2. Music Videos
Pete Fraser, Principle Examiner says when planning a Music Video you should look at previous work
for inspiration, and also to see the mistakes that they make and therefore you can make sure you don‟t
make these mistakes yourself, for example:
Ten things to avoid (though there will always be examples which disprove the rule!):
• 1. Well-known songs.
• 2. Overdone effects – you shouldn‟t use effects just to disguise poor footage.
• 3. Aimless driving around.
• 4. Scenes involving booze, fags or drugs (even simulated).
• 5. Shots of people just walking around.
• 6. Speeded up footage or footage run backwards to cover lack of material.
• 7. Zooms.
• 8. Found footage – it should be your own unless there‟s an exceptionally good reason.
• 9. Atmosphere-less stage footage.
• 10. Over the top stories.
By making sure you look at previous work you are able to address areas that work within the video and
areas that don‟t to make sure that yours is ticking all of the right boxes.
3. Male Gaze Theory –
Laura Mulvey (1975)
Laura Mulvey states that “mainstream film satisfies especially the male spectator by
projecting his desires on screen. Women are regarded as objects in „fetishistic‟
displays for male viewer‟s pleasure”
Within our music video we are going to dismiss these generalisations about how
women are portrayed on screen, with the characters in our music video being of an
equal status, with possibilities that the female character will be more dominant as
she‟ll be resisting the ideologies of teenage „love‟, similar to in the film 500 Days of
Summer, where the female character has more of a control over the males feelings
rather than this being the other way around, which is a more common scenario seen
on screen.
5. Maslow’s Theory
Maslow‟s Hierarchy of Needs states that human growth is
dependant on five separate physiological, mental and
emotional needs/desires. He says to be able to reach the
next stage up within the hierarchy you need to achieve the
need below, such as to feel love and belonging you need to
also feel safe within your community and well fed.
Music videos help to achieve belonging, because when
listening to a genre you‟re a part of a group that has an
interest in similar music to you, and therefore helps you to
reach the next stage in the hierarchy. They also help you to
achieve esteem, as when you‟re within a certain social
group you gain confidence and the respect of others.
6. Todrov’s Narrative
Theory
Equilibrium: a state in which opposing forces or
influences are balanced
Todrov‟s theory argues that There are five stages the
narrative can progress through:
• A state of equilibrium
• A disruption of that order by an event
• A recognition that the disorder has occurred
• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
• A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium
Therefore Todrov states that narratives do not have to be
linear, and within our music video it will not follow a linear
structure. It will go from past to present day scenes and
therefore following non-linear conventions of music videos.
7. Album Covers
Christopher Budd who interviewed Julian
House (a creative partner at London
creative agency) in the September 2012
edition of Media Magazine found that he
does not tend to focus on the artist‟s
genre of the album artwork he is creating.
He states that “each specific job exists in
its own world with it‟s own set of
reference points”. We will take this into
account with our work as we will focus on
the premise of song rather than the
conventions of the genre it falls into for
our album artwork, still looking at the
artwork of similar genres and taking into
account some elements but not
completely focusing our design based on
the genre that the artist‟s song we are
focusing on falls into.
8. Making Album Covers
On eHow, Alexander Grouch explains 11 steps of making album artwork.
The first two steps he lists I believe, are the most important as they are to study the
album art you like, so you‟re able to see what styles interest you in order to influcene your
work and to look in depth into these styles, looking at the complete digipack such as the
inside booklet, to see what themes and conventions run the whole way through.
The next step is to „sketch a rough composite that details the elements you want to use‟.
This is one of the most important steps as you are getting your ideas down so you can
work with them in the future, so you are prepared for your actual album cover design.
Whilst designing my album cover I will take these points into consideration, by
researching and looking into album artwork that interests me so I‟m able to reflect the
conventions within my own work, so I have ideas of what my album cover looks like
before I design it, so when it comes to producing my design I‟m prepared and do not get
stuck for ideas.
9. CD Cover Conventions
CD Covers usually contain conventions that are common on the majority of
covers, although there are always that do not conform to the typical
conventions.
Usually album covers contain the band or artists‟ title, album name and a main
image. Sometimes they also use a logo, which is normally the typeface the band
uses for their name.
Within my album cover design I do plan to stick to these conventions and make
it simple and easy to see the bands name and title of the album, although I plan
to use hand drawn images within my album cover as well as a photograph.
Band Name/Band Logo
Album Title
Main Image
Band Name
No Image
No Title
No Band Logo
