The video has a narrative structure that follows the song lyrics. It shows the life of the girl from the video in a nonlinear way, starting with her death and then flashing back to show the events that led to her death before returning to her death again. The video focuses mainly on one character, the girl, through various camera shots that show her vulnerability and sadness as her life unravels. The editing and lighting create a bleak, black-and-white atmosphere that emphasizes the tragic nature of the girl's story.

1. A-Team music video analysis
Tom Smith

2. Narrative Structure
The A-Team music video has a narrative structure to it. This is because the actions in the video
follow the lyrics which gives them more meaning. The video shows the life of a girl who is
portrayed as the subject of the song, firstly showing her dead and then flashing back to see how
she got to this point in a sort of circle; starting off with her dead, the going back to a point where
she is alive and showing what led to her death, and then showing her dead again.
In addition to this, the structure of the video can interpreted as non-linear, as it presents a series
of flashbacks starting from an end point, with the beginning in the middle and the end being
almost repeated at the end of the video. In contrary to this, there could also be an argument that
the video begins to move into a linear structure; as the images we see of her building up to her
death are shown in the order they might have happened.
Finally, another structure which could be applied to this is the single strand theory, where the
video focuses entirely or mainly on one character in the video. This applies to The A-Team, as the
majority of the video shows the life and end of a girl who is struggling.
Beginning
End

3. Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory
Firstly, Ed Sheerans A-Team does not fit in with the star image theory. Ed Sheeran is not the main focus of
the video, although he does appear in several scenes in the video, in each of the he represented as a passer
by or stranger to the main character. Some might argue that this is part of his star image, and they see him
as just another person who happens to be able to sing. Similarly, I would argue that this is part of Ed
Sheerans star image, but rather than him being another person I would say that his star image is
represented more in his music and not his appearance, which is why you hear him more than you see him.
The A-Team video does follow some generic conventions, there is some sort of correlation between the
video and the song. For example, the beginning of the song signifies the beginning of they day at the start
of the video. The contrast between black and white creates emphasis on just how lonely and empty the
girls life is, which ultimately leads up to her being dead.
Thought through beat makes the audience question whether the lyrics match up to video, especially in the
first verse where it says “struggling to pay rent”, in the video it shows the girl waking up in a park which
would suggest she is homeless and doesn’t pay rent, however these lyrics might mean exactly what it says
in the head of the audience; that she really is struggling to pay rent.

4. Camera
In most music videos there will be a good variety of camera shots. They allow the audience to
become more involved in all the action or emotion which is in the video. The camera is always
or mostly focused on the girl, which shows she is a figure of importance in relation to the
video.
This high angle shot of the girl suggests she is
vulnerable, which also shown in her eyes. The
eyes look big and stand out more than
anything. This leads to the idea of eyes being a
window to the soul, as a you look into her eyes
it almost seems empty supporting the fact she
is dead.
This mid-close up shot shows the girl to be upset,
alone, sad and not knowing what to do. At this
point in the video she is begging for money on the
streets which is why she is this way. However,
because of her age as a teenager/young adult, this
shot could represent how other girls her age might
feel which might be lost and sad, so this scene
could connect with them on another level because
they can relate to her.

5. Camera
This shot is composed of a long low angle
shot and mid shot in one, where the girl
has been edited in. This scene takes place
after the death of the girl and in this scene
the colour has come back into the video.
The fact the colour has returned to the
world could represent the absence of pain,
which the girl was feeling during the
previous shots everything was black and
white; making it look bleak. Because of the
colour returning we get the sense that the
world carries on as normal, as if she was
never there. The mid shot of the girl edited
into the sky can represent the memory of
the girl, the clothes she still wears hint that
all she was known for was having drug
issues or personal issues.

6. Editing
The pace of the music is quite slow. This
means that the editing can also be quite
slow so it fits in properly with the
context and sound of the song. Having
shots which cut-to-beat would be
unnecessary because the pace of the
music and the theme of the video would
make it look out of place.
The black and white footage in the video adds emphasis
to the state of the girls life and highlights how bleak it is.
The change between black and white also adds high
contrast to the footage, lots of natural light is used at
the start of the video where she is seen happiest,
suggesting that the white or light parts of the footage
seem to take her worries away as she does not have the
same problems at night when its dark and she has to
beg for money and find a place to sleep.

7. Mise en Scene
For most of the video, the lighting is dark and cold. This kind of lighting is often
associated with rock and indie, whereas more popular genres like pop will use
bright and vibrant colours. In this particular video the dull colours and lighting
make the girls story seem more tragic and in some ways more believable than a
video which uses actual colours. This might be because the modern media use
colours such as black and white on their footage to make it seem much more
tragic and sad and almost as if from another world; for example news
broadcasters reporting on a natural disaster might use black and white to
emphasis to the sadness and struggle, much like the way the colours are used in
this music video.
The settings of the video are fairly average places, a park, a high-street and an
apartment. Because these places are ordinary to an everyday person, this too
makes her story more believable. The setting in the park looks bare and lifeless,
representing the emotions and feelings of the girl in the video.

8. Theorists
Barthes perspective of narrative outlines there being a series of codes, in the A-
Team there is something in the narrative story which is hidden from the
audience from the beginning. This relates to the enigma code, as it gives the
audience an enigma or problem to try and solve, in the A-Team this is how the
girls died. This draws the audience in, as they would want to know what series
of events leads up to her death and what caused it. Eventually all the questions
are answered in the end of the video
Levi Straus described narrative as being created by the constant conflict of binary
opposites, in the A-Team the two opposites are life and death. We see the girl
struggling through the day and night while she searches for hope, and at the start
and end of the video we ultimately see the result of that struggle as she is dead.