Dua Lipa Break My Heart

Dua Lipa video


Codes and conventions – performance/narrative/experimental features

• Dua Lipa is presented as powerful and confident. This is connoted through the symbolic coding of her costume. A red jacket. She is also positioned on top of a car, whilst wearing this outfit, which positions her above the audience. This makes her seem superior and confident.
• Dua Lipa is seen moving around the cars, this creates a binary opposition. She is going against the normal, and walking through the traffic whereas everyone else is normal and is waiting inside their cars.
• The inclusion of a dance routine in the performance shows that this music video incorporates conventional features.
• The inclusion of a man within the dance routine, performed only by women (except from him) shows that they are trying to subvert gender stereotypes and make Dua's music inclusive.
• The transition between the real car and the toy car is made successful, because of the same positioning of the camera, which makes both cars look the same size.
• The camera mostly moves with Dua Lipa during the scene where she is walking around the cars, this immerses the audience and shows that they are with her.
• The scene cuts every time there is a new verse.

Exam question: compare and contrast how media language is used in the music videos to Break My Heart by Dua Lipa and Riptide by Vance Joy. 

Plan for my writing

• They both use mise-en-scene, costume. Gender stereotypes.
• They both use symbolic coding. But this is used to construct arguably two different meanings. Dua's red combined with the setting and positioning shows that she is powerful. The red in the other video could show the idea of blood and death - but also passion? Idk I will decide when I write it
• Camera work/editing style and this helps to create a narrative

Both Riptide, by Vance Joy and Break My Heart, by Dua Lipa, employ similar uses of media language. The meaning created by these uses, however, largely contrasts. Although this is arguably influenced by the target image, and the overall image of the performer, there are multiple striking differences between how the media language is used in each video.

Riptide uses the mise-en-scene of costume to reinforce meaning regarding gender stereotypes. The inclusion of the camera-shot, where the woman is stood on the beach with her swimming-costume pulled down, allows the woman to be sexualised and objectified. Her willingness to pull her costume down, connotes the idea that she has confidence in herself, and therefore she must be attractive to a hegemonic standard. Her body is also slim in build, but she appears to have an hourglass figure. This further reinforces her attractiveness to a hegemonic standard, because she has a desired body shape. This signifies that the producer's ideological perspective, is that women exist in media to be constructed in order to appeal to the heterosexual male. It also suggests that women are only acceptable when they are appealing to these stereotypes. Break My Heart also uses mise-en-scene of costume and the idea of performance to construct an interpretation of gender. Dua Lipa is seen wearing low-cut costumes, which reveal her cleavage. This shows that the producer has precisely constructed her in a sexualised way, appealing to a heterosexual male audience. This relates to Lisbet Van Zoonen's male gaze theory, which Riptide also incorporates. The producer, however, does not just construct an attractive, stereotypical image regarding gender, they also use performance aspects and coding to create some subversive commentary. During a performance aspect of the video, a man is seen dancing alongside the rest of the dance-team, who are all females. This creates a binary opposition, and therefore allows for a focus on him. He is seen participating in a stereotypical female-style dance routine. This shows that despite his gender being male, he can still get involved within this activity, and therefore this subverts gender stereotypes. I would argue that Break My Heart uses mise-en-scene and performance aspects to allow for inclusivity of all genders, whereas Riptide only uses these aspects to construct a stereotypical, hegemonic-appealing and attractive image of a specific gender.

The videos both use symbolic coding. In Riptide, the woman is filmed with blood coming from her neck, which acts as symbolic coding for danger. This is reinforced by the colour red and the nature of the scene. Symbolic coding in this scenario, is used in order to create the feeling of danger, and position the audience in a sense of fear. This blood can also act as hermeneutic coding, as despite the blood signifying danger, the thing which caused this incident is never pictured on screen. This helps to make the audience feel even more frightened, as it plays on the fear of the unknown. In Break My Heart, however, symbolic coding is used to make the audience feel a level of empowerment. Dua Lipa is pictured in red, standing on top of a vehicle. The red colour of her clothing, acts as symbolic coding for power and confidence, as she subverts the normal behaviour of the other people within this scene. She is positioned on top of her car, whereas everyone else is inside their cars. This creates a binary opposition, which is anchored by the symbolic coding which represents power. It creates the narrative that Dua Lipa is so confident, that she can successfully subvert normal behaviour and have her own style. This shows the audience through coding, a sense of empowerment.

The editing style within Riptide is mostly controlled by the lyrics, with the topic of the montage changing with each significant phrase said by the singer. For example, on the lyric 'green', a green dollar bill is pictured on the screen. This creates a simplistic style music video. But the simplicity of this creates a mysterious narrative, as the storyline is not made clear initially. The editing style within Break Your Heart, is much more conventional with the scene changing by every verse and each clip having continuity. The clips are also all connected. For example, within the scene where Dua Lipa is stood beside the car, the camera angle and positioning allows for this car to appear the same size of a toy-car, which is within the next scene. Although the scene has changed, this clever and smooth transition created allows for the audience to feel a continuous and simple narrative created via the use of editing style and cinematography.

Overall both the producers of Riptide and Break My Heart, employ similar techniques. These are used in different ways which create contrasting meanings. Although some ideological perspectives are shared, such as the inclusion of attractive women making a music video successful, majority of the uses contrast each other. They both use media techniques to portray certain point which they would like to convey to the audience.

FINISH

I hope this is okay, I found this question quite difficult.