand is hard,
together we’ll mend your heart
Because
[Chorus]
You can run into my arms
It’s okay don’t be alarmed
(Come into me)
(There’s no distance in between our love)
So go on and let the rain pour
I’ll be all you need and more
Because
[Chorus]
It’s raining
Ooh baby it’s raining
Baby come into me
Come into me
It’s raining
Oh baby it’s raining