Research : Detailed research into my chosen artist : Name of my artist

The artist I have chosen is Calum Scott. I believe that this artist is good due to the song being quite slow but yet easy to lip sync to. It is also a good song to chose as the genre of music falls into a category which music videos are filmed on basic streets (stereotypically). Therefore this makes it easy to create a music video that fits into the typical music video for this type of music. I will need to make sure the person lip syncing in male however, due to the lyrics being about love, it may involve a girl in the music video that he is chasing. These scenes will be simple to create in a town or a street as the music video needs to be quite basic and slow so that it fits in with the song genre.  

Calum Scott

Calum Scott made his career from being on the X Factor. He didn't win however, the song 'Dancing On My Own' was performed on one of the episodes which caught him a lot of attention. He was born on the 12th October 1988 in Hull, England. He is an English singer and songwriter who came tow worldwide attention when he appeared on the X Factor. His single 'Dancing On My Own' reached number 2 on the UK Single Chart becoming the first solo singer from Hull to have a top 40 single since 1960. He began as a contestant in the X Factor in 2011 and won a local competition, Hull Daily Mail Star Search in 2013.

Dancing On My Own 

This single was released in March 2016, it is a pop song that reached number 2 in the UK Single Chart. It became a sleeper hit, first hitting number 40 in the charts in May despite little radio airplay apart from on West Hull FM. In August 2016, it was certified Platinum in the UK having sold over 600,000 copies. He signed a record deal with Capitol Records on the 24th May 2016 to his debut album.  

What Else Has Been Released?

Calum Scott has also released a promotional single called 'Transformar' with Brazilian recording artist Ivete Sangalo as official theme of the 2016 Paralympic Games. They performed the song at the closing ceremony of the Paralympics on the 18th September 2016. It was revealed in September 2016 that 'Dancing On My Own' was the most downloadable song of the summer in the UK of 2016. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q31tGyBJhRY

Interviews

Calum Scott has carried out many interviews with various different websites, news channels and celebrities. Many of them talk about the single Dancing On My Own as this is his biggest hit. An interview is placed below:

http://www.entertainment-focus.com/music-section/music-interviews/calum-scott-interview/

Research : My Favourite music video

The context
This song is called Fireflies and it is written by an artist called Owl City. this song featured in the album Ocean eyes and this album was released in 2009.

About the music video

The music video for "Fireflies" was directed by Steve Hoover. It features Adam Young playing the song on a Lowrey spinet organ in a toy-filled bedroom, where most of the toys (including an astronaut, a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Speak & Tell, toy cars including one based on Brum, and a blimp) come to life. Most of the toys are older model toys, with most of them from the 1970s and 1980s (the exceptions being a Robosapien and a Roboraptor). There are also vintage household devices such as a black and white television and a record player.

The music video

At the heart of this song there seems to be a yearning or a desire to escape back to childhood innocence. Upon first hearing the song, I was intrigued by the melody and simple lyrics; it wasn't until I actually questioned the artists intent that I began seeing the deeper meaning of Adam Young's lyrics. The song starts by telling us we would "not believe" our eyes, a statement that suggests the song will cover some sort of fantastic occurrence. Then the song progresses into a dream like quality. The speaker actually speaks of fireflies as if they were surrounded by them, but I can't help believe the fireflies are supposed to stand for a specific event or situation. Hence the question: Who would catch fireflies? The answer: innocent children. The song speaks about the innocence of youth and how quickly that innocence escapes us. The chorus says "I'd LIKE to make myself believe" suggesting a desire of something that can not be completely accomplished. The speaker wants to believe earth moves slowly; if he can't believe that simple statement, it must mean the opposite is true--planet Earth spins much too fast. In other words, time passes by much too quickly. The speaker then talks about the desire to remain to remain in that dream trance instead of waking up to reality, because within that dream trance is the innocence of youth. An innocence and naivety that allows a simple act--catching fireflies--to become a magical excursion into a wonderland of possibility and adventure. The point of the song seems to speak about the need to hold onto and embrace (maybe even slip back into) our child hood innocence so the reality of growing up does not completely take away the magic and joy the world has to offer. Simply put: We are all forced to give up our childhood too soon. We need more fireflies and rooms full of toys (video) to keep our lives simple and innocent.

Research : Features Of A Music Video (Independent Work)

From studying these three pop music videos, I have gathered that a common theme with women within the music videos. This theme involves the type of clothing they wear which is typically very revealing and 'sexy'. Most of these music videos have quite drastic lighting changes throughout the video to add to the effect of the music. All of these videos include montage editing to add the effect of elusions throughout, I believe this is also to add effect to the music being played. I have noticed in the more R and B videos the use of weapons a violence to create a harsh visual appearance to match the harsh lyrics.