Music Video Directors

Name: Alan Ferguson
Signed to: Yvette Lang-Einczig & Yell Productions

Over the years has worked with a variety of artists including Panic at the Disco, Katy Perry, Natasha Bedingfield, Gym Class Heroes and Jay-Z and has frequently worked on music videos with the band Fall Out Boy.

The Zebra in Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold" music video

One of the major elements of Ferguson’s work that impresses me is his ingenious use of imagery and intertextuality. In videos like Katy Perry’s “Hot’N’Cold” there are some very interesting images like the Zebra to highlight the line “It’s black then it’s white” in an obscure and memorable fashion. The image appears at the end of the video to show that that the entire video is a dream.


It is Ferguson’s work on the Fall Out Boy music videos that impresses me the most. “Dance, Dance” is one of the bands most famous songs and the video makes appearances in other videos including “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” which is a continuation of the plot from “Dance, Dance” and “I’m Like a Lawyer with the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)” where the video appears being watched by a group of Ugandans. Also, in the video “What A Catch, Donnie”, multiple props from other videos appear most likely due to a series of lyrics from other songs appearing in the song’s climax. While this intertexutality is clearly due to Ferguson working on so many of Fall Out Boy’s videos, it does knit the band’s videos together brilliantly in a manner that most artist’s videos never do.

Name: Dave Meyers
Bio: Born in Berkeley, California.
Worked at a local Landmark cinema at 17 where he gained his love of film before attending Loyola Marymount University where he majored in Film Production and Philosophy. In 1997 he started working on music videos and has since directed over 200 videos from a plethora of incredibly famous artists like Jay Z, Britney Spears and Aerosmith.
His goal is to "innovate the field while supporting artists in their journeys to define themselves." [Source]

The major thing that impresses me about Meyers' work is that he is totally dedicated to making his videos fit into the artist's definition to define themselves. This is something that I would like to do in my music video. Meyers also makes excellent use of imagery in his videos, usually leading to some of the most memorable music videos ever.


The spectacular CGI fireworks in Katy Perry's "Firework" video really add to the poignancy of the song. They add an amazing sense of colour and motion to the video in a way that has never been done before, linking in with Meyers desire to "innovate the field".

Pink's "Funhouse" is also an incredibly interesting video due to the juxtaposition of Pink in white having fun whilst the location is a burnt out wreck of a house. The over the top nature of the video and Pink's attitude is one that Meyers has clearly developed with Pink over the years through their work on numerous other videos including "You Make Me Sick" and "So What". While I would never be able to go to such extremes in my music video, it would be excellent if I could capture the true essence of the artists in the music video like Meyers does so well with Pink.