Seeking Permission

For seeking permission I have written a letter to send to Ed Sheeran's management company. Here is what I have sent to them and now am waiting for a reply to grant me permission so I won't face any copyright issues:

Rocket Music Management

1 Blythe Road
London
W14 0GH

Dear to whom it may concern,

I am currently doing A level media and for my coursework I must make a music video. I am writing to you as I am interested in using Ed Sheeran’s song Castle on the Hill and would like permission to use the song for my work.

I appreciate that the song is Ed Sheeran’s and your production company’s intertextual property, I can assure you that I have no intention of making any financial gain from using your track. I have chosen this song as I am a big fan and would like to make my own video for it.

Thank for taking the time to read this letter. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Ball

History of the Song

'Castle On The Hill' was written and performed by Ed Sheeran, released on the 6th January 2017. It was one of the first singles released from the new 'Divide' album along with 'Shape Of You'. When Ed Sheeran announced the release of this album it got a lot off attention on social media. This was because on 13th December 2015 the artiste announced a self-imposed hiatus from social media, due to him finding himself as he said "seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes". Exactly a year after his announcement on the 13th December 2016 he posted pictures of a blank blue square of various social media platforms showing his return and that new music was coming soon.

The song is about Ed Sheeran growing up with his friends in his home town Framlingham. The 'castle on the hill' that is repeatedly mentioned in the chorus of the song is referring to Framlingham Castle.

Brief/ Synopsis/ Pitch

For my music video I was inspired by the way in which the boyband One Direction presented a lot of their earlier music videos. I would like it to be quite fun as the song 'Castle On The Hill' is about growing up with your friends so it should be happy and remind people of their childhood. I want to have a group of teenage boys to play the artiste, Ed Sheeran, and his friends to stick with the narrative and the lyrics. The video will mainly be a montage of shots of the boys having fun around Hadleigh Castle with some lip sincing/ performance included to, enforcing that Ed Sheeran is reminiscing/ telling the story.

Choosing a Song

For my music video I had a few different songs in mind, which were;

• One Direction- Live While We're Young
• Ed Sheeran- Small Bump
• Sam Smith- Stay With Me
• James Arthur- Say You Won't Let Go
• Ed Sheeran- Castle On The Hill

One Direction- Live While We're Young:
I thought One Direction 'Live While We're Young' would be a good song to make the music video for as it is fun and upbeat so would be exciting making a music video for it. I had lots of different ideas that I could use for this song that include narrative and performance. One Direction were a very popular boyband with a very large fan base so the song would also be a popular one to use that has a large target market.

Ed Sheeran- Small Bump:
Ed Sheeran 'Small Bump' would be a good song to make the music video for as it is a song that tells a story so could be shown through narrative and performance to show the emotion in the song. I like this song as I like Ed Sheeran's music and it is a song that has a lot of meaning in the story it's telling showing a lot of emotion.

Sam Smith- Stay With Me
This is another song that I like so would enjoy making a music video for. It is a popular song and would also be good for putting some narrative into the video along with lip syncing from the artiste. In the end I decided to use this song for my prelim as I like how the music is filmed with the lip syncing walking down the road and was a good video to replicate.

James Arthur- Say You Won't Let Go
'Say You Won't Let Go' by James Arthur is one of my favourite songs and I thought this would be good to make a music video for as it tells a story so would be good to put narrative and performance in it, it is also quite an emotional song so a narrative that would go with that could be really effective and draw the viewer into the song to understand the lyrics even more. I have a lot ideas that could work for this song to add to the narrative.

Ed Sheeran- Castle On The Hill:
I have decided for my music video I am going to use the song 'Castle on the Hill' by Ed Sheeran. When I was trying to decide on a song for my video I listened to a lot of different artistes and came to the conclusion I wanted to do an Ed Sheeran song as he is one of my favorite artistes and I like that he writes his songs based on his own life/ experiences/ people he knows so the songs feel more personal. I also feel with his songs I could use some narrative and performance as his songs are normally telling a story. Ed Sheeran is also a very normal person, that appears as quite down to earth and relatable, which is another reason why I enjoy his music and feel the video I make could show his personality from the people I am having in it, so would be suitable of the artiste. I ended up deciding on 'Castle on the Hill' as it is quite an upbeat song of his that I think quite a fun and entertaining music video could be made for, which is the message I want to get across in my video.

Initial Ideas

Initial ideas mindmap:

Initial ideas moodboard:

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.