A-Level Media Studies
Ed Sheeran- A Team
This music video goes against theories such as Todorov due to it starting off with a disequilibrium of the main character being found dead. Through the rest of this music video we as an audience go on a journey with the character to discover how she got to the point she is at at the start of the video. The narrative leads to the concept that the main character commits suicide due to a drug overdose, the reason behind this suicide is due to being homeless and having to take part in prostitution in order to make money.
Editing:
Speed manipulation is used once in this music video at 1.55. We see the main character sitting on the ground in normal time and many people walking around her and ignoring her at a much faster pace. This gives the audience an impression of isolation and loneliness due to the character being ignored by passers by. Speed manipulation is something that we will be using in our music video, we want to create a vast sense of isolation for our main character. To achieve this we are going to place her on a bench and observe many people quickly walking around her. A black and white overlay is used all the way through this music video, this is to demolish any sense of happiness or contentment and to give the audience a hard feeling of sadness and depression. We are going to be using something similar to this in our music video, we want to drag out the colours in the sadder moments of the video to give a more stressed feeling of mental health issues. At the end of the music video we see an image of the main character floating in the sky, this is done to give the impression of her spirit leaving the earth after her death. This would have been done is post production in order to give a more seamless and faded effect.
Camera Work:
During the entirety of this music video we see the main character through a lot of high angle shots. This is to portray a sense of vulnerability for the character due to the situation she is in. High angle shots are going to be used frequently in our music video, in some cases very similarly to this music video. For example when the character overdoses on drugs we see her passing out through a high angle shot. We are going to be doing something similar to this in the sense that our main female character is going to hint towards suicide whilst submerging herself under water. We are going to see this event via a mid length, high angle shot.
We see the main character quite frequently through close ups and in some cases extreme close ups. These shots are more intimate and allow the audience to form more personal relationships with the characters. The use of these shots allow us to see the emotions in which the main character is portraying, at one point we see the character crying through a close up shot, this is also something that we will be using in our music video in both the main female and main male characters cases.
Hand held camera techniques are used a lot throughout this video, usually in the moments in which the character feels more free and haopy. The loose movements of the camera mimic the relaxed and content emotions of the character. This again is a technique that we will be using when it comes to filming our music video, during the happy scenes we want the camera work to be slightly more fluid rather than rigid in order to create a happier atmosphere at that time,
Mise En Scene:
There are a few props used in this music video in order to obviously represent the main character as homeless and as a prostitute. For example in one shot we see the main character standing on the street holding a copy of The Big Issue, this magazine is sold by homeless people in Britain in order to allow them to earn some money for things they may need. Another example is when we see an extreme close up of the main character pulling money out of a mans jacket pocket. These props allow the audience to figure out the path in which the main character is following in turn allowing the to empathise with the character thus forming a relationship. Throughout the majority of the music video we see the main character dressed in warm and unattractive outfits quite often with a duvet wrapped around her. Again costumes such as this gives the audience a more obvious indication to the characters profession and living situation. Make up on the character is always ruined, usually black running down her face due to sleeping in her make up or crying. The object of these costumes are to make the character look vulnerable and not pretty, the use of mascara running down her face gives a strong enough indication to crying without having to actually see the character cry. The whole music video is set in an urban location (A city), which again gives the character a larger sense of isolation due to being alone in a place filled with thousands of people.
Soundtrack:
At the beginning we hear around 10 seconds of Diegetic sound in the form of birds chirping. This is done to create a morbid feeling that is synchronous to the music video. At the start of the video we see the main characters dead body, the use of chirping gives an unsettling emotion for the audience to experience thus preparing them for the feelings they will experience throughout the music video. The entire score is very simplistic, the main instrument being used is an acoustic guitar this is a very conventional aspect of an indie track. The use of such a simple instrumental give the audience a larger ability to concentrate on the meaningful lyrics used within the track.