Product Context:
- Vancy Joy is an Australian singer-song writer signed to Atlantic Records (a subsidary of major label, Warner). His music could be categorised as indie folk-pop.
- Riptide was his first single to be released in the USA following his debut EP, “God Loves You When You’re Dancing”.
- It became a platinum selling single.
- The video was directed by Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun and has had over 200 million views on YouTube.
Economic Context: Funding and the Brand Identity of Vance Joy
- Low budget:
- Mise-en-scene.
- Settings – natural backdrops.
- Props – dollar bill, light, book, binoculars – 1970s Racing VHS.
- Brandless – no copyright,
- Use of jump cuts throughout.
- Cast/actors – unknown=cheap.
- Was this an artistic choice or an economic one?
- Very simple
- Clear aesthetic
- Fits in the indie genre.
- Later on his music videos make use of larger budgets, special effects and elaborate, coherent narratives, such as the video for “Georgia”.
How could the size of the budget impact artistic decisions and the visual styles of music videos?
- They would want to utilise any and all money they had – if an artist had a high budget, like Beyoncé, they would use it for special effect sand high budget settings, like an an entire museum etc. However, if an artist had a lower budget they would need to adjust their style to compensate for less money; they may have to make the video as cheap as possible to save money.
- Brand identity also matters in this instance; has an equal influence on artistic decisions about the visual styles of music videos.
Media Language – What themes is the video constructing through the visuals?
How does this use of visuals position us, the audience? (Van Zoonen and bell hooks)
- Male gaze – audience is positioned as a man (male POV) – 3rd person perspective.
- Gazing at women – shots of women throughout the video – voyeuristic (someone being watched without them knowing).
- Distressing images of women – places us in a confusing and distressing situation.
Consider how the combination of elements of media language influences meaning and intertextuality?
How has editing been used?
- Jump cuts throughout
- The whole video is an Intellectual Montage – the editing together of seemingly unrelated images invites audience interpretation.
- Different types of montage – Montage = combining shots that are depective – single in meaning and neutral in content – into intellectual contexts and series.
- Metric montage – cut to a specific length of time or exact measurement regardless of content.
- Rhythmic montage – cutting according to the content of the shots; continuity editing – anything from car chases to dialogue scenes use rhythmic montage – it’s the most common form of editing.
- Tonal montage – cutting according to the emotional “tone” of the piece – e.g. The Revanent.
- Overtonal montage – cutting according to the various “tones” and “overtones” of the shots – e.g. The Godfather.
- Intellectual montage – cutting according to the shot’s relationship to an intellectual concept.
Media Language – Intellectual Montage:
- “All my friends are turning green”
- Links to the images – suggests that his friends are jealous of the woman in his life.
- “You’re the magician’s assistant in their dreams”
- Suggesting that his friends are dreaming of this woman in his life.
Surrealism:
- Sought of release the creative potential of the unconscious mind by using the irrational juxtaposition of images
- Surrealist cinema
- Uses shocking, irrational, and absurd imagery
- Challenges the traditional framework of art reflecting reality
- Characterised by juxtapositions and frequent use of shocking imagery
- The subconscious mind; dreamlike.
Genre conventions: Goodwins Theory of Music Video’s
Andrew Goodwin developed a theory which can supposedly be applied to any music video. It consits of eight main principles.
Video Notes:
- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.
- There is a relationship between music and visuals either illlustrative, amplifying or contradicting.
- Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
- The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close up shots of the artist and the artist may or may not develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style) [Riptide challenges this because he’s not in his music video].
- The is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telecops etc.) and particularily voyeuristic treatment of the female body. [Riptide conforms to this, woman undressing on beach, book on photographing girls etc.]
- There is often intertextual reference to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.
- Performance based, narrative based or concept based.
The opening line was “I was scared of dentists and the dark” is interpreted explicitly with a shot of a female looking scared with a metallic contraption in her mouth that suggests she is in a dentist’s chair and followed by a shot of a light swinging in a darkened room. This overt graphical representation of the lyrics is largely repeated throughout the video.
Literal – following Goodwin’s idea – and metaphorical – Subverting Goodwin’s idea.
Whilst it is a convention of the music video form to have song lyrics interpeted on screen, the overt and deliberate way the lyrics are interpreted in this music video might be subverting this convention.
The music video for the most part rejects a clearly defined narrative. There are some short coherent marrative sequences (such as the scene where the girl goes missing in the graveyard) but for the most part the sequences deliberately lack narrative coherence.
Roland Barthes: Referential Code
- This code refeers to anything in the text which refers to an external body of knowledge such as scientific, historical and cultural knowledge.
- Also called ‘cultural code’.
- Shrek – fairy tales and children stories (Three Blind Mice and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Red Riding Hood etc.).
- Family Guy – Ferris Buellers Day Off.
- The Simpsons – Psycho.
- Sky Movies – Where All The Wild Things Are, Gullivers Travels, Mary Poppins, Its A Wonderful Life, The Kings Speech.
- I might be asked to discuss intertextuality in any of the set products for this unit.
- I might also need to dicsuss intertextuality of an unseen text.
- I will have to identify the references and explain how it creates meaning.
Cultural codes within the music video – nostalgia, vintage (VHS, clothes, filter, airplane ticket), horror (hand stabbing blood, dentist, tied to tree). Feature films (credit block in first shot).
Potentially auto-biographal of his life. Suggests artistic personality rather than narcissitic.
- The opening shot makes use of cinematic style credits and information about the music is presented with a title at the bottom of the screen.
- The title is graphically similar to a “billing block” or “credit block” which is often seen on film posters or in trailers.
Horror Genre Iconography:
- Female
- Dark lighting
- Fear
- Females repeatedly dragged off screen by unseen forces and a character going missing in a dark graveyard.
- E.g. The Blair Witch Project, Ouija, The Conjuring, The Omen.
The music video is relatively unusual both as a music video and specifically as a text within the indie folk genre in terms of its style, rejection of narrative and lack of spectacle or special effects.
How does the video for Georgia differ from Riptide – Clear narrative throughout, much larger budget, much more actors, special effects, equipment etc. No explicit lyrical interpretation. Intertextuality from Forrest Gump when Bubba dies.
Representation: Women sexualised through partial nudity.
Reinforces patriarchy?
- No – shot of female hand on ‘how to photograph girls’ book (subverts / deconstructs voyeurism.
- Yes – male gaze, women being looked at. Assumes POV of heterosexual male.
Rachel's Media Notes for Year 2 