Riptide Music Video: Media Language

Question 1

Voyeristic camera shots

Answer 1

• The shot of the women removing her swimsuit. Her face is not seen, therefore her body is objectified.
• The woman is also unaware she is being filmed –> Represents the constant survaillance of women by men and society?
• The next shot of the book ‘Techniques of Photographing Girls,’ reinforces this. ‘Girls’ alludes to pedofillic attitudes towards women.
• The collective noun: ‘Girls’ connotes of a younger, not fully developed girl and therefore, it can be argued, Vance joy is highlighting how young girls are exposed to sexualisation and objectifcation in society.

Question 2

Horror intertextuality

Answer 2

• Intertextual references to: ‘Un Chein Andalou’ (1929) and ‘The Wicker Man’ portrays women in the victim archetype.
• Here it can be argued that Vance Joy is either highlighting the violent and objectifing representation of women in the media or further entrenching these representations of women himself.
• The conventional female victim orgininated from many horror films therefore Vance Joy may be criticising the victimisation of women in media.

Question 3

Blood and weapon iconography

Answer 3

• Shots of a once glamourous lady, now dishevelled, with blood on her hands and neck symbolises how the patriarchal values enacted onto women in society and the media physically harms them.
• The oppressive control of these values is embodied by the shot with the hand on the women’s neck.
• The woman is also shown with a fearful code of expression which further underlines how unsafe women feell in society and the media.

Question 4

Costume and makeup

Answer 4

• The Glamourised women wears an abundance of Makeup and a suggestive costume. –> Symbolic of the sexualisation of women in society and the media.

Question 5

Montage Editing

Answer 5

• Used in an overt way - a wide range of contrasting shots juxtaposed (often through hard jump cuts) to convey a large amount of information.
• The editing together of seemingly disparate
  images invites audience interpretation
  and candidates could consider Eisenstein’s
  concept of “intellectual montage” where
  new ideas emerge from the collision
  of images and generate new meanings
  that might not otherwise exist.