The document discusses the topic of the author's music video project, which will be about drugs and will relate to the Ed Sheeran song "A Team". The author has researched both the song and drugs like crack cocaine that are referenced in the song. They want the video to realistically portray the effects of drugs and connect with the audience. One challenge will be depicting drug use in a believable way without using real drugs.

1. Topic Research
By Isobel Jackson

2. Our Topic
The main topic of our music video is drugs; it is what the song we are using (Ed
Sheeran – A team) is about and also our narrative. We want our music video to be
meaningful and connect with the audience along with the song itself, similar to the
official music video for the song. I have undergone research into the song and also
into the music video to help us understand the song. This will help us be able to
create a narrative that relates to it and to also have a dominant reading that all
audiences would be able to understand and feel sympathy towards. I have also
researched into drugs and ‘class A’ drugs that are referenced to in the song and the
video to be able to put the severity of the matter into the video so it comes across to
audiences.

3. Ed Sheeran – A Team
"The A Team" is a folk ballad with lyrics that speak of a prostitute addicted to crack cocaine, a
Class A drug. It was written after Sheeran visited a homeless shelter and heard some of the
stories of the lives people had been living. Making the song upbeat and using the line "Class A
Team" was his way of masking the heavy subject matter. He wrote the song following a last-
minute performance at an event for the homeless.
In an interview, Ed said: "'The A Team' came from an experience I had when I did a gig at a
homeless shelter. I was 18 at the time and kind of quite naïve. So, I was a bit taken aback by
some of the stories that I heard. I got home that night and I just wrote a lot of the lyrics. I
wanted to write it so it sounded kind of upbeat, so you wouldn't really know what it's about,
because it's quite a dark subject."

4. ‘Class A’
Class A drugs include things like crack cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, LSD and many more.
Ed wrote about a specific case where the woman was addicted to crack cocaine, but
generalised the song to ‘cover it up’ and make it more subtle. Some long term effects
of crack include: ever-increasing tolerance; severe, unpleasant withdrawal syndrome;
mood disorders including depression; delirium; psychotic symptoms, including
auditory and tactile hallucinations, and/or paranoid delusions and addiction.
Ed addresses these symptoms in his music video, along with short term effects just
after she takes the drug in the music video.

5. ‘Class A’ – our video
We hope to include some of these short and long term effects in our video to make it
feel more realistic and believable. We want the audience to connect with the video
and the protagonists’ story, incorporating real-life effects and also drug use (which will
be fake in our video) will make it more existent and apparent. As this is the main
content of our video, we feel we need to include our protagonist to ‘take drugs’ in the
video. This may be difficult for us to make believable and look truthful as we would
not use real drugs, making this one of our problems for the production of our music
video.