Ed Sheeran - The A Team

The A Team  was without a doubt a significant factor in Ed Sheeran's incredible climb to his current success. The  video alone can prove this as it is believed to have only cost £20 to make - 'Also in February 2010 he released his second independent release, his critically acclaimed Loose Change EP, which featured one of his most popular songs "The A Team". A video was made for the song, and cost only £20 to make.'


The A Team begins with birds tweeting, whilst there is a woman clearly mourning a young girl that appears to have died. There is no soundrtack at this point, and it appears immediately clear that this video focuses on narrative and not a band playing. It maintains it's black and white shot type all the way through the video, whilst using slow cuts, to meet the slow pace of the music. A lot of the shots are in mid to close ups, highlighting the need for expression to show emotion in this video, and at one point the main female character can be seen to be crying in a close up.
The camera is constantly slightly jerky, showing how this is evidently filmed on a handheld camera, and this aids the sense that digitisation has contributed to the low cost of this video. Another give away is the clear lack of SFX with only a shot at the very end, mixing 2 images together with the female character and ther sunshine, and then a shot earlier in the vid that is a straight long shot of the female character, watching traffic in a fast forward type shot, with her staying in normal time speed. The narrative is very clear that she is struggling for money and does not have a home. In a range of angles, all at traditional hight lever, she is seen struggling on the streets, commonly in a mid shot. Ed Sheeran makes a brief appearance as the young man buying a 'Big Issue' from her, evidently showing how he is helping out. There is no clear dialogue in the film, as the female's voice has been muted to keep the song as a focal point, and this allows the audience to focus on the narrative. As the story progresses, the woman finds it increasingly difficult and resorts to prostitution, although the pace doesn't increase at any point in the video. At the end of the video, the woman is revealed to be taking drugs, and passes out after taking them, which is also a key prop, along with her sleeping bag and slightly eccentric make up, this enables the audience to understand that the video has preceeded the events right at the beginning if the video, and the beginning is therefore explained.