Drafting and Planning - DigiPak (Front Cover)

For my album, I used the album title and the artist's name to create a template for a CD. The album cover, I want to create the name of 'Sam Smith' on top of a heart made of broken glass.

My idea for this cover came from seeing a photo on social network 'Instagram' where someone had shared a photo relating to heartbreak and just being able to be cleared away. The connotation of 'glass' is that it's easy to break and can just be disposed of and replaced. I like this imagery as it creates a mood within the album, and this will match the lyrics. Also, it's a good effect of a heart shape made from broken glass, as it's clear in colour and will create a simplistic, natural yet professional cover.
 Here is the photo that inspired me:

Drafting and Planning - DigiPak (CD Tray)

This screenshot it so show my work in progress. I have worked on Paint and Paint.Net to help construct examples of my digiPak. I am looking forward to developing these ideas further to create a more professional and more secure inside left cover, CD design and CD tray.

The red on the diagram indicates the feature I am focusing on for this piece, for the piece below, I had the idea of putting a watch face under the CD so when the CD is removed from its tray, a watch (relating to album title 'In The Lonely Hour') can be seen - it will be of equal shape and won't be seen until the CD is removed, creating a sense of mood and continuing the tone and design style throughout the ancillary products.

Album Design, Drafting and Planning (Just in Case)

Just in case the exam regulations say we have to change the name of the album, I created an album cover with the title 'Just Words'.
First of all, I had the idea of speech bubbles overlapping each other, and I created this on Paint. After changing the colours, I accidentally clicked 'fill' in the lines and it made such a great effect. I loved the red on the white with some of the shapes missing. I knew this would be a good effect to put on an album cover. So I applied the text and afterwards I noticed another effect I could use, the 'watercolour' effect to add an artistic, abstract but personal tone to the cover, so to show my progression of ideas, I created this one on Paint too.
Here they are, first, the accidental one:

Second, the one with the watercolour effect to create a different tone:

Organisation - Influence for DigiPak

This image is one I found on Instagram, when Sam Smith's album was released. Someone had created their own image regarding his album & I really like the idea of the clock in the background which is what I wanted to use for my CD tray (mimicking the same shape as the CD itself, so when the CD is removed) paying homage to the original album name.

Planning / Organisation of Ancillary Products

This is my first draft for a CD cover. I decided to go with a classic font for the artist name. I also went for a script font for the title of the single/album as it creates a professional look.
The white spaces at the bottom of the CD are the certification and record label logos.

I chose red and white as they are classic colours that go together and can help to make a professional look. Obviously this is nowhere near complete but I would like to see the progression of my ideas into a complete, good looking ancillary product to go alongside my music video.




Original CD disc.

The black and white helps create a retro look. The CD is quite powerful even though it contains negative space and no photographs or patterns. This is intriguing to the audience as a simple CD design, they will want to listen to it straight away which is an idea I would like to use too.

Research Into Target Audience - ANALYSIS

Research into Target Audience

The target audience for the original song is the general public; as the song was created for the charts as a sub-track to Sam Smith's new album, the song was created for many different styles of people to make them think, feel and be entertained by Sam Smith's style of voice, character, personality and style of video, messages and themes.

I think the video can relate to both men and women, as the film has a slight feminine vibe throughout, it still has a masculine bravado as it is about being vulnerable but trying to remain strong which is quite a stereotypical male trait. The feminine vibe is shown through the classiness and the intricacies throughout the video such as the use of the female character being quite outgoing and fun, and also the props used like the expensive hotel room, rich decor and the trip to Paris.

The theme of the video is unrequited love and heartbreak and this is brought across by the facial expressions of the characters in the video, the vocal style and the instruments. The use of an acoustic guitar and piano which can be quite mild, beautiful instruments add to the fragility of Sam Smith's emotions.

What appeals to the audience the most I think is the fact that the video is mostly cameo. Cameo defines the style of music video where the artist appears in the video but only to create the narrative to the audience and not to perform/lip-sync the vocals as conventional music videos do.
As Sam Smith, however, does perform to the camera a few times throughout the video, this shows that Sam has wanted to relay the message of the video to the audience himself by using direct address.

The lyrics of the song are aimed at an older person I think as older people tend to fully understand the extent of love and unrequited love and heartbreak but most of the video can be interpreted to any age and any gender.

The video contains no explicit language or explicit scenes which means that it is widely available for a wide audience to see, and also the feelings involved are universal so if the song travels globally, it can be relatable to the audience.

Looking from an objective point of view I'd say the strict target audience was 16-30 year old men and women but perhaps women more. But as the messages and themes in the video are easy to communicate to a wide audience, it is available and targeted as a classic song, with a universal message and image.

Organisation of Locations, Costumes, Camerawork and Themes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=182TRJq9Zt8

Organisation - Camera Shots

Where the camera cuts to Sam, I will copy this but I will be in a bedroom and I will have no microphone. I will just be sitting on my bed and look to the camera with intent. I will use inspiration from his clothes to create a sombre mood too. This video is quite a professional video in the sense that the music adds to the tone of the song and the mise-en-scene and Narrative match together.

Research & Organisation - video ideas

I want my video to resemble the original but I want to take a different slant. Although Sam Smith's video tugs at the heartstrings I want to create something meaningful that the viewer/listener will remember and keep in their hearts and minds. Sam Smith's video depicts a group of 2 other young people and himself and his fun antics around Paris and intertwined are his feelings brought to the surface about his unrequited love for someone.
My video will also be based on the story of unrequited love but I want to do it in a more modern, young person's way. As a younger person who has experienced heartbreak and unrequited love it's simpler for me to delve into my emotions and pick them out to illustrate to the audience.

I will do this by: having the video in more than 1 setting. Sam's is set in Paris, and also cuts to a hotel room, rooftop and Sam Smith performing. I will set it in restaurants and maybe cinemas etc. with glimpses of me performing throughout maybe in my bedroom alone in the darkness.

The costume Sam Smith and his friends wear is modern as they wear everyday clothes while out in Paris and dinner suits whilst out in posh restaurants. I want to keep these the same but have a more homely feel, as if finding comfort in warm pyjamas and blankets and feeling isolated than running around with mates etc. I want the feelings to e portrayed more directly than just being signified via use of clues and hidden facial expressions.

The camera angles: Sam Smith's  video is shot using many camera angles, my favourite of which is the shot of the 3 on the rooftop which pans from the dawn/sunrise in the distance. This creates a sense of "it's a new day, a fresh start" which I would love to create too!

Research into Similar Videos

I have chosen to do a song by Sam Smith for my Media Portfolio as I feel that I can relate to him through the themes of his songs and videos and althought I have thought about using his songs "Stay With Me" and "I'm Not The Only One" - I feel now that it will more suited to do the even more of a cameo-story style song "Leave Your Lover."

This song by Sam Smith; involves the story of love, and not so much heartbreak in the break-up sense, but heartbreak in the way that you really want somebody. The lyrics say "Leave your lover, leave him for me." Which can be manipulated to fit any person's experiences in their lives. I feel that Sam Smith is an appropriate choice of artist to perform, as my original influences would've been Christina Aguilera or Beyoncé-esque kind of music videos, but I thought it would be irrelevant to shoot a music video of me, and other characters, with a female singing lead vocals.

So after thinking long and hard about an appropriate artist, I have finally chosen to perform Leave Your Lover by Sam Smith.

I completed a video analysis of "I'm Not The Only One" by Sam Smith, where I typed what happened in the video, so I could get an idea of setting, order, positioning, editing and style. After watching the "Leave Your Lover" video, I thought it would be beneficial to carry out another video analysis, as this is now my final choice & I can complete this for my Media Portfolio in an easier way.

Research and Planning - Music Videos

During the summer, I became aware of Sam Smith's new video 'I'm Not The Only One' which once I listened to it, became such a good song to me, and I felt like this would be a good idea to do for my A2 Media Portfolio. The video depicts a story in the background of a man and woman couple and Sam Smith pops in every now and then to sing too.
The video is sort of like a film. It resembles characters taking part in a story-line that the song lyrics fit to. And I think this would be maybe a better video to perform for my Media coursework.

This moment of the music video shows a woman driving her car, away from the arguments and feelings of her past with her partner. When Sam Smith appears in the music video, he is singing into a microphone, and this adds a new dimension to the music video which I feel would be a good thing to try and depict myself.

The positioning of the characters in this video is hard to analyse as
the video is based on a story. The characters go through a whirlwind of emotions, as they argue and the woman leaves; then she drinks away her problems, and then drives back crying and meets her partner once more, and they continue as if nothing had happened. The lyrics of the song, add a new dimension to the song as they are quite eerie and Sam Smith's voice and personality are quite sombre in this but the powerful message behind it adds a sense of mystery to the story as the story matches the lyrics and their message.