Analysis of Ed Sheeran - 'The A Team'

The music video ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran was released on the 22^nd April 2010 and was shot and edited by Ruskin Kyle (Rivers Rush Video Production Company). The video narrates the story of a girl played by Selina MacDonald who is addicted to drugs and is shown to be homeless, living on the streets of London. She tries to sell magazines for money but is shown to only sell one which is to the artist of the song, Ed Sheeran. The girl later resorts to selling her own body, trying to provide herself with a general income. Towards the end of the music video, the pain becomes too much for her to bear as she trades in her ‘dirty’ money for drugs, referencing the lyrics “…an in a pipe she flies to the motherland” and later succumbs to her drug abuse.

The music video is show to follow conventions of a circular narrative as the video begins with the scene of the young woman as she is found dead, taking the audience through a story of how she ended up there. This also follows Levi-Strauss idea of binary opposites. The idea of life and death is illustrated in the video as the young women is show to struggle to keep alive. The video begun with the concept of death and moved onto the idea of life as the young woman wakes up on a park bench to a new day with the ambient sounds of vehicles moving in the morning rush hour. The music video then ends with her death, which represents the idea of life being incessant regardless of the loss or circumstance.

The entirety of the video is filmed in black and white.  The black and white effect displays the voyeuristic treatment of the female body which is further shown through the subject of prostitution.  One particular scene in the music video shows car headlights focusing on the woman’s body. The bright lights contrast with the women’s leg and draws attention to her body and bare legs. The fact that it is cold and yet she’s not covered denotes how desperate she is for money and how she makes herself seem vulnerable. In terms of rule of thirds, the camera presents her eyes as the main line of interest detonating her as weak and helpless. She is further seen in the video as she is shown to take off her black coat. This is used as a metaphor as she tries to gain attention of the driver which links in with the dress code of females in regards to voyeuristic treatment. Furthermore, during the middle of the video she is shown to be standing outside a train station called ‘Angel Station’. The name of the station depicts her to be angel like which contrasts with her job as prostitution is often deemed upon. The panning shot of the sign ‘improving the angel’ suggests she needs to improve her way of living. Moreover, the scene of the car headlights contributes to this ideas as the lighting only focuses on her, leading her to stand out like an angel. This suggests the ideal of opposites as she is seen to be the complete opposite of angel like as she plays upon female voyeurism.

The mise-en-scene throughout the video has very similar themes portrayed. The young woman, who is shown to be the main protagonist of the video is shown to be troubled. This is conveyed through her choice of attire, for example she is shown to wear old and tainted clothing including a hoodie and dark trousers. Her choice of clothing suggests she is from a lower class background, this is further conveyed as she is shown to wear large, hooped earrings which are normally associated with people of this class. Furthermore, her makeup throughout the video is messy which suggests she has been crying hysterically.  As the narrative progresses, she is shown to change her makeup and wear revealing clothing before she goes out at night which reinforces the idea that she is a prostitute, selling her body to receive her earnings.

The majority of the sound used within the music video is non-diegeitc, with the soundtrack being the only sound heard. Although at the beginning of the video there is some non-diegetic sounds of birds singing which contrasts with the music of the song as it is more of an upbeat tune. The editing used within the video is effective in portraying the idea of flashbacks and memories. The whole video is shot in black and white, which creates a dark atmosphere along with a depressing atmosphere conveyed to the audince. The blur used between shots when the narrative flashes back in time is used as a creative method to show the change in time. The narrative is also shown to get quicker near the end of the music video which suggests her urgency and need for drugs.

Props list

This prezi describes the different types of props I will be using for my music video. I have included details on the costumes, props, locations and equipment I will all need for my music video. Overall, this document will be significantly useful for when I shoot my video as I will be able to refer back to this post to ensure I do not forget anything and have all the essentials I need. 

Analysis of Existing Students Magazine Adverts

I decided to analyse Amy Wichelow’s magazine advert as I really like the layout of the advert and the image of the main dancer dancing. The use of slow shutter speed makes the dancer stand out and emphasises the use of movement signifying the visuals of her music video as it is solely performance based – focusing on the dancer dancing and singing in different locations. Amy has also included all the information required – including the artists name, album name and important details such as reviews and social media websites. I also like how she has changed the colour of the letter ‘U’ in the name of the album ‘LUNGS’. The use of the colours yellow and white reflect against the dark background and the dark clothing of the main dancer. She has also kept a simple colour scheme of white, yellow and black. The artists name ‘Florence and the Machine’ is written in different font, in comparison to the rest of the text which stresses the importance of the group’s name. This was also suggested by my media teacher, who said we should include different fonts and change the sizing of different words to stress the significance and meaning of different information. I also noticed she had included a landscape version of her magazine advert, I will perhaps think about doing this as well as a portrait version for my final magazine advert.  I will put all these factors into consideration and think about the importance of colour and font.

I also decided to look at Clare Hanington’s magazine advert. I really like how she has included real polaroid’s of the main characters depicted in her music video and has taken the image from a low angle shot - as if she has captured the movement of the polaroid’s falling to the floor. Although she has included very little information, I think this looks more effective as it leads the viewer to focus on the important information. Again, Clare has included several different fonts including a more relaxed and fun font for the name of the album and the different mediums the album is available on. She has also included the different social websites at the bottom of the page, which is an important required for my magazine advert as my music video is targeted towards 16-25 year olds. I also like how she has divided the magazine advert up in different sections as she has included three individual lines, dividing the information up, making it clear for the audience to focus on the key parts of information. At the bottom of the page she has also included details of the production companies. I will perhaps think about including this for my own magazine advert as I have already designed my own logo for my production company. The colors are very simple which follow the genre and theme of her narrative and performance based music video.

Production Diary - 17/11/14

During today's double lesson we looked at the different elements that a magazine advert requires including vital information such as; the album name, artist name, reviews, availability, format and social media. We also looked through several examples of previous students magazine adverts, discussing what made a good or a bad magazine advert. From our discussion, it was notable that the magazine adverts that had very few pictures and were much simpler seemed to look more professional and appealing to the audience. Overall, I found this task very helpful as it gave me a clear insight to what I needed to include to achieve the highest possible mark.

In the second part of the lesson, I then focused on producing the format of my magazine advert. I first began by looking through my analysis of magazine adverts from the pop/indie music artists to decide on an appropriate layout for my advert. After looking for ideas and inspiration, I then began producing my draft on the program Adobe InDesign. After using the program to construct my magazine for my foundation portfolio, I was quite familiar with the different tools and how to create a single poster. I began by creating different coloured squares to suit the key I was going to include at the end of the document. I made sure to create the boxes on different layers so I could create a video of my progress at the end using CamStudio. The red boxes indicate the main text/titles, the blue boxes represents the picture I will have in the middle of my advert and the black boxes show where I will include other information including reviews and social media websites. While designing my draft, I also looked back at my inital planning  ideas for my magazine advert and stuck to this as I also created boxes to go with the different sections of what I will include on my advert. My first draft/formatted version of the magazine advert can be seen below:

Influences of Style

Editing Images

- Added black and white effect
- Adjusted brightness and contrast
- Used curves tool

Choosen Images

Production Diary - 02/11/14

This weekend, I began shooting my music video. I began with focusing on the narrative sequences of my video and decided to take footage at my grandparents house. Following my storyboard and shot list, I decided to video Victor and Sam playing chess as this is one of the most significant shots in my music video. I also took footage of the duo in my grandparents car as after looking at various different music videos I really liked the idea of Emeli Sande's music video 'My Kind of Love' as the video features a car scene as Emeli is shown to assist her childhood friend from hospital and take her on a days trip to the seafront amusements in Hastings. I decided to immitate this style of video in own music video of a car scene to show the two narrative characters as they are on a journey.  Whilst filming on location, I also took a selection of images to use for the two ancillary tasks: the magazine album advertisement and digipak. I wanted the media products to resemble the mood and theme of my overall music video and therefore instructed my two characters Victor and Sam to stand next to each other whilst Sam leant on Victor's shoulder. I took a range of camera shots including close up's of the pair as well as mid shots of them both so the audience would easily understand what my music video will be about. Overall, I believe this weekend went really well and I am looking forward to shooting more footage next weekend. 

Audience Research Survey Results

 

This is my audience research survey I conducted to get valuable results. I will use this information I have gathered to enhance the quality of my music video and ensure I am targetting it towards the right audience. 

Contact Sheet

Actor Release Form

These are actor release forms for music video. The document clarifies that my actors have agreed and are happy to participate in my music video for my media coursework. The document is important as it is a legal form which states that an identifiable published photo, video, performance or silhouette  of a person without an actor release can result in civil liability by the director of the video. The use of the actor release also restrains the public from using and publishing the video. The act of taking a video of someone in a public setting without a actor release or showing a video in private goes against the main purpose of the actor release form as the form creates liability for the video as they are kept separate from copyright. There are also many different types of release forms including a minor release form which requires a signature by a parent or other legal guardian of the model and a group release which is a modified version of the adult release which includes an additional signature to be used by multiple models or subjects in a single image.