Riptide

Question 1

Product context

Answer 1

• Vance Joy is an Australian singer-songwriter signed to Atlantic records
• His first single to be released in the USA, became a platinum selling single

Question 2

Economic contexts

Answer 2

• Low budget, unique style of music video (artistic or economic decision)
• His later music videos made with larger budgets, special effects and coherent narratives

Question 3

Media language influencing meaning and intertextuality

Answer 3

• Montage editing used in an overt way (wide range of shots juxtaposed)
• Editing together of disparate images considers Eisenstein’s concept of ‘intellectual montage
• Cuts have links to lyrics themselves, visual metaphors
• Reject a defined narrative
• Surrealist/ avant-garde cinema

Question 4

Codes and conventions of media forms and products

Answer 4

• Overt graphical representation of lyrics is largely repeated throughout the video
• Opening shots makes use of cinematic style credits
• References the western thriller genres
• Horror genre iconography (females being dragged offscreen etc)
• References to film in artistic value

Question 5

Subverting genre conventions

Answer 5

• Unusual both as a music video and a text within the independent folk genre
• Rejection of narrative and lack of spectacle or special effects
• Sense of uniqueness

Question 6

Semiotics, Ronald Barthes

Answer 6

• Specific signification in the music video
• Colour green in relation to money and envy
• Myth through a process of naturalisation

Question 7

Genre theory, Steve Neale

Answer 7

• Indie folk music genre is dominated by repetition (low-fi videos with bands playing instruments etc.)
• Riptide offers variation to these aspects
• How the video fits into wider economic and institutional context
• Whether Riptide is offering variation for artistic reasons or to generate interest to make a profit

Question 8

Social of cultural contexts

Answer 8

• Dali’s Un Chien Andalou (1929) to explore surrealist film
• Infamous eye cutting scene in Un Chien Andalou and the hand stabbing scene in Riptide
• Exploration of the subconscious

Question 9

Media representation conveying values, attitudes and beliefs about the world

Answer 9

• Women repeatedly presented as an object to be watched
• Sexualised and offered to audiences for their pleasure, or challenges the sexualisation of women
• Lip-sync sections, conforming to social norms of beauty and glamour
• Violence against women

Question 10

Theory of identity, David Gauntlett

Answer 10

• Riptide rejects singular, straightforward messages
• Invites a variety of different responses and interpretations

Question 11

Feminist theory, bell hooks

Answer 11

• Stimulus to explore contradictory messages about gender
• Video objectifying women in an ironic way, or feeding into the oppression of women in a patriarchal society
• Whether the video is part of the struggle or part of the oppression

Question 12

Who was Riptide directed by?

Answer 12

• Directed by Dimitri Basil and Laura Gorun and has nearly 100 million views on YouTube