Video Analysis - Ed Sheeran - The A Team

In my second video analysis i will be looking at Ed Sheerans single The A Team. Directed by .. The genre of this music video comes across to me in two different ways, the backing of the music comes across as being very folk like with the guitar, almost like it should be backing an acoustic cover of the song. In also comes across to be as being quite soulful with what the song and its actually meaning. I believe that the video has been made so that it goes along with the narrative of what Sheeran is actually singing about rather than what you would usually expect from these genres. You can feel the folkness coming through with the heavy guitar strings in the background, you can hear the soulness of the song with the way Sheeran plays on the lyrics singing them in quite a gentle way.

There is a very strong link between the visuals in the lyrics, the song was written by Sheeran after doing a gig for a homeless shelter and wanted the video to tell a narrative about what can so commonly happen to the homeless. From 2.46 in the video to 3.05 esspecially the line "sells love to another man" plays on the fact that she is now going to have to go outside and sell her body to be able to get money to stay somewhere for the night and that this is probably not the first time that she has had to do this. 

There is a negative change of pace at 3.50 in the video, the music slows up and the words seem to be strung out longer. With a close up shot on the womans face in the video, also shows a change of emotion and the video begins to take a turn for the worst with the woman going back to her flat, it seems to me that she could have taken drugs or an overdose, which wouldn't be able to be shown on the video. This leads her to fall on the bed looking to be unconcious, this is also shown at the start of the video so i believe at the beginning they have shown the impact that can happen and tell the story of how it did.  To me the video doesn't cut to the beat, i feel like the music is just there to be a narrator to the images, the cuts do become quicker when the pace picks up, and slower cuts when backing is more calmer.

In this video Ed Sheeran only appears for a short amount of time, 1.20 - 1.30, he does it in most of his videos if he does appear atall including ones of his newest songs 'You Need Me, I Dont Need You'. It gives me the impression of he feels he doesn't need to be in them because the lyrics can do all the talking, he doesn't want to give the impression that he is using himself to sell his music through what he looks like or how he cant dance. Also the majority of his videos are in black and white and quite simplistic, no huge special effects or name dropping of other celebrities that he has had the chance to work with.

For me the music video is 100% narrative based. As mentioned earlier, the song was written after performing a gig for homeless and thats where the idea for the song came along. In my perspective the video tells a story of a drug-addicted prostitute, trying to gather money through selling magazines and selling themself to be able to afford more drugs and somewhere to stay. I believe the video was made to show people how lucky they are and not to take anything for granted.

In conclusion the most important things i have gained from this video to help me in the process when i am making my own is that i really like the black and white concept. I feel that sometimes less is more and that not making things over to top and too complicated can have more of an effect on people and keep them more interested for longer. I believe that the images could have been abit smoother with the music and cut more to the beat, but for an artist just making their way onto the music scene i feel it makes a very good statement.