1) The music video tells the story of a young female character who is homeless and engages in prostitution to earn money. 2) Visual cues like her torn clothing suggest she is emotionally damaged while scenes of her waiting on dark streets and meeting men in cars establish her lifestyle. 3) The black and white cinematography and dark imagery symbolize the emotionless and difficult life she leads, while lyrics about angels may reference her purity or her drug addiction.

1. Ed Sheeran A Team
Music Video Analysis

2. The music video begins with a shot of a female character
looking down on the main character’s body, leading to a
high angle, close up of the main character’s face. This
character is a young girl, with her eyes open and a pale
face. The audience automatically assumes that this
character is dead, leading to a narrative enigma as the
audience will be asking questions as to what’s happened to
this character.
Throughout the music video, we establish that the
character’s clothing tends to be ruined and worn, such
as ripped tights; along with her carrying a sleeping bag
with her or wearing a long coat. The ripped tights may
be in reference to the way that the character herself is
emotionally damaged/torn. The sleeping bag suggests
that the character is homeless or sleeping rough,
explaining the narrative of her having a rough and hard
lifestyle.

3. Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory can be applied due to the
voyeuristic treatment of the character’s body within the
camera shots. Although the theme of prostitution isn’t over
emphasised, it is still established within the mise en scene and
camera shots.
The character is shown wearing a revealing top and applying
lipstick; followed by the shots of her waiting on a dark street
for a car to pull up. The male gaze theory is further applied in
ways such as the shot of the car pulling up to the character,
with the headlights emphasising her bare legs and heels she is
wearing, in the dark, cold weather.

4. The way that the lights beam onto the character’s
face, could be a reference to the phrase ‘a light at
the end of the tunnel.’ In terms of how this light is
the cause of how she will earn her money.
Within the mise en scene, the hotel room which the main
character arrives in with the driver of the car, represents this
character to be wealthy. This is shown with the long, clean
hallways and the male character wearing a shirt. The female
character juxtaposes this mise en scene, as she is shown to
conform the stereotype ideologies of female prostitutes; with
her ripped tights, skin showing and dark make up. The theme
of prostitution supports the connotation of the clothing she
wears, which suggested she was ‘damaged’ and ‘torn,’ as she
would make herself vulnerable and sell her body in order to
make money.

5. Ed Sheeran isn’t shown in the music video until over 1-minute
in. In this video, he has portrayed himself as an average, normal
character, where he is not in the spotlight of his video. This
could be to express how although he is an A list celebrity; that
he is not superior to others. It also helps to portray the idea
that the female character’s story and problems are extremely
important, representing equality, and not distracting the
audience’s attention away from the main narrative.

6. Levi Strauss’ binary opposition theory can be applied when
looking at this music video in terms of narrative. The opposition
between life and death is represented. This is shown at the
beginning of the video featuring the female character who we
believe is dead. However, this then cuts to the narrative of the
video showing how the character is trying to earn money in
order to survive and get by day after day, representing her style
of living. This is further juxtaposed with the way that we see
that she is getting by through her addiction of drugs, which we
are then led to believe is the cause for her death.
The opposition between black and white is shown throughout
the video also. The overall video is shown in black and white, to
begin with. The black and white effect could be to represent
the emotionless, hard lifestyle which the character has. The
way that the video isn’t in colour also draws the audience’s
attention towards the main narrative of the video, along with
listening to how the audio/technical codes links the lyrics with
the video. This causes the viewer to feel sympathetic towards
the characters in the story.

7. The binary opposition of black and white is shown with the
song lyrics. The lyrics quote the word ‘angels’ many times,
suggesting white and purity. However, this representation of
the colour white could be juxtaposed as it may be in reference
to the drugs and addiction.
The overall video shows darker colours. Her make up is dark,
along with her clothing, as well as many of the scenes being
shot at night-time. This juxtaposes the white connotations as
the black colours could possibly suggest danger or death.

8. Barthes 5 codes could be applied in the music video. The
hermeneutic code is applied when the beginning of the video
creates a narrative enigma, as the audience believes the
character is dead, but is left asking questions.
Barthes’ symbolic code is applied within the mise en scene.
There are candles shown in the music video, when the female
character has her drugs. This could be a religious reference,
symbolic towards hope and possibly forgiveness for the ways
she has lived her life, in hope to make a better life.

9. The symbolic code is applied with the shot of the female
character stood with her arms stretched out. This could be in
reference to her wanting freedom or to ‘fly away,’ or further
religious references to the idea of her being an angel, or
possibly wanting God to ‘take her away.’

10. When looking into the technical and audio codes, there is a
generic convention with the song lyrics linking in with the
narrative of the music video. The lyrics refer to it being cold,
quoting lines such as ‘it’s too cold outside, for angels to fly,’ as
well as phrases used such as ‘breath in the snow flakes.’ The
first shot we see of the main character is where we believe
she’s dead. The ‘snow flakes’ will be a reference towards her
addition to cocaine.
However, the pale face female character which we believe to
be dead at the beginning of the story could be a possible
reference towards how she is metaphorically numb to a cold
world. ‘It’s too cold outside’ could be to suggest the idea of
society being cold and hard on the female character, leading
her not to be able to have a better life, resulting to her
addiction with drugs.

11. The lyrics mention ‘angel’ often. This is shown in the video with
the shot of the train station being called ‘Angel Station,’
followed by a panning shot of a sign saying ‘improving the
angel.’ This is further religious references towards the female
character being an ‘angel.’ This could be suggesting the idea
that although the character has a bad lifestyle, the character is
an innocent, pure character who has let the addiction get the
better of her, referring her to an ‘angel.’

12. The camera and editing techniques shows the main character
always in focus in opposition to the people and setting around
her. Also, when looking at the shots in terms of the rule of
thirds, majority of the shots, the female character is centred
where the horizontal and vertical axis’ meet, where the
audience’s attention would be drawn towards. This is an
antithesis to reality. Although the character is in focus with the
camera, in real life she is out of focus to the world, as the ‘cold’
society pays no attention to her.

13. The editing technique with the time lapse in the video, showing
her stood still, in the centre focus of the camera shot, can be a
reference to how time is moving on and everyone is moving on
with their lives; however, her life is seeming to be wasting away
and not progressing.