Research: Analysing Ed Sheeran 'A Team' 2

This music video is a narrative video as it tells the story of the main character.

The establishing shot of Ed Sheehan's 'A Team' is a moving mediums shot in black and white of two women, one appears to be crying and the other appears lifeless. A chirping sound can be heard at this part of this video which sets the tone of the video. Immediately this shot poses questions and it becomes clear this video is a narrative music video and is telling a story. I believe the fact this music video is in black and white has a deeper meaning such as a representation of this woman's life as the colours are hard, which by this establishing shot it appears the woman's life is hard.

 It quickly becomes clear that the woman crying in the establishing shot is homeless as she lies sleeping on a park bench with holes in her clothes. This image goes strongly against Laura Mulvey's theory of male gaze as it is clear a homeless woman is not one that would grab the attention of most men.

In this two shot the woman appears to be on the street begging for money by selling magazines, this makes the audience feel sorry for the woman. In this shot it also picture the artist of the song, Ed Sheeran, as he sits, pays attention and gives money to this homeless woman it gives the impression that he is a good guy.

Under cranking is used in this shot of the music video to make the cars go past in surreal time. This represent life passing this woman by and gives the impression she has been stood alone for hours with not a single person paying attention to her.

This close up of the main character of this music video depicts her applying lipstick as though she is getting ready for something. As an audience knowing she is a homeless woman this automatically develops the assumption that she may be applying lipstick in order to look nice for prostitution.

These next two images show her in bed with a man and then taking money from the mans pocket making it very clear she is involved in some form of prostitution as a way to get money. The expression on her face shows one of shame and disgust showing she hates the position she is in but it is possibly her only choice, I believe this shows how truly deep this video and the black and white tones used in this particular shot perfecting depict that.

In this pair of close up shots we see the woman hand over the money she made from prostitution in return for drugs. This once again shows how truly awful the situation the woman is in, as she is clearly addicted to drugs as we see tears in her eyes when she turns to prostitution for money which we later discover is for drugs.

 In this medium close up it shows us the image of the woman doing the drugs she has worked through the day to earn. Her facial expression shows some kind of relief, as though her work has finally paid off, however he expression also shows disappointment showing she knows what she is doing is wrong.




In this high angle final shot, the woman appears to be at one with the sky, showing a representation that she has gone to heaven because she overdosed on drugs. This makes it clear that the establishing show was the woman crying over her own body, a rather surreal concept.





How this post has inspired me.

This post has inspired me as the high angle shot gave a true representation of her situation, this showed me that angles can add a lot to a story.