Genre Specific Evaluation - I'm Not The Only One

Institutional Information

"i'm not the only one" is a song recorded by English sing er and songwriter Sam Smith from his debut album 'In the lonely hour'(2014). A piano soul ballad anchored by orchestral strings and a gospel structure tackles themes of infidelity in a relationship and was inspired by a marriage of someone Sam Smith knew. The official music video for 'im not the only one' was directed by Luke Monaghan who's also worked with Sam Smith on the video for 'leave your lover'. The music video features actress Dianna Agron as a scorned bride and actor Chris Messina as cause of her heartache.

Target Audience 

The primary target audience for this genre would be mainly aimed at an older audience, perhaps above 15 due to the sexual nature of the video. The video tackles themes that are more common for older adults to understand such as infidelity, alcohol consumption etc.

Narrative

The opening sequence for the music video introduces the song title and the singer (0:01) This immediately creates awareness of the song and who sang it and will also create a wider target audience as it will appeal to people who like Sam Smith; almost like a secondary target audience.

The shot zooms in on the house whilst dialogue of a couple is audible for the audience. The first shot after this is a medium shot of a couple in close proximity as they are kissing. Her body language of her hand around his cheeks suggest a happy and close relationship to the audience and a wedding ring can be identified on her ring finger.

(0:32) The over the shoulder shot of the actress waving her husband goodbye is powerful as it is a well lit shot creating a tone of ease and stability and reveals to the audience more about the locations within the music video. Despite the slight blur due to a deep focus on the actress, it is clear that the production team had chosen a quaint suburban area to keep up the 'idealistic' appearance of their marriage. This kind of set up is stereotypical for a happy marriage within media. The actress is wearing white connoting that she is happy, pure and even angelic where as her husband is wearing a dark suit and drives off in a black car causing unease with the audience as black is the antithesis of white, which also suggests his character might be the antithesis of hers.

(0:40) The close up of her face dropping from a smiley house wife to despise suggests that something bad might happen. In the close up her dress isn't visible and therefore the  premise of her being pure and angelic doesn't stand anymore, her makeup is dark suggesting she may have something to hide.
She walks through the house and comes through into her back yard where the filter over the shots have changed from warm to ashy suggesting a double journey through the house, physically and emotionally, and she has now realised that something has changed and it is possibly loveless. (0:55) (1:15)In this shot we see the actress trying to take off her wedding ring however it's too emotionally painful as she has internal conflict of her equal love and hatred for her husband. The shot is of only her hands on the blue carpet denoting feelings of coldness and a loss of love.

1:00) We see the actor in a dark corridor walking towards the camera with elements of green on the windows and walls connoting biter feelings of jealousy and envy.  (1:29) a brunette woman is revealed in this darkly lit building where she meets the actor. (1:32) The dim lighting suggest feelings of unease and instability as they are in a shady location connoting something bad may happen. Furthermore, their proximity is impure as they are in each others arms, giggling. Her costume is stereotypically sexy causing a juxtaposition between his mistress and his wife. The large hooped earrings are often a symbol of sex within the media as well as the dark lipstick. Shots of the pair drinking are in parallel with his wife driving (1:42) (1:39) to show the contrast of the emotional state of the breakdown of their marriage. The scenes containing the wife are well lit suggesting that she is innocent despite the fact she is distraught. 

Whereas the husband is laughing and drinking shots with his mistress in the middle of the day. (2:15) The wife is drinking wine from the bottle in a supermarket whilst buying material for arson. Her makeup and hair are in disarray becoming and opposite of the image she was at the beginning of the music video. The ashy filter over the shots of her alone make her look pale and gaunt suggesting that the breakdown of their marriage has had an impact on her physically too. (3:08) we see evidence of the husband's infidelity in a small room lit only by a blue light connoting that their passion is loveless and that he is emotionally cold. The woman is higher than the man in the construction of the shot suggesting that she has more power as she seduced him into being unfaithful to his wife. Furthermore, in the noticeboard behind the pair, the back of a playing card is pinned up, connoting that the husband is playing a game with their feelings.

The shots of the wife in parallel with the affair are well lit by warm fire as she is burning her husbands possessions outside their home. The warm nature of the fire suggests that she has found temporary solidarity despite the burning rage she has for her husbands unfaithfulness. (3:29) (3:46) The shot of her smoking is a complete contrast from the image we had of her at the start of the music video which was a idealistic housewife devout to her husband. (4:32) At the end of the video the husband is walking up the drive where the door to their house is open and she greets him. This shot is powerful because despite the breakdown in their marriage there is still some love left as she smiles when he kisses her neck. In addition, she still has her wedding ring on and it is at eye level with the camera being the main focus of the shot.






Editing 

Throughout the music video, the main editing technique is the cross cut editing of the parallel narratives of the married couples day. The harsh chops between the husbands disloyalty and the wife's emotional breakdown connote the nasty nature of the husbands affair. The pace of the editing slows down at significant moments and moves with the characters movement to show reactions to the audience. (3:18) (0:46) (1:41) These shots are all moments when the shots are held to capture all of the moments factors such as mise-en-scene, location, tone and the camera angles.

Camera Angles 

During the music video there are multiple over the shoulder shots as they present the characters point of view. (0:31) The shot of the wife waving her husband goodbye appears as thought their everyday life is idealistic and perfect however it hints that under the surface there is something not quite right. By bluring out the scenic views around her it connotes that she has become confused about her feelings for the blurred husband in the car. (1:04) The high angle shot of the actress sat by the pool day drinking connotes that she has a low self-esteem and a lack of power within her life with few motivations to get her through the day. By placing her next to the pool shows a life from the outside looking in it may be envied after however by not showing her reflection in the pool it suggests that she has lost her sense of self and is looking for a new identity other than being a wife.

Mise-en-scene

The mise-en-scene of the music video has several denotations and connotations. Immediately the clothing items establish character roles within the music video. By the wife wearing a white dress with pearls and perfected hair and makeup connotes that she is angelic and innocent whereas the husband wearing black and always being in dim lit locations suggests a shady characterisation and a dark side to their personality. The juxtaposition of the two main locations of the idealistic house and the club really highlights the disloyal nature of his affair as he appears happier in a dark location than the sanctity of his own home.

Sound

At the beginning of of the music video dialogue is shared between the married couple about their dinner at the end of the day. This is also overlapped by sounds of birds tweeting connoting that this is everyday life for the couple. Then the music by Sam Smith starts.