This music video analysis document discusses the camera work, mis-en-scene, representation, ideologies, audience reception, and theories presented in Ed Sheeran's "A Team" music video. It notes the simple shots and handheld camera work suggest the protagonist's sad life. Locations emphasize her isolation and clothing contrasts her homeless and prostitute personas. The video negatively represents homeless women and society's treatment of them. It gained popularity through its unusal harsh realism.

1. ED SHEERAN – A TEAM MUSIC VIDEO
ANALYSIS

2. CAMERA
 The first shot in this music video shows a young girl
distraught at the death of what looks like her friend. Then you
see the young girl she is looking at from her viewpoint, the
camera shot zooms out, whilst it’s zooming out it goes out of
focus. This suggests her death but also looking back at
something.
 From then it goes to a black screen and then to her lying on a
bench in a park which is a flash back.

3. CAMERA
 Throughout this music video there are
extremely simple shots with no extreme
techniques or editing transitions. Most of
these look like they are handheld, I think
this has been done to suggest that this is
her life and nothing else but that.
 There is a low angle shot where you are
only able to see her duvet she is carrying
and the holes in her stockings, from this
angle it emphasizes what she has got, or in
fact what she hasn’t got.
 Another low angle shot shows her to be
looking up at the sky, it makes her look lost
and almost as if she is on drugs.

4. CAMERA
 To show emotion, there are
many close up shots within
this music video. Most of
them are to show her fear
and despair.
 Another way of doing this is
by showing a time lapse
where she is sitting/standing
whilst the world goes by. This
is to suggest her loneliness
and how she’s got nothing.

5. MIS EN SCENE
 The colours in this music video are
extremely dull showing the whole video
in black and white. This has been done
I think to portray her sad life and how
depressed she is.
 One of the first locations you see is her
in a large park, she is the only person
in here and makes her look even more
lonely and sad.
 There are also other locations where
she is the only one there, again
making the viewer focused on her but
also portraying her isolation

6. MIS EN SCENE
 Within mis-en-scene there is also
contrast. The first being the clothing of
the girl in the video. At the beginning
she is on the streets with mascara
under her eyes and a duvet around her,
but then towards the end she is getting
dressed up. This suggests that she has
two personalities, the homeless girl and
also the girl on the street corner
(prostitute). This has an impact on the
audience as it makes you think of
homeless girls you walk by and if they
also have to do this to make money.
 The other contrast is her and the man
she sleeps with for money. There is a
shot where you can see the girl that
was just on the streets in a large house.

7. REPRESENTATION
 The representation of homeless woman is
society is extremely negative in this music
video. The stor y that has been told in this
suggests that the character has got her self in
to this situation as she takes drugs and
therefore is homeless. Also this is shown as
she looks at her happiness when she gets the
drugs at the end.
 However she is also shown to be innocent
and scared when a car approaches her whilst
working on the street. The headlights on the
car show her to look like ‘a rabbit in the
headlight’
 The ar tist of Ed Sheeran is represented
extremely positively in this video as he is
shown to be the only one that goes up to the
character to buy the big issue she is selling.

8. DOMINANT IDEOLOGIES
 I think there is dominant idelogies in this
music video. Homeless people tend to be
represented extremely negatively even if
it isn’t there fault that they don’t have any
where to live. Also society believes that
all homeless/poor people are either
alcoholics or drug abusers. In this video
this is exactly how they are being
represented.
 Also society is being negatively
represented here as everyone completely
ignores the character by walking past
here, thus suggesting they are selfish and
don’t care about the poor. I think this is
unfortunately also a dominant idelogy.

9. AUDIENCE RECEPTION
 This was the artists very first song and therefore had to make
an impact on the audience with the video to gain popularity
and then gain sales.
 The video is now at 48million hits which is clearly a huge
number, I believe this is very hard hitting and unusual to see
for a music video as they normally tend to be happier than
this. However I think because of how unique the video was it
gained more and more views and gained Ed Sheeran fans and
money.

10. THEORIES
 I believe the main theory this video applies to is Laura
Mulveys male gaze theory. In this video the young poor girl is
demoted to an object where she is sold for money. She is
shown to be provocative clothing in this music video and
therefore enhancing the gaze from males.
 Also within the music video it shows how she views herself, in
this case extremely negatively. This is because she is
degraded herself to be a prostitute and also at the end takes
her own life.