music video lesson 3/ Vance Joy Riptide Analysis

Vance Joy- Riptide (Music Video)

Music Videos As a postmodern medium- By combining two previously separate industries, using excessive variety of textual elements just for the hell of it, and by de-emphasising the importance of traditional narrative.

Postmodernism- impossible to define.

Aspects of postmodernism

distrust of form, convention and established.
'style over substance'
Lack of distinction between low and high culture
De-emphasise of temporal continuity; many different time periods referenced.
Breaking the 4th wall
The erosion of sense of self and identity.
The ubiquity of 'the screen'.

Vance Joy- Riptide (2013)

The Music Video is connected to the lyrics as the words being sung are being shown acted out.
Indie-pop.
Zooming in on the singers face slowly.
Constant panning between people.
Beat-Matched
Non-Continuity Editing -
General theme and narrative- montage of shots suggests themes of drowning, dying and death.
Alternative theme and narrative- an unpredictable and deliberately misleading montage of shots.
Deliberately invites polysemic interpretations.
montage consistently matches the themes of the lyrics, eg 'cowboy running' is matched with long shot, canted angle, symbolic of dual personalities, afraid of what he has become.
Intertextuality- the mise-en-scene suggests the conventions of an western film, and therefore functions as a referential code.
Referential codes create audience appeal, as only certain audiences will understand the reference.
Additionally, the mid-shot of the seance and the mise-en-scene of the ouija board is referential of horror cinema, in particular 70's horror film
Mid-shot of letter dated August 1974 anchors the audience in to a particular time period, because its cool.
Mid/LS of feet being dragged under a bed, slightly low angle, low key lighting, blue/purple lighting connotes darkness, misery and threat.
The audience being denied an explanation so this causes it to become more creepy.
Voyeuristic M/S high angled POV of young blonde women removing a one piece yellow swim suit, mustard yellow is quite 70s, slow zoom on to naked back, intertextual reference to early Bond films, even Baywatch!
"techniques of photographing girls' heavily manicured hand female hand pushes red leather bound book into frame in a manner which seems rehearsed, robotic and non-consensual.
Positions the audience in a voyeuristic, even perverted perspective.

Background-

Vance Joy is an Australian singer-songwriter signed to a label to atlantic records.
Atlantic is owned by a conglomerate as they are being distributed by Warner.
His music is indie folk-pop genre.
His song 'Riptide' became a platinum selling single.
The video was directed Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun and has had over 200 million views on YouTube.

Key Terms

Objectification is the process where a human is represented as an object in the media by the producer. The producer does this through Mise-en-Scene, shot types etc...

Male Gaze is the assumption that all media is made for the heterosexual male audience to give them pleasure from the women. This is talked about by Lisbet Van Zoonen.

Sexualisation- The process for only valuing someone for their sexual appeal.

Voyeurism- 'Peeping tom' taking the pleasure of watching someone when they are undetected.

Scopophilia- The love of watching.

Textual Analysis of 'Riptide' shot

Mid-shot, high angle suggests voyeuristic connotations.
We, as the audience, are positioned of the voyeur.
She is staring into the ocean which connotes adventure.
The exotic connotations of the costume suggest exotic and adventurous nature of the video.
She is framed in the centre of the image which shows she is the centre of attention and further emphasises her importance to the audience and the male gaze theory can be applied.
Shallow depth of field, she is the only thing in focus so a zoom lens which positions the audience in a scopoliallic way.
The beach makes it seem luxurious.

Representation Of Women In 'Riptide'

One basic ideology is that women are vulnerable.
This is a an example of intertextuality as women are also represented like this in other forms in media.
Women are also seen as damsels in distress.
Women are also seen to be indivuieistic and powerful as they are taking on stereotypical male gestures.
Women need to be like men to be seen as powerful.
Women are often in close proximity with men or being comforted by men.
The producer uses consistent shots of women shoes and feet which is seen as objectification and could possibly dehumanise them.
I think the video is representing subversive norms of women.
Could feel bad for the women.
Women in the video are repeatedly presented as an object to be watched.
Actors are selected not just because of their physical appearance but also because of how well they fit they fit the role.
Women singing, has quite a mature looking face, Looks like a model, glowing healthy face, Stereotypical music video women age is early 20s.
The structure of her face, her cheek bones are prominent, severe sharp nose, sensible severe looking hair style, lipstick is a burgundy red, Dark berry red lip suggests mystery.
Close-up of the women face, we are positioned in an uncomfortable and voyeuristic manner.
High angle is unusual and creepy as we are supposed to be at a low angle with her.
She was being forced to perform as you can tell from the master shot.
No specific ideology of this music video, they are left up for us to make up for ourselves.
The subtitle was wrong and she is badly lip-syncing.
Smeared make-up and blood on the hand connotes violence and creepy.
Something really wrong with this.