Riptide Music Video Sequence Recreation Analysis
Considering this project was a recreation, I will be analysing both the original video and the final product with comparative screenshots from our final video.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I think Riptide is a great example of a concept-based music video as it is constructed with short clips with a literal relation to the original song. Considering the song itself is quite abstract, it makes sense to have an unusual video sequence. What does challenge the typical conventions of music videos is that the artist isn’t depicted in the video, leaving the first impression of Vance Joy from this video to be a faceless name. The video does, however, maintain the use of bright and bold colours and beautiful blonde women as typical of music videos.
The video follows the typical conventions of an indie folk music video with the outdoor filming, vintage filter, and soft lighting. The darker themes do, however, subvert the typical mild nature of these songs with the frequent reference to abduction.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The only social group depicted in the video segment we chose to do was pretty generalized to women. So, we had the legs running away, the hands being dragged into the dark, and a pretty battered looking singer. This materializes this idea about the entrapment of women into looking beautiful and perhaps the pressures and discomfort of doing so. The singer at the end has smeared lipstick and a vacant expression. Possibly she was forced to be there in a short narrative sense. The woman in heels running can’t possibly be doing so comfortably; and from whom or what is she running from? That being followed by the hands being dragged away suggests that she was caught. The red nails suggesting she is typically beautiful and even a target.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The main institutions where music videos are distributed are YouTube and MTV. The video is clean and so is the music so there wouldn’t be too much of a problem broadcasting it. One problem, however, is again that the video doesn’t display the artist so it would be particularly good in terms of advertising Vance Joy himself but the video does speak for itself with a concept video that will grasp the attention of an audience who will try to decipher it. YouTube would be the best place for it as its easy to transfer to more of his songs after listening to Riptide.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for this video would be fans of indie folk (tends to be younger in women than men, and women prefer it due to the calm nature of the music and the frequent themes of love, heartbreak, and nature.). Looking at myself as a fan, I’m a seventeen-year-old white female with an already established fondness of older style songs and retro aesthetic- so it’s more appealing to a younger demographic.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This project has really helped in the way I understand the framing of shots. What I did notice from studying Vance Joy’s video is that the shots are strict with the rule of thirds in the central sector. Almost all of it is centralized. It also allowed me to practice handheld panning techniques whilst filming. It also illuminated the importance if good lighting for good colouration as I did struggle with hue balance and keeping a good overtone and light structure to the final products. That could be due to the quality of camera I was using, but at least it adds to the vintage aesthetic… kind of.
Comparing shots
This was a difficult shot to do as my camera wasn’t good enough to absorb almost any light at all, so all you can see is the torch, not the figure or background at all. The timing was also a struggle do to in the limited space of us having to use the dark room. Overall, the movement is there, but it is lacking any discernible features at all.
For this shot I couldn’t find any lollies like in the original and so opted for bananas, which I believe offer a similar effect. The blue background is a bit lighter, but it was the only blue paper I could find.
This and the next shot Dylan filmed, but from what I was told it was made by getting his sister to wear his mums dress and some black heels. He actually got her to run on beat which is fantastic.
Another clip Dylan did, some heavily filtered water being poured into a bath.
This clip was done by painting Orla’s nails and dragging her across the floor. She was laying on her back with her arms above her head. Post-filming I added a vignette to try and resemble the spotlight in the original.
This is of my Dad cutting up the closest resembling aloe plant to the original that I had. It’s a little zoomed out but that’s not too bad. I added the flashing subtitles after lightening up the video and cropping it. Probably needed a higher saturation and blue tone.
This final one was of me lip-synching with smeared lipstick. Because of the quality you can’t tell that I am wearing very similar earrings to the original- I’m just bitter they didn’t show up. The subtitles were done the same as for the plant. The microphone is a hairbrush and the ‘spotlight’ is a torch taped to my dresser. I filmed on a tripod to get it as still as possible.
