Ed SheeranA Team

Video Analysis

This shot shows a homeless girl waking up on a park bench. The central position on the character suggests that she is the main character in the story. The trees in this shot add to this as they seem to frame the character. Black and white effect gives the impression that the narrative is sad and slow paced rather than happy and upbeat.

This shot suggests that no one cares about the terrible situation that the character us in(being homeless). Even though the character walks through the town with her sleeping bag, everyone else carries on as usual regardless walking to work etc. Again the character is central in the shot.

This shot is all about the artist’s star image. This is the only part of the video in which Ed Sheeran is featured. The artist wants to be portrayed as a morally good person, and so brings himself down to the same level as the homeless girl to suggest that he doesn’t feel he is any better than her. The action which takes place here consists of him buying a copy of ‘The Big Issue’ from her to suggest that he cares and this could also persuade fans to do the same.

These shots feature text which is linked to the lyrics. The lyrics are: “it’s too cold outside for angel’s to fly”. This is suggesting that she can’t gain her full potential while she doesn’t have a home. By placing the girl directly beneath the text in the first shot, it is made clear that the reference to the ‘angel’ is about her. The second shot portrays part of the message that Sheeran is trying to send out, which could be to help the homeless improve their lives.

This shot has the effect of fast motion. The shot is sped up and we see a large amount of people simply pass by the character, none of them offering to help .The effect of this shot is that we see that these people are simply left to fend for themselves and on one cares enough to help them.

In this shot, the girl is applying mascara to make herself look more attractive as she is about to become a prostitute in order to make money so that she can live. The effect of the grime in the corner of the mirror is that it shows that even though she looks better and she is about to make money and hopefully be able to afford food and shelter, she is taking an awful path and is still in a life-threatening situation. Life is far from perfect.

This shot sees car headlights shine light on the girl. This could be interpreted in a number of ways. The girl could be seen in a positive light because she has tried to get herself out of being homeless by getting an extremely undesirable job. However the light could also be a reference to the angel lyric again as stereotypically angels glow.

The money is central in this shot which shows how important it is to the character. The fact that she took the money before she began to take off the man’s clothes also shows that the money is much more important that the love of the man. The money is interesting placed in the position of the man’s heart; this could show that he has to buy love.

The girl has now been edited onto a sky background. This is a reference again to the angel lyric, as in the narrative she took a drug overdose and died. The girl is placed here to show that she has gone to heaven to live a better life. The smile shows that she is now happier than she ever was when she was alive. The sun also sees the death in a positive light.