Rihanna began shooting the music video for "Diamonds" on October 21, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. It was directed by her regular collaborator Anthony Mandler, who previously directed Rihanna's music videos for "Russian Roulette" (2009) and "Man Down" (2011). Photographs of the production were leaked on the same day; on them, Rihanna is seen wearing a white and black dress as she stands in front of a fire and looks into the camera. Ethan Sacks of New York Daily News wrote, "Rihanna looked like a gem on the set of her video shoot." Speaking to MTV News, Rihanna explained the concept behind the video explaining that with different abstract scenes she wanted to give the audience "the right emotion". Mandler also spoke about the video and its theme, "With this one, I felt the need to create