Textual Analysis- A Team

Ed Sheeran- A Team

Lyrics:
Ed Sheeran wrote this song after helping at a homeless shelter and hearing about a women called Angel that was helping there too. She was a heroin addict and took up prostitution to support her addiction. He called the song A Team to imply how she was addicted to class a drugs and showed that it caused her to be homeless and is struggling to live.

Music:
The song is quite a calm, slow pace and the only instrument you hear along with the singing is a guitar which is what Ed Sheeran is known for and goes with the contemporary style of the song. The slow pace also goes with the lyrics of the song as it is telling quite a sad and serious story, sop an upbeat style of music going along with this message would not be appropriate.

Genre and mise en scene:
The genre of this song, like all Ed Sheeran songs, is pop. The girl is wearing old looking clothes, liked ripped tights and an old hoodie, and has a sleeping bag wrapped round her at the start to show that she is homeless and doesn't have any money. The girl is quite pale, looking cold and ill from sleeping outside and taking the drugs, she is also fairly young as she is vulnerable and still quite young living alone without a home. The video is set in multiple locations such as, a park, down a high street, a dirty public toilet, the side of a road and in a hotel room, all locations where the girl goes following her life and what she has to do throughout her day. Even though the whole video is in black and white the lighting in the beginning is lighter than it is in the end to portray how her life is getting darker has it spirals more out of control.

Cinematography:
There are shaky camera movements to show her waking up to the shaky unstable hostility of the world and that she is unstable with no one to support her with her life. Lots of close ups of the girls face are used to clearly show her expression to see how she is feeling as it is a music video so she isn't speaking and her face is showing how she is feeling at those points in her life.

Editing:
The whole music video is in black and white to go with the mood of the song as it is quite serious and emotional, so the effect on it conveys that. The camera cuts in time with the music with quite long shots to go with the slower, more calm, pace of music.

Intertextuality:
There is no intertextuality in this video as it is telling a story that the artiste has heard himself about some he's met so is sharing her unique story, telling it through the song and video.

Narrative:
The music video is a narrative style following the life of a homeless girl who is driven to prostitution to support her drug addiction. The story shown in the video relates to the lyrics of the song and is used to show how life is for people with no money or a home and how hard life can be for them.

Star image/ brand:

Ed Sheeran is a big well known artist, known for being down to earth and liked by his massive fan base. He is represented as a kind and caring person in the music video when he buys a magazine from the homeless girl and sits to talk to her for a while.

Voyeurism:
The audience are watching the girls life unravel, on the journey from her being homeless at the start of the video, to getting a drug addiction, starting prostitution to make money for the drugs and how her life changed even more from those choices.

Textual Anyalysis- Chandelier

Sia- Chandelier

Lyrics:

The lyrics in the song represents the emptiness and pain you get with alcoholism and substance abuse, which is something that the artiste had gone through as when she was a child all her parents brought home was drink and she would then party to block out the pain. The phrase used "I'm gonna swing from the chandelier" is a metaphor for partying to the extreme or suggests the thought of suicide, saying things like "keep my glass full until morning light, 'cause I'm just holding on for tonight. Help me, I'm holding on for dear life, won't look down won't open my eyes".

Music:
The music goes with the video as the dancing is in time and the camera cuts in time with the beats to make smooth transitions that go with the tempo of the music. The style of the music is quite celebratory sounding which juxtaposes with the theme of the lyrics telling quite a sad story.

Genre and mise en scene:
The genre of Chandelier is pop and that is the usual genre of Sias' music. The video is set in a house that almost looks abandoned with the minimal furniture and old looking style, this goes with the message of the song and video, showing how she didn't grow up with much and it wasn't a very comfortable life. The lighting is quite dull with only neutral colours and lighting to go with the pain in the song as it is not about something happy and bright. The girl is wearing a wig which is the same as the one the artiste wears as she is meant to be playing Sia as a child. She is also wearing a skin coloured leotard, almost making her look naked, it seems this has been done deliberately to add a sense on vulnerability having her looking exposed.

Cinematography:
There are a lot of long shots to follow the dancing and at some points the camera is a bit slow following the dancing to make it look more manic. There are long shots to show the dancers whole body to see everything she is doing throughout the song. Close ups are used too, showing the facial expressions to add emotion and medium shots to show some things to pay attention to, like when the girl is rubbing her tummy, this is as the song is about the artistes life as a child in ways.

Editing:
There are mainly long takes used following the dancer round the house, with only a few cuts in places where they aren't very obvious to still seem like the camera hadn't cut, this is to show how she is moving from room to room and that no movements are missed in the clip. The long takes are extremely unusual for a music video as the camera is allowed to move round the house capturing her dancing in different areas.

Intertextuality:
There isn't any intertextuality in the music video as it is a unique, abstract video following a dance routine to go with the song

Narrative:

The video is quite abstract in the dance going with the song but in ways the narrative does go with the lyrics, as at points the dancer does actions that in a way shows the story being told, she performs the lyrics of the song through the medium of dance. For example, when the girl walks to the kitchen rubbing her tummy and sitting down with no food in front of her indicates how Sia felt as a child when her parents would just bring home alcohol a lot. The dancing itself is beautifully choreographed- combining grace and fluidity with some more unusual jerky and staccato movements suggesting the spontaneity of a child.

Performance:
There isn't performance in the way that it has the artiste in the video or with lip sincing but the performance is the girl dancing as at points she looks at the camera and how she curtsies and the end looks like she was performing.

Star image/ the brand:
Even though Sia is not in the video the song and the video portrays the pain she had been through and using a child, wearing a wig like the one she wears, represents that child is her and the audience get an insight of what she had been through, being shown in quite an abstract way.

Voyeurism:
The audience are watching an abstract dance that in parts relates to the video to present the way the artiste Sia felt growing up as a child in her life. We are watching her perform seemingly without her knowledge making the video very voyeuristic until the end when she curtsies to the camera, suggesting she knew we were watching the whole time, perhaps she had been manipulating us to see what she wanted us to see about her life.

Music Video Theory

Music Video Theory

Codes and Conventions of the Pop Genre

Codes and conventions:

• Upbeat, catchy, fast pace music
• Bright, colourful clothes
• Happy
• Positive
• Youth
• Current
• Lots of close ups of the artiste

The pop genre is mainly upbeat, catchy music that is very popular. Pop artistes are fashionable and trend setters that their fans look up to, admire and want to be like.

Choosing a Genre

After watching a lot of music videos of a variety of different genres, I came to the conclusion that my music video is going to be for a song in the pop genre.

I decided this because it is a genre that I like and mostly listen to/ watch music videos for, so I have a better understanding of what would be involved for that type of music video to suit the genre.

Also, I think a lot of pop music is lively and the videos to go with them are quite fun and entertaining to watch, which is what I want my music video to be like so this genre is perfect. 

Favourite Music Video

Ed Sheeran- Perfect

I love music videos with a gripping narrative that shows the story the song is telling and gives more of an insight into the artiste. My favourite music video is 'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran. It is my favourite firstly because the song is one of my favourite songs, so I was looking forward to having a video to go with it with my favourite artiste. Also, I think it is a nice video to watch as an escape as you get involved with the narrative while it tells a story accompanied by the song and have very have feelings with it. The video represents the artiste very well too showing his loving and emotional side which makes you feel like you know him more as a person and can relate to what he is feeling or have empathy.

Codes and Conventions of a Music Video

The conventions of a music video are;

• Combines film and music
• Lip syncing
• Costume changes
• Artiste represented
• Lots of locations
• Enhances the image of the artist
• Edits that match the music
• Reflects the ideology of the genre
• Narrative/ performance/ abstract/ mixture

Music videos don't follow the same strict rules that films and TV programs have to follow, it is a lot more free to break camera rules, being creative and different in the way it is filmed and edited.

There are three types of music video; narrative, performance and abstract. Narrative is where the video tells a story that is often related to the lyrics in the song and often the artiste will appear acting in the video. There is also performance where the artiste performs the song either as a live performance on stage or they just sing to the camera. Then there is abstract music videos which features an abstract interpretation of the music and what appears in the video is unrelated to the music. Most music videos are usually a mixture of two of these types of music videos.