Music video analysis using laceys repertoire

of elements

CharactersThe video is manly a performance piece so its main character is Ed Sheeran singing and performing the song however the video also contains clips from the film the hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug so it has secondary characters from the film. The video also is about the writing and the recording of the song so many producers and editors. The genre of soft rock fits the song and the way it is recorded as in rock videos it is a stereotype of rock videos to have the main singer/lead guitarist playing in front of the camera with focus on him playing.

NarrativeThe video contains a fragmented narrative cutting between clips for the film, a performance piece of the singer and the process of editing and recording the song. The performance piece of the singer is in a structured order when it is shown as it follows the song, whereas the process of the writing and editing cuts between different days of the song being written and recorded even them setting up the studio at the start of the song. The film clips are also fragmented to give a tease of the film this makes the music video act as a trailer of some sort.

IconographyIconography in the video includes Ed Sheeran’s tattoos which could be link the genre of rock as it is a stereotype of a rock singer to be covered in tattoos to represent a more rebellious side. It is also another stereotype of rock music/ singers to play guitar within a video as the main instrument. Another iconic image is that of the recording studio it symbolises that he is a professional singer in the mainstream lime light as he uses state of the are equipment.

SettingThe video is mainly set in a recording studio. You can tell this because of the mise enscene within the video it is a lot of confined spaces and recording equipment with computers and turn tables. However the video also contains the setting of middle earth this is the setting of the hobbit trilogy. The performance part of the video is completely in black and white this links in with the genre of soft rock nicely because there is no hard colours in the video. During the video we also see the Ed Sheeran and the production team writing the song and recording the song this setting is the studio.

Technical and audio codesThroughout the performance of the video there is low key lighting paired with a black and white filter this complements the soft rock genre of the song by having soft lighting making it an easy watch on the eyes. Continuity editing allows the viewer to see the passage of time when they were writing, recording and creating the music video. The video is used using a handheld camera this generates a more immersive feel to the video allowing the audience to identify with the artist.