In the music video for her song “Sorry,” Beyoncé is mostly shown sitting down with confidence in a party bus or lounging with a load of confidence on a throne.  Beyoncé’s new video is her way of showing that she is perfectly okay without her husband who cheated on her.  This music video depicts her being perfectly independent and stable on her own.  Beyoncé is all about woman empowerment and she does a great job of showing that in this video by having no men in it at all. The music video for “Sorry” is filmed completely in black and white which is very definitive just like Beyoncé’s confidence in herself.  A portion of this video is filmed in a grandiose Southern style mansion, where Beyoncé is sprawled out on a large chair that can be seen as a throne.  As Beyoncé is lounging on a throne, Serena Williams, the best and very powerful black woman athlete, dances around her.  The director’s pick of Serena shows that this video’s purpose is to show the confidence and power that African American women now hold and embody.  The other portion of this music video is filmed in a party bus where Beyoncé is surrounded by dancing black women with cultural face paint on.  Beyoncé’s unique outfits, dance moves, positions in the two scenes, and camera angles are all used in this video to portray the confidence and swagger Beyoncé holds and wants others to hold as well.

The first, and also most repeated scene, in this music video is a group of black women doing a choreographed dance in an old party bus.  In these scenes, Beyoncé is the only one that is not wearing the same outfit and face paint as the other women.  The difference in her outfit and makeup shows that she is confident in her own skin and body.  Her huge fur coat and high seat on this bus makes her stand out and set her apart from all the other similar looking women on the bus.  She does not feel the need to conform and follow the trends of others, she is a confident, unique, leader.  The group of dancers are all seated in a line next to each other on the bus, while Beyoncé is seated in a higher, lifted chair.  The placement of Beyoncé and the dancers sets her apart from all the other women and lets her dance more openly and freely.  It is the perfect spot for the head of this music video.  Many parts of this scene are filmed at a low angle, making it so that watchers are looking up to Beyoncé.  The dance moves in this scene show that Beyoncé is having a fun and enjoyable life and that she doesn’t care about anything but her own happiness and life.  Dancing is a big part of this video, and just like how the dancing in the bus scene shows Beyoncé’s confidence, the dance moves in the mansion scene do as well. 

The other dominate scene in this video is based in a grandiose Southern-style mansion.  In the mansion scenes, Beyoncé is shown lounging on a throne while Serena Williams dances in front of her.  As Beyoncé sits in her throne, swinging her arms singing “I ain’t sorry,” she presents a great deal of confidence and assurance.  She shakes her head and moves her body in such a confident way showing that she does not need a man in her life, especially a man who does not stay true to her.  Having Serena Williams, a very fierce, empowered woman, dancing with Beyoncé fills the room with women empowerment confidence.  These two women are the best images of confident women with backbone; they are the two women that sort of lead the movement of confident females.  There are no men in this scene, or throughout the video, which is important to the message of this song and video.  Beyoncé’s confidence is overwhelming in this scene because she looks perfect and like nothing that any one does or says will hurt or affect her at all.  She looks so sure of herself and looks like she is in her own bubble that no one can pop or enter.  The cameras move to get all different angles of Beyoncé, making it so she does not have to move anywhere besides the throne.  This gives off a paparazzi vibe, presenting that everyone is watching Beyoncé as she is just being herself, not putting a show on for anyone, but people are still interested in her. 

In the beginning of this music video, when Beyoncé is telling a story, before she starts to sing, the music video is showing nature shots of trees, which are usually used as symbols.  First, it shows many weeping willows and then after a few seconds it switches to show orange trees.  These two back to back images shows how quickly Beyoncé grew and got over being cheated on.  The camera only shows the weeping willow trees for seven seconds before switching to an orange tree.  Using a weeping willow is important because those trees slump and look the saddest of all trees, hence the name weeping willow.  Orange trees show growth and new life because they grow new oranges all the time, it is a happier and positive energy type of tree.  Showing only seven seconds of the weeping willows before moving on to the orange tree shows that Beyoncé did not waste much time feeling sad and bad for herself after her husband cheated on her.  She grew as a person and used her confidence to quickly move on.  

In conclusion, the overlying motif in the music video “Sorry” is confidence.  There are two main scenes that portray confidence, the bus scene and the scene inside the southern mansion with Serena Williams.  The way Beyoncé stands out in the way she is dressed, the way she dances freely, and composes herself with an amount of swagger makes her look very confident and sure of herself.  There were many motifs, and many repeating images, but confidence is a motif that easily and strongly stands out to the watchers of this video. 