Monday, 7 July 2025

Contingency week: what can you do to maximise your coursework grade? Class of '26 edition

What can you do this week to maximise your final grade (and make the best music video ever made?)


  • Add text, graphics and words to your video 
  • Adding and editing additional footage
  • Filming additional footage
  • Appropriate transitions for the genre
  • Shove in some effects 
  • Fine tuning the editing to emphasising beat matching and synchronisation 
  • Fill all empty spaces, try to avoid overly repetitive imagery 
  • Focus on perfect lip synching 
  • Colour grading: go wild!
  • Go out and shoot some ECUs and abstract shots 
  • Emphasise your representation 
  • Add the name of YOUR artist, and the name of the song!

A reminder of the brief (music video element)

  •  A cross-media production for a new artist or band in a popular genre (or sub-genre/hybrid) of your choice.
  • Create an original music video and associated print material (an album cover and a double page spread) to promote the same artist or band.
  • You should create a cross-media production for a record label that is a division of one of the ‘Big Three’ record labels (such as Sony Music Entertainment’s Epic Records, Universal Music Group’s Republic Records or Warner Music Group’s Fueled by Ramen). Your cross-media production should target a 'Generation Z’ audience (in 2025, this means 13 - 28 years old, and are the first generation to have typically grown up with digitally convergent media as a cultural dominant)
  • Length: 3 minutes - 3 minutes 30 seconds. Longer tracks may be edited or faded out to meet the required length.
  • The music video must construct representations of at least one social group and include the following: 
  • Two or more filming locations appropriate to the chosen genre, such as a studio, rehearsal or live performance setting, and other locations to establish the narrative
  • A wide range of camera shots, angles and movement
  • A range of shots of the artist or band to establish a clear image/identity
  • Performance footage (rehearsal and/or live), lip-synched appropriate to the chosen popular genre
  • Clear structure with an element of narrative (such as enigma, conflict, resolution or character types) to visually interpret the lyrics
  • Editing of original footage to the music track
  • Graphics depicting the name of the fictional artist or band and title of the track


The video to Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter utilises a subtle retro aesthetic, encoded through colour grading and costume, as well as precise shot framing to construct a precise and highly involving address. This video would probably get an A*