The Band Explains: The Riptide Movement - 'Plastic Oceans'

Irish rock outfit The Riptide Movement talk to us about their thoughtful and compelling single and visuals 'Plastic Oceans' - highlighting the devastating effect that single use plastics are having on our oceans and marine life.

Lead Singer Malachy Tuohy Explains:
Where was the video for 'Plastic Oceans' filmed?
Our video for 'Plastic Oceans' was shot in County Wicklow by the very talented Crooked Gentlemen. It was filmed in two locations, primarily in Kite Studios in Kilcoole but the final beach scenes were filmed in Greystones. The choreography and dancing was created and performed by two amazing choreographers and dancers from Edifice Dance Theatre in London, Harriet Waghorn and Carmine De Amicis. 

How does the video connect with the song? 
The inspiration for the song came from a powerful documentary I had watched called 'A Plastic Ocean' so we always knew that the video would need to convey a message that highlighted the devastating effect that single use plastics are having on our oceans and marine life and we feel that message comes through in our video.

Any behind the scenes stories?
..... theres a few....I guess the one that comes to mind immediately would be ....when we were filming the final scene for the video in Greystones, its pretty much the final scene where Harriet comes out of the water tangled up in the ghost net and plastic..... well just as we were filming that scene a guy in his late 50's happened to be doing an open water swim and he was swimming along the coast parallel to the sea shore, there was no one on the beach or in the water except for ourselves and the crew - and he was obviously completely focused on his swimming technique and the water in front of him, and oblivious to Harriet, the film crew and the giant fishing net she had draped around her in the water, because this poor guy swam right into the net and got tangled up in it, if you could see the look of shock and confusion on his face when he came thrashing up out of the water like an Alaskan salmon and there he was with a camera crew all around him....you couldn't write it!

Could you tell us about the ideas/ themes/ imagery used?
The idea for our video was to create a  Garden of Eden beneath the ocean and then to highlight how fragile this Garden of Eden is, we wanted to articulate this narrative through the medium of dance, Harriet and Carmine really capture it through their performance and when creating the choreography for the video, they had the movements of marine life and sea birds in mind and how those movements would be limited and restricted if entangled in plastic or ghost nets.

The set and lighting was created by Jeff and Shaun from the Crooked Gentlemen to give that look and feel of an oceanic, otherworldly place, beneath the water.

The imagery was always going to be important to deliver the message we wanted to convey, and the imagery of Harriet and Carmine being tangled up in plastic and ghost nets like some of the marine life we see everyday on the news, is really emotive and powerful, in particular the final scene where Harriet comes up out of the water to escape her poisoned environment.  
 

Is there a message the message the video is trying to convey?
The message the video is trying to convey is that we really need to protect our oceans and marine life, we need to change how we think about our use of single use plastics because its destroying our oceans and our planet and with 8 million tonnes of plastic entering our oceans every year, by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic than fish in them, thats not a legacy we want our generation to be remembered for.  
 
What do you hope people take away from watching the vid?
We hope it will raise more awareness to the issue of plastic pollution and the effect its having on our oceans and marine life and we hope that this awareness will help drive the change needed to solve this issue, small changes to the amounts of single use plastics we use in our everyday life would go a long way to solving this issue.

Interview Feature by Karla Harris