music videos: Vance Joy- riptide

Vance Joy - Riptide

Postmodernism - Cannot have a definition

Aspects of postmodernism:

• District of form, convention and established conventions
• 'style over substance'
• Breaking the fourth wall
• Lack of distinction between 'low' and 'high' culture 
• De- emphasis of temporal continuity - many different time periods mentioned
• Distrust of all encompassing metanarratives 

• Indie folk pop
• music video matches with lyrics - each shot matches 
• bad lip syncing from women - maybe was like she was drowning 
• binary opposition - light to dark 
• polysemic 
• general theme/narrative - montage of shots suggests 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 theme of the lyrics e.g. 'cowboy running' is matched with long shot, canted angles, symbolic of dual personalities, afraid of what he has become
• Intertextuality - 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 the 70s horror film
• Mid shot of letter dated august 1974 anchors the audience into a particular time period, because its cool 
• Mid/long of feet being dragged under a bed, slightly low angle shot, low-key lighting - blue/purple connotes darkness, misery and threat  
• denies the audience a definite response 
• Voyeuristic mid shot high angled, point of view shot of blonde woman removing a yellow swimsuit, slow zoom on to a naked back, intertextual reference to early bond films or bay watch
• "techniques of photographing girls" heavily manicured female hand pushes red leather bound book into frame in a manner which seems rehearsed, robotic and non consensual 
• positioning audience in a voyeuristic, even perverted perspective, forcing the audience to consider Lisbett Van Zoonen male gaze

Vance Joy is an Australian singer-songwriter signed to Atlantic Records (a subsidiary of major label, Warner)


Objectification - The process by which a human is represented as an object
Male gaze - The assumption that every media product is created for heterosexual male audience
Sexualisation - The process of only valuing someone for their sexual appeal
Voyeurism -  Taking pleasure while watching someone while they are undetected
Scopophillia - The love of watching


Representation of an image in the video:
- mid shot / high angle shot - suggest voyeuristic intent
- Voyeurism - watching her without her knowing
- Mise en scene - beach, luxurious
- Looking out into distance with beach connotes adventure
- Costume - Exotic
- Framed in centre of the shot - main attraction - male gaze
- shallow depth of field shot - everything in the background is blurred
- shot with a zoom lens - positions the audience in a scopophillia way
- mid shot of back implies she doesnt know the audience is watching her
- Natural lighting

 - Massive importance on the representation of women
- Women represented as Vulnerable
- Intertextuality - horror films
- Women represented as damsel in distress, women constantly shown in distress 
- Women represented as independent- powerful, due to mainly traits, smoking, how they are dressed and looking through binoculars
- In order to be powerful women must be like men, live in society were men dominate

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 - When they are not distressed they are surrounded by men often
- Lots of feet shots and hands - which objectifies women as it dehumanises them 
- The video reinforces both patriarchal world view of women and subverting and challenging the objectification of women
- No explicit anchorage in the video 
- subtitles sometimes wrong 
- violent images - violent connotations 

 - glamorous 
- looks older and mature 
- slim face 
- prominent cheekbones
- sharp nose
- hair pulled back - slick/severe 
- lipstick - berry red which suggests she is sultry and mysterious 
- close up - uncomfortable and voyeuristic 
- lots of recurring shots - master shot  

How does the video to Riptide encode feminist ideology?
- Presents a mocking parody of sexism in music videos - C/U "how to photograph girls" - connotes that women are purely present to be looked at by a heterosexual male audience
- Many shots of women in stereotypical male outfits. Low angle mid shot of woman holding arms in gesture that connotes power

- Mid shot of blonde woman bound in mise en scene of tight ropes connotes restrictions that women face in society, and is critical of the notion of women of a 'weaker sex'- connotative of being 'tied down' with maternal responsibilities etc

- Video lacks anchorage which forces audience to make their own assumptions, simultaneously providing sexual gratification for male heterosexual audience, but also consistently informs the audience that scopophillia is creepy and not ok  

- Its an ironic representation of patriarchal hegemony - Mid shot man standing in front of women with torch in exaggerated pose and situation - graveyard
- Video highly polysemic

INTERTEXTUALITY:
- Where one media product makes reference to another media product
- Allows audience to relate to the product so they are satisfied as they know what its about
- Applies to a large audience