Genre: Indie Folk
Film and Director: Ruskin Kyle (Rivers Rush Video Production Company).
This music video is entirely narrative based meaning the music video follows a story throughout rather than having an artist/s performing. The video follows the story of a young homeless girl who becomes a prostitute in order to pay for her drug addiction. This is a typical convention for a Indie music video, having the narrative based on a social realism subjects.The title of the song directly links to the narrative where 'The A Team' is a reference to the class A drugs the girl is consuming. The narrative also illustrates the lyrics 'and they say she's in the class a team', again a reference to class a drugs. Lyrics such as 'white lips pale face' are also illustrated in the music video via the girl's appearance.The whole video has either been shot or edited in black and white reflecting the very simple and dull world that the girl lives in. The dark tones create a more melancholic and depressing mood, enabling the audience to feel and see the girls feelings. The monochrome filter also helps the audience to see the world through the girl's eyes, which is very black and white. The lighting used creates high tonal contrasts across the scenes creating a very dramatic effect as well as accentuating the girl's harsh lifestyle. The actresses costume typically represents a homeless person; wearing warm oversized clothing and carrying around their belongings i.e. a sleeping bag.
Ed Sheeran himself does not feature as an artist at all in the music video making his star image unidentifiable. However this does show that the singer wants to spread his message of the impacts of drugs rather than promoting himself like other singers. It makes Sheeran seem unselfish and more low-key as his music video does evolve around himself, rather his music. It subverts the Star Theory as Sheeran is not seen as a manufactured brand but seen as doing good by creating awareness of drug abuse, prostitution, homelessness and suicide. Sheeran is only featured within the main narrative, as a member of the public talking to the homeless girl. This is a common convention found in Sheeran's music videos, for example in 'Lego House' he does not feature right till the end of the video and only for about 30 seconds. As Sheeran approaches the girl it makes him seem 'normal' forgetting his celebrity status and profile.
In terms of camera shots a lot of close up and mid shots are used which frame the actresses face. By doing this the audience is able to see the desperate emotions of the actress shown by the smudged make-up from where she has been crying. The exterior shot used at the beginning of the video sets the scene for the video which is predominantly outside. It tells the viewer straight away that the girl is homeless which can be shocking to see her wake up in an empty park after sleeping on a bench. Time lapses have been where the video is recorded then dramatically sped up. Everything around the girl moves extremely quickly accentuating the amount of time passing whilst she remains lonely and still. A special editing effect ends the video where two separate clips have been layered over one another. Th exterior shot of the rooftops, a typical London landscape has the leading character layered over the sky in the top left hand corner. It makes it seem as if she is an angel in the sky, meaning as a result of drug abuse the girl has died. As the girl is positioned in the sky it represents innocence making the viewer feel sympathy in addition to visualizing the end lyrics 'angels to die' which is repeated throughout the song.
No comments:
Post a Comment