Artist Choice for music video

The artist we have decided to use one of his songs for the music video we are going to create is Avicii. In our group we decided to use Avicii as our chosen artist as he fits in with the genre perfectly and we both like him as an artist so this will make it easier and more entertaining for us to create the music video.

Chase and Status Music video analysis

Chase and Status comes into our genre of soft house.  Therefore I thought it would be appropriate to research their music video as ours is likely to be similar.  
This video was published on the 4th of December 2013 on the Chase and Status Vevo channel.  The writer and director is Josh Cole, Production company - Lew Espoirs,  and Produced by Lundi Shackleton.  
This is the free running video and is based purely in the urban, outdoor environment.  Lyrics of the song "feel so alive..." suggest an adrenaline pumped lifestyle and so free running fits this image perfectly.  Often throughout the video, at the point of the lyrics being "I feel so alive" or "there's nowhere to run" it would often show the characters doing flips, jumping or running, respectively.  Costume relates to the normal attire worn by free runners and so looks realistic in the video.  The writer/director presents the characters as having an exciting lifestyle filled with risk and adrenaline.  This converts directly to the image given of by the lyrics and instrumental of the music.  There persona is shown through the actions within the video.  They're constantly moving, running, jumping and flipping.  At the point of the music taking a slower rhythm, so do the actors and the camera shots/editing.
Lighting isn't really a major factor in this video as the majority is filmed outside under natural light.  However, there are a few really good silhouette shots used in the video, for example, as the instrumental is dying down and becoming more emotional.  This shows a direct link between the visuals and the lyrics/beat.  

The beginning lyrics in the video suggest that the character singing the song, feels rather small and the instrumental is soft and gentle.  The visuals use a few establishing shots and extreme long shots here.  This shows the scale of the huge urban setting in which they're performing and shows how small they are in comparison.  Therefore, relating to and enhancing the effectiveness of the lyrics.
One technique is that the camera shots used often relate to the lyrics as well.  For example, even in the first moments of the video, the lyrics are "with the ground beneath my feet" and the camera shot is at ground level along with the character on set.  
There is an extensive use of low angle camera shots after the beginning.  These are used when the beat of the music picks up.  The lyrics then change to "feel so alive" etc, and singing about being alive and feeling good.  Therefore the low angle shots display this by making the characters look large and more dominant on screen.
Tracking shots are used to show the movement and speed of the characters through the city.  It show rebellion and power over their surroundings.  I have also noticed that the director has rarely used still shots.  The camera is contently moving in some way, usually a very slow panning shot.  This also relates to the lyrics and atmosphere of being alive and the adrenaline of the character as keeping the camera still would defy the lyrics and beat.
Many slow motion shots are used to show the skill involved with free running.  These shots are often used when a word or note is being held.  There are no close up shots in this video and no lip sinking.  All shots are moving mid shots, long shots, extreme long shots and establishing shots.

The editing in this music video doesn't appear to follow a beat or lyrics.  It cuts whenever an action within a clip is over.  However, that cut is then likely to be on the change of the instrumental or the beat.  Each cut also seems to be a straight cut with few fades or dissolves.  They do not have a constant pace of editing, instead it is random timing and even cuts half way through an action to change to another angle.  

The target audience for the video, as well as the song, is the young adrenaline pumped teenagers of today.  Typically stereo types of teenagers in recent years are party goers and thriller seekers.  Young people would look at this video and want to experience it, therefore being attracted to it and hopefully increasing the popularity of the song.

Chase and Status album cover analysis

This is the Chase and Status "No More Idols" album cover.  The title of the album contrast the black and white background image of a dog.  The colour used is yellow.  It is commonly known that yellow is the most visible colour from the furthest distance.  This therefore may be an influence for using this colour.  It is bright and outstanding on the background image.   Despite the background image being dominant on the cover, the bold yellow front still stands out and fits the conventions of the album cover as the artists name is extremely visual like other album covers.

This is the artists second album.  Artists tend to be more serious when it comes to their second album, especially if their first has been successful.  Therefore I think this image was chosen for a deeper reason.  The use of an aggressive dog could portray a message "don't mess with us".  This could lead the audience to believe that they're serious about their music and are here to stay in the industry for a long time to come.  
Because of the image of the dog, the representation of the album and artist comes across as quite aggressive.  This is partially true as the genre of the music is house/dubstep.  This music is generally quite heavy.  It is also quite stereotypical of a rebellious teenagers and seen as quite "chavy."
Therefore, this type of dog relates nicely to the genre as it is also linked to a rebellious nature "chavs" due to the aggression in its face.

UK Music Video Awards

The Uk music video awards are an event based in the UK and it is a celebration that is held each year. The event rewards music videos with creativity, technical excellence and innovation for creating music videos. There is a wide rang of artists and bands that go to the event and many different categories for those artists/bands to be rewarded in. The prizes in these different genres video categories are for recognition of innovative approaches to music videos. The event/awards are held each year in autumn. The UK music video awards are organised by two members of the team behind BUG, the BFI Southbank's successful music video genre and they have a large amount of experience in these events and the UK music business. Some of the categories include Best Pop video, Best Rock Video, Best indie/alternative video, Best dance Video, Best urban video and Best Budget/ Independent video. Some of the most famous winners include artists like Oasis, Coldplay, Will Young, Paolo Nutini and Beyonce.

Reason for chosen song/artist

In our group we had to decide what artist we would use for our music video and once we decided on an artist we had to choose a song by that artist that we would use. The genre that our group have always been set since the start is house music, although we have always been set on house music we wanted to make this genre more specific so we can have a smaller target audience that just house music. To do this we decided on having the music genre as soft house, this is similar to house music but isn't as focused on the beat/ music and normally includes lyrics to go along with the song.

We know that our chosen genre is soft house music and the first artist that we thought of was Chase and Status, the reason that we thought we would use Chase and Status for our music video is for multiple reasons. Firstly we thought Chase and Status would be a perfect fit as many of Chase and Status songs fit into our chosen genre. Secondly in our group we both liked the group so we thought this may help when choosing the song and when creating the music video itself. Lastly we thought that Chase and Status are not as popular as some of our other chart topping choices so it may be easier to create a new music video without just thinking of the style of videos that Chase and Status create. One of the songs that we would use is Alive, however this is a popular song and could affect our final decision.

One of the artists that we thought could make a good artist to use in our group as the artist for the song was Avicii. We decided Avicii would could be a good choice for multiple reasons. Firstly both members of our group appreciate and enjoy the music that this artist produces so we thought that this would be an advantage as it means we will enjoy creating the music video more than if it was an artist that we dont like. Another reason is Avicii has a fairly recent album called True. True was Avicii's debut album and was released September 2013. We thought that this would help when making our decision as some of the singles from his new album are not as well known as his other chart topping hits and often do not have music videos to go along with them, which is perfect for us as it allows us in our group to interpret the music video in anyway we want to without having the influence of a previous video. Lastly another advantage of choosing Avicii is that i have been to an Avicii concert which means i understand the atmosphere that he tries to create at his events, this could help if we decided to have a performance in our music video because i will know the different things that you may expect at event held by a DJ such as Avicii. The song that we decided we would use if we chose Avicii is Dear Boy. Dear Boy is a single from his album and has no music video so this would be perfect for us to create our own interpretation of the song, also this song was never high in the charts.

The next artist that was one of our choices in our group was Calvin Harris. The first reason that we decided Calvin Harris would be a good choice is because he is well known for his house music so it would not be hard to decide on a song to use. One of the disadvantages of choosing Calvin Harris is that he his very popular in the charts so it may prove difficult to find a suitable song that we would like to use which isn't too popular. Calvin Harris most recent album 18 months contains the single Bounce and this was one of our choices since we thought this song fit well into our genre and we both thought we could create a good music video for it.

Video Music Awards

The VMA is an abbreviation for MTV Video music Award and it is an award presented by the cable channel to honor the best music videos released. Although it is a prestigious award some may say that the achievement is ruined by the controversy that often occurs at the awards. The VMA was originally an alternative to the Grammy Awards and the VMA's have been often called the Super Bowl for youth and draws millions of views every year. The annual ceremony occurs in the summer every year and is broadcasted live on MTV. The first VMA awards was in 1984 and it was Held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The awards are normally in Los Angeles or New York. However on previous occasions they have been held in other locations such as Florida and Las Vegas.There has been many controversial moments at the VMA's and one of the first was in 1984 at the first ceremony when Madonna performed her hit "Like A Virgin" wearing a combination bustier/wedding gown, including her trademark "Boy Toy" belt. In the middle of the the performance she rolled around on the floor, revealing lacy stockings. Some of the more recent controversial moments include Miley Cyrus' performance of We Cant Stop and this  featured the former child star entering the stage through a giant teddy bear wearing a one-piece bodice with a teddy bear styled on it. Miley Performed with a group of dancers before she was joined by singer Robin Thicke to perform his song with her "Blurred Lines". At this point Miley Cyrus then stripped down to a flesh colored bikini and proceeded to perform her signature twerking dance moves 

History of music videos

A music video is a short film integrating with a song to provide a visual image. Music videos are often used and produced for promotional purposes to advertise a new song that an artist may have released. Music videos are also often used to give a certain image of an artist or band as before music videos were introduced the only way to see what an artist or band looked liked would be to go to a concert. The origins of music videos date back years and the first example of an illustrated song was in 1984. Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they became very popular in the 1980's when MTV was created which is a television based around music videos. This was very new at the time and was the first on television. The first music video to play on MTV was the video for The Buggles Video Killed The Radio Star (1979). This was the beginning of the 24 hour a day music on television and thanks to this outlet by the mid 1980's Music videos began to play a central role in music marketing. Many important artists can thank music videos for some of there success, artists such as Madonna and Micheal Jackson owed a great deal of there success due to the construction of there music videos. Micheal Jackson is an artists who cares about his image so music videos played a great part in his career and his music video for Scream is the most expensive music video produced and cost 7 million to produce.

Some music videos that have been released nearer to modern times have been banned in some places due to graphic images, one example of this could be Robbie William's Dj which was banned as it showed him peeling parts of his skin from his body. Music videos are constantly changing and AHA's take on me was one of the first to use alot of technology. Music videos now can sometimes only show the lyrics and this is known as a lyric video, the first lyric video was released by Cee Lo Green.

In terms of house music, it is a genre of electronic music that originated in the early 1980's in  Chicago. Early forms of the hose music genre was generally dance music that was characterised by repetitive beats and rythms. The term house music originated from a reference to a Chicago nightclub named the Warehouse which was open from 1977 to 1983.