Riptide- analysis themes and context

The first set music video you will study is Riptide by Vance Joy. Riptide is an indie pop song written and performed by Australian artist Vance Joy and was released in 2013. The song was a hit in Australia and abroad, particularly after being featured in a GoPro advert. All you really need to know about the song itself is that it's straightforward, run-of-the-mill pop music. The video, however, is MUCH more interesting...

Today: Analyse and apply semiotic and structuralist theory to the video Riptide, and research the video's intertextual influences

Now: draw two columns, and list ALL the differences between music videos and films. 

FILM: approximately 90 minutes long
MUSIC VIDEO: approximately three minutes long

FILM: is always narrative based

MUSIC VIDEO: can be narrative or performance-based

FILM: relies on dialogue/monologue

MUSIC VIDEO: uses dialogue/monologue as an extra

FILM: have to pay to see 

MUSIC VIDEO: free

FILM: can stream, buy the disc, watch in the cinema 

MUSIC VIDEO: can only stream

FILM: success is measured in box office earnings

MUSIC VIDEO: success is measured in views and likes/dislikes

FILM: reviews and opinions printed in newspapers or online media such as forums or review pages

MUSIC VIDEO: reviews and opinions in comments below

FILM: use music video techniques to make a musical or comedic aspect

MUSIC VIDEO: use film conventions to create aesthetic, narrative or intertextual references

FILM: has a specific age rating

MUSIC VIDEO: has less specific age rating- is either allowed to be viewed by all minors or not- both regulatory systems are widely ineffective

Most music videos focus on the performer as a celebrity

Key term - celebrity - "The attribution of glamorous or notorious status to somebody in the public sphere" (Rojec, cited in Abercrombie & Longhurst, 2007:54)

Celebrities are clearly different from normal people like you or I (no matter what we may like to think). They wear different clothes, do different things, are frequently glamourous and controversial.

Stupid love by Lady Gaga

In what ways is she constructed as a celebrity?

-First establishing shot of a landscape, communicates to the audience that this is a separate world from their's 

-Mise-en-scene of Lady Gaga's costume; pink connotes flamboyance and draws attention (key in being a celebrity), minimal clothing accentuate her hegemonically ideal body (Van Zoonen- male gaze), her appearance is flawless to the audience whilst their's is imperfect (reinforced by the use of a long shot). Jewellery connotes wealth and glamour.- costume=othering. 

-the glamourous costume is in binary opposition to the sparse surroundings, acts as a symbolic code for how she is glamorous and everyone else is ordinary due to her status as a celebrity

-Mise-en-scene of blocking, the people behind her are reminiscent of a crowd of fans, dancing in formation highlights her power and importance

-The other people's costumes are all pink too to connote they're supporting Gaga but none of the costumes reveals as much of their body giving Gaga another layer of superiority as all the sexual focus is on her within a crowd of people dressed extremely similarly 

-Use of dolly shot of them dancing emphasises their importance, the mid-shot/close-ups allow them to fill the frame and exert their dominance, the audience has to focus on them

-Gaga singing denotes she is the singer and conveys her talent

-She occasionally looks at the camera, reflects how a celebrity may glance at someone and getting that minimal attention being amazing for that person 

-The theme of superheroes is established by the mise-en-scene of the logo at the start and the proairetic codes of the people fighting 

-the people in pink running away denotes Gaga is on her own now, but she continues to dance and sing paying them no attention

-as the people in black arrive a binary opposition is created with Gaga through the mise-en-scene of their costumes, this binary opposition highlights Gaga as someone special and different.

-the camera follows her at all times despite the mise-en-scene of so many other people

-Costume changes- consistently flamboyant and glamourous. The shininess on her costumes acts a symbolic code for how she shines like a star

-in the long/wide shots of crowds of people, Gaga is centred in the frame to ensure focus is on her

-People wearing the other colours fight physically which is in binary opposition to Gaga just singing and dancing

-She uses levitation to stop them, despite the superhero theme this is the first and only superpower we see. Represents her extremely positively- powerful, peacemaker and special

-binary opposition within the exterior setting- the ordinary rocks and the rocks that glow/shine, symbolic code for the difference between ordinary people and celebrities.

The video to Riptide is VERY different from a typical pop video. For starters (and here's something you MUST refer to in the exam), the performer is not in it at all! This makes the video highly unconventional

Riptide-

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1. Codes and conventions – performance/narrative/experimental features

Non-conventional isn't necessarily narrative or performance. conventional- woman's body

1. Camera work (framing – shot types, angle, position, movement)

Close-ups/midshots, framing uses thirds to be visually satisfactory, 

1. Editing – beat-matched?

the point of the editing is to match the lyrics with their visual parallels, thus a fast pace is created which makes the audience pay more attention and be more effected when a shot is used for a longer amount of time (the woman singing the wrong lyrics)

1. Elements of continuity/montage

Repetition of shots and mise-en-scene create rhythm and familiarity to engage the audience. At the same chorus point the shot of the woman singing is shown, but with something slightly different each time- hybridity/fluidity

1. How does the video interpret the music and/or lyrics?

through semiotics and visual codes, at the word riptide a riptide is shown, at the word darkness the lighting changes to be low-key etc etc

1. Structure/narrative

see continuity 

1. Intertextuality

References both visual and sound to Michelle Fifer,  velocite referenced multiple times 

1. Sound

Plays with the pragmatics of diegetic and non-diegetic sound with the women singing the incorrect lyrics, she is singing the song but not to this playing of it- connoted by the mistiming of her lipsyncing. all the lyrics are visualised by codes and semiotics

Music video analysis - Vance Joy - Riptide (2013) - initial analysis notes

Raw and unedited student responses. All credit goes to the students who made the comments.

Q block

Polysemic readings - metaphorical readings, the splitting ice cream could be symbolic of a broken relationship. Therefore the cheery mise en scene presents a creepy and troubling binary opposition

Horror film conventions - stereotypically attractive 'horror film victim' breaks free from being tied to a tree. Connotative of kidnapping and a violent threat. Contrapuntal imagery compared to the chirpy pop song

• Extremely postmodern video - use of distressing horror imagery deliberately positioning the audience in a confusing and distressing situation.
• Extremely strong link between lyrical content and on screen visuals - an explicit description, perhaps a binary opposition between a conventional and subversive music video
• On the word 'riptide' a L/S high angle establishing shot of the sea, connoting danger and death
• A montage of C/Us of everyday items establishes to the audience themes of travel and solidify the overarching theme of escapism
• Mixture of continuous and discontinuous editing - some shots lack cause cause and effect
• Much imagery seems to be conventional of occult horror - Blair Witch Project, Ouija, The Conjuring, The Omen
• Continual, reoccurring shots of female characters being dragged under beds etc. Gender emphasised through the connotations of costume, for example high heals, red lipstick and so on
• Lacks the conventional element of performance, subversively omitting the metanarrative of celebrity
• Lacks a coherent narrative
• Unconventional master shot of middle aged women lip syncing to the track. Lip syncing gradually deteriorates and gets less professional. MES of blood and smeared makeup could connote abuse, violence. Additionally the use of incorrect lyrics, signposted with the on-screen subtitles, might suggest a code word, further emphasising the themes of abuse and escape
• Fully polysemic, with absolutely meaning explicitly anchored by the producer. Is she drunk? Is she in danger?

U block

Mid/LS of feet being dragged under a bed, low angled shot, low key blue/purple lighting which connotes darkness, misery and threat

Voyeuristic M/S high-angled POV shot of young blonde woman removing a one-piece yellow swimsuit, slow zoom on to naked back, intertextual reference to early Bond films, even Baywatch!

• 
  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 
• Emotional response - cold, confusing
• 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 it's cool
• Denies the audience a definitive reading
• "techniques of photographing girls' heavily manicured female hand pushes red leather bound book in to frame in a manner which seems rehearsed, robotic and non-consensual 
• Positions the audience in a voyeuristic, even perverted perspective, forcing the audience to consider Van Zoonen's notion of a predatory male gaze

Key term - intertextuality - Where a media product or text makes reference to another media product or text

While riptide may seem completely confusing and without precedent, it makes sense if we view it instead as a surrealist product

Key term - surrealism - an artistic movement that tries to depict the logic of dreams and the unconscious

If we see Riptide as a surrealist text, then suddenly the dream imagery starts to make more sense. Sigmund Freud suggested that dreams represent our deep and subconscious fears... and desires. Many of the themes in Riptide are commonly reported in dreams, including:

Sex and sexualisation
Teeth and violence
Suddenly jumping from one location to another (technical term: it lacks spacial continuity)An unseen threat
Half remembered scenes from old films

A classic surrealist film, and perhaps the most famous of all, is Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou (1929). Bunuel and his collaborator, the surrealist painter Salvador Dali, attempted to make a film adaptation of a dream Bunuel had where he saw the moon being cut "like a razor blade slicing through an eye".