page_title: We Found Love (music video)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: We Found Love (music video) / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: Tollymore Forest near Newcastle Once it has left Newcastle behind, the Bryansford Road climbs gently towards the former estate village of Bryansford. There are pleasant views of the surrounding countryside. This one, near the corner of the Tullybrannigan Road, is towards Tollymore Forest.
context_page_description: The music video for Barbadian singer Rihanna's 2011 single "We Found Love" was directed by Melina Matsoukas. It was filmed on September 26–28, 2011, in the New Lodge area of Belfast and Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. People driving around the location of the set informed BBC that traffic in the area was congested as drivers wanted to see the singer. The video premiered on October 19, 2011, and was made available to download digitally three days later on October 22. As of August 2020, the video has amassed over 919 million views on YouTube.
  The video begins with a monologue given by fashion model Agyness Deyn. Scenes of Rihanna with her romantic interest in both love and hate scenarios intersperse, as they experience mounting difficulties in their relationship. After enduring the overwhelming effects of recreational drugs and physical violence, she finds her boyfriend unconscious on the floor of his apartment, and leaves him, having had enough of the relationship. Images of the song's producer and featured artist Calvin Harris appear in outdoor DJ scenes, while the video has regular references to popular culture, such as themes of films and content of other singers' videos.
context_section_description: The music video for "We Found Love" was shot on September 26–28, 2011, in County Down, Northern Ireland. It was filmed in a field in the town of Bangor, County Down, ahead of Rihanna's embarkment on the European leg of the Loud Tour (2011), and the New Lodge area of North Belfast. It was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who had previously directed the videos for "Rude Boy" (2010), and the controversial "S&M" (2011). During the filming, people driving around the location of the set informed the BBC that traffic in the area was congested as drivers tried to see the singer. Pictures showing Rihanna wearing a red bandana top, long flannel shirt, and "dirty denim", similar to the clothing she wore for the song's artwork, were leaked onto the internet the same day. She filmed scenes while wearing a bikini with the pattern of the US flag, and a denim vest and ripped jeans. The owner of the field, farmer and North Down Borough Council Democratic Unionist Party councillor Alan Graham, expressed distaste after seeing Rihanna topless on his field, saying: "When the filming did become to my mind unacceptable I requested the filming to stop ... it became apparent to me that the situation was becoming inappropriate and I requested them to stop and they did". On September 28, 2011, the shoot location was moved to a closed set in Titanic Quarter, Belfast where both photographers and fans were barred from watching the singer.
  Extras for the shoot were not told what was expected of them until the last minute, in order to keep the content of the video as secret as possible. Regarding the video's content, Rihanna posted a message on Twitter that read: "I really can't stop thinking about this video we just shot! EASILY the BEST video I've done thus far!" Rihanna elaborated on the concept of the video: "We've never done a video like this before. This is probably one of the deepest videos I've ever done ... it's all about love and love being like a drug, you definitely get that from this." The male love interest in the video is Dudley O'Shaughnessy, a model and former boxer. Upon the release of the video, Matsoukas explained the content of the video in an interview with MTV:
  We love, obviously, to do provocative imagery ... we always try to definitely push the limits ... I think because, in the end, it's not really at all about domestic violence. It's really just about it being toxic, and they're on this drug trip and that definitely plays a part, but I think it's also about being triumphant over those weaknesses, and she leaves him. It's not trying to glorify that type of relationship. The bad parts of it, that's what you don't want. In the end, her leaving, it represents her getting that out of her life. The drugs and the addiction and the toxic—that's what brings her downfall and brings a lot of harm.
  The director went on to explain the content with regard to Rihanna's domestic violence case against former boyfriend Chris Brown in February 2009, saying that it is not a reenactment of what happened between Rihanna and Brown, but rather that Rihanna is acting in the video. Matsoukas said:
  [The song's] totally rave-y ... and that's the feeling, just music rushing over you, and then I started thinking about drugs and addiction and love and how that's an addiction ... we've all lived the ups and downs of being in a toxic relationship. It's really about the obstacles of trying to let it go, but at the same time how great it makes you feel, so it's hard to let it go. Again, it goes back to a story that we all can relate to ... It's not Rihanna's story; it's her story in the video, and she's acting. But everybody's [as well]. Obviously, there's a lot of comparisons to her real life, and that's not at all the intention. It's just that I guess people naturally go there because art imitates life, and it's a story we all relate to and we've all experienced. Like, it's based on my life; it's based on her life; it's based on your life, like, everybody.
  In an interview with Pitchfork, Matsoukas said that she was surprised with the professional standard of Ri
caption: One of the video locations was a field in County Down, Northern Ireland, where recording was halted when the field's owner, Alan Graham, expressed distaste at Rihanna stripping down to her waist on his land.
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