Music Video Research 11 - The A Team

Artist: Ed Sheeran
Track: The A Team

Camera/Editing
The music video begins as it ends. It shows a woman dead at the beginning and at the end it shows how she died. The way the music video is shot makes it feel real life.  To show her death the camera shows a visual at the end with the young woman's face in the sky like an angel as the lyrics sing along with birds tweeting. The music video is shot in black and white to add a mood to the video and an atmosphere.

Narrative
There is a strong story to the video. It is all about a young homeless woman who uses drugs and the only way she can find a roof over her head and money for the drugs is through prostitution or begging on the streets. This video only shows the issue from one perspective to represent the lives of many others.

Conventional/Unconventional
The music video is unconventional. It uses the video to get across a moral rather than typical music videos of the artist lip-syncing. In this instance the artist is only featured when giving money to her. However in ways it is conventional as the genre of the song uses videos similar to this one to get across an issue in society to the audience.

What works?
The thing which works is the way the video corresponds to the lyrics. The use of the narrative in the music video allows the audience to show their emotions towards it as it is quite shocking.