Research into chosen artist

The artist we chose to use for our media project is Calvin Harris, we chose this artist as we all knew who he was and appreciated his individual style of music. His music video to the song 'We'll be coming  back' attracted all of my group as it was a dance video but did not conform to the typical conventions as it contained mainly narrative rather than performance. This inspired us to choose this song and create a video that will also be mainly based upon a narrative rather than focusing our attention on any sort of performance.


Calvin Harris is a singer songwriter and DJ, he was born in Scotland on the 17th of January and begun his career as a teenager in his bedroom recording and mixing songs by 1999. He became very anti social when he began making and producing music but said that this was a form of inspiration. His style and genre of music is Electro pop, Electro house and synth pop, he is currently signed with the record labels  Columbia and Ministry of sound. He has released two albums, thirteen music videos and thirteen singles. As you can see from the chart he is most successful in the UK but more importantly he is as popular in the dance charts as he is in the singles chart. This shows that he is well known and recognized as a dance music artist.

Calvin Harris' video to his song 'We'll be coming back' was directed by Saman Keshavarz and belongs to the dance genre. There is use of Dyer's star theory in this video as his paradox that explains that a star should be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. There is evidence of this in the video but not through the images used. Instead it is done through the narrative of the video. For example the artist Calvin Harris is made to look extraordinary as he is wearing blacked out sunglasses which connote a rich and famous lifestyle and he is shown to be very skilled at driving, this adds to the illusion that the artist is extremely talented and extraordinary however the paradox emerges once the narrative in the video develops. For example towards the end of the video there are close ups of the artist and his accomplice to show that they are happy about completing a mission but really they have been tricked by a women in and motorcycle outfit who appeared regularly throughout the video and have failed their mission, this is showing the artist as more of a failure as he has not completed his task which therefore causes him to appear more ordinary as he is not good at everything.

Goodwin's theory is also used in this video but does not conform to its conventions in this music genre. One of the ideas put forward in Goodwin's theory is that an artists music video is either performance, concept or narrative based. In this case the video is narrative based as the video is telling a story, there is evidence of this as a large amount of the the shots are put together using continuity editing which is used a lot to tell stories. Also it contains almost no performance apart from a small amount of close ups of Example who features in the video singing some of the words to the song and there is no concept in the video as there are no messages or ideas being sold to the audience. Goodwin's theory is used in another way in this video as there are a lot of close ups of the artist, this is usually to please the record label but also to increase awareness of who the the song is by if it is being consumed by someone who is not a fan of the artist yet.

The artist is represented through the use of shot types, for example most of the shots that are of Calvin Harris are close ups to show his expressions and feelings, this helps to show him as someone with a lot of emotion and represents him in a positive way because his facial expressions are never sad or negative, this might be because dance music is generally up beat and not sad. This links in with his target audience who are teenagers and young adults, this is because they are at the age where it is popular to go clubbing and dancing where they are likely to hear music similar to his. The style of this music video is mainly narrative based and composes its shot using continuity editing apart from when there is a flash bask for example when it goes back to someone meeting someone in a dark alley at night. This style of music video is rarely found in the dance genre and subverts the stereotype that all dance videos contain only dancing usually in clubs or bars or even in exotic locations, which this video does not.

To fit in with the video not following the typical conventions of a dance video mise en scene has also been used. For example the setting of the video is not in exotic locations abroad or in exclusive clubs,  instead it is set in very dingy and urban alleys at night; country roads and aged towns out in the country, these locations are not the obvious choices for this kind of music genre and therefore helping to separate the video from the rest. there are however a lot of common camera shots used in this video such as close ups, usually of the artist, there are no clear establishing shots used in this video but this is because the location is not as important to know because there is no ideology in the video.

Another video from Calvin Harris is to his song 'Feel so close', another chart topper in the UK number ones and dance number ones, it was filmed in a small town in California during the summer and is also classed as a dance music video.There are contradicting elements of Richard Dyer's theory that can be found in this video, as one of his idea's is that a stars image will tend to change and develop through long or short spaces of time to keep the audience interested or to appeal to new or different audiences. However in Calvin Harris' videos he is only ever featured in them for less than half of the videos but more importantly his image has never changed dramatically, this is down to the fact that his music, unlike pop which is continuously changing and asking the artists to do so as well, is in the dance genre which has a timeless element about it as it always appeals to the same aged audience of about 16-26 and is always played in the same places such as clubs and bars. Because of this his image and motifs have never had to change to keep up with new demands as there very rarely are any substantial changes within this genre of music. For example in both of the videos I am analysing Calvin Harris is wearing a very similar style of clothes and has kept his sunglasses on which is his motive.

Another theory used in this video is Goodwin's theory which explains that a video should be made up of a mixture of performance, narrative and concept but ultimately one of these aspects should dominate the content of the video. In this video the two that dominate are performance and concept, performance obviously being the characters dancing and the artist singing along side the lyrics in the song and the concept linking in with another theory from Goodwin in that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The concept is that music brings people together, there is evidence of this as when the music is not playing there are close up shots of a girl looking lonely and sad and there are a group of boys looking at another group of girls in the distance. When the music starts and the lyrics say 'I feel so close to you right now' there are more close ups of the same girl who is now not lonely and is happy because of it, also there are then close ups of the boys hugging the girls from the two groups. This is showing that the music from the song along with the dancing has bought everyone in the narrative closer together. This also backs up the point that there is a strong relationship between the visuals and the lyrics.
     
Calvin Harris is represented in almost an identical way to the previous video in that most of the shots with him in them are close ups to show his emotions but in this video he is not wearing sunglasses which means that his expressions are a lot easier to see which fits in with the theme of the song which is full of emotions and feelings towards other people. Also these close ups show the artist singing which shows Calvin Harris as a performer. This can show people that he has many talents and could increase his audience as he may now be respected as a singer as well as a songwriter.

The target audience for this video is mainly teenagers and young adults as this genre of music is played at the places considered popular to this age group for example clubs. Also the characters focused on in the video all fall into the same age category as the target audience which may help the audience relate to the characters better and enjoy the video more. This music video is similar to other videos in this genre as it follows the common conventions found in this genre such as lots of performance based entertainment for example singing and dancing. Mise en scene is used in this video as almost the entire video is shot using natural lighting and is very sunny, this helps create an up beat and fun feel to the video which is common in the dance genre.

Researching into my chosen artist was a great benefit to me as it enabled me to see what to consider from the very beginning of the planning stage to the finishing stages of the video. This research has inspired my way of thinking in terms of my ideas and plans for my groups video and will definitely have an influence on the final product, this could be through locations used, choice of cast but more importantly it has helped me in deciding the amount of time allocated to performance, narrative and concept in our video.