The female story in Ed sheeran's 'The A team' is based around a true story about a male artist who met a homeless woman at a homeless shelter. The video was released in 2011 as part of Ed's album 'plus'. Ed doesn't perform in the video and the main protagonist is a young woman. By having the woman as the protagonist, it allows the audience to engage more in the video, as in some cases she is relatable. The angle taken on the video also allows the audience to understand the song as what happens in the video strongly correlates with the lyrics of the song.
On of the first, opening shots is of the female protagonist lying dead at the feet of another woman. The other woman is hysterically crying and obviously upset by the protagonists death. The shot is a high angled close up of the womans face. Her eyes are wide open, which suggests that the death was sudden. It also isn't obvious that she is dead, however as the audience we do presume that the woman is dead. Before this shot there is a shot of the body with the crying woman at the side. Then this shot turns into the high angled close up. The woman is staring blank at the camera with a black background and the noise of birds chirping. This scene and series of shots project a cold feeling towards the video and intrigue the audience into wanted to know how this woman died. 
We then see a long establishing shot of the girl who is seen dead in the previous shot, asleep on a bench. This shows the audience or suggests that this girl is homeless. The fact that she is sleeping on a bench is accompanied by her smudged makeup and ripped clothes, again showing she is poor/homeless. This shot shows how lonely the girl is. The fact that she is lying on a bench in the middle of an open area suggests that she has no one, that she is taken on the world alone. All of the shots are in black and white which immediately sets the tone of the video as dark and sad. This shot is the beginning of the story behind the girls death. 
The shot then goes on to follow the protagonist as she walks through what seems to be a park in a city. As she moves through the area it becomes apparent that she enjoys the little things in life and that others take these things for granted. She walks through touching the trees and smiling. The birds that have gathered and the sun in the sky bring her pleasure. She looks to the sky enjoying the light and the feeling of the sun on her skin. The shot itself is a tracking of the girl in a hand held style. this allows the audience to feel as though they are they forming a stronger relationship with the character.
This shot of the girl is from the back of her, it is a low shot and shows her with her arms high, almost angel-like which a running theme throughout the song. The shot also shows the sky which could suggest heaven, again following the angelic theme. She looks up at the sky, still appreciating the little things. The idea of the woman being appreciative of the world could show that it takes the loss of everything to appreciate what you have.
The shots then move to when she is in the city. This shot is a very low angled shot and shows the protagonist again looking to the sky; heaven. There is also a ring straight above her head which again signifies that she is an angel and therefore foreshadowing her death. The fact that the protagonist its played by a woman enforces the stereotype that she is vulnerable. This reinforces the sympathy for the character and makes her seem more delicate.
She then moves through the city and comes across a flower stand. The shot of her her is an establishing long shot of her stood in the streets staring at the flowers again appreciating the little things (flowers). As she is stood her looking at the flowers she is highlighted in a white light. This white light makes her stand out from everyone else and again maintains this idea of her being an angel.
The scene then moves onto the protagonist stood, with her hood up looking out onto the traffic of the city. She stands with her blanket over her shoulder, reinforcing her poverty. The traffic in the background is blurred and the camera focuses on her. This creates a clear focus on the character and draws all attention to her. Throughout the video the activities and places the character does are very simplistic. This shows that she doesn't have a place to go and that her life consists of floating; she enjoys the little things in life.
The woman then moves to be sat at the side of the street. This shot is a time lapse. When looking at this scene, there are people walking past, ignoring her sat there at the side of the road. Throughout this shot she hardly moves and looks as though she is asking for money. However, the fact that she doesn't move to speak, suggests that she isn't begging. The light which has been on her for a lot of the video isn't on her in this shot, she is very dark and you can hardly make out her face.
The video then moves to a close up shot of the previous scene. In this shot the girl is seen crying. She sits with her face on hand and her eyes are watery. There is a white light which hits the right side of her face, highlighting the tears. Here you see that her makeup is smudged down her face, and that she wears hooped earrings. This could suggest an alternative life for the woman or that there is something else going on. This foreshadows later events of the video as hooped earrings are an accessory highly associated with prostitution. Something which i also noticed in this shot is that the white light highlights her face which is tired and worn, which could refer to the later drug use, seen in the video.
The protagonist is then seen in a building or what seems to be an apartment, which makes the audience question why she stays on the streets if the apartment was hers. Alternatively it could not be hers. The shot here is of her in the mirror cleaning herself up. The shot itself is high angled. The idea of this shot could be that it is a point of view shot from the girl looking down from heaven. As she cleans herself up in the scene, she puts on dark eye makeup and red lipstick. She remains wearing her hooped earrings and goes on to wear a long coat. All of these aspects are very suggestive of the stereotypes of prostitution.
The video then shows her stood at the side of the road and gets into a passing car. The man driving the car takes the girl back to a very luxurious place, which could be his home or a hotel. The protagonist then sleeps with the man for money. In this shot the males hand is tracked as he moves it up the girls leg. She wears fishnets which is another stereotype of prostitutes, however hers are seen with holes over them, reinforcing her poverty. The mans hands are very worn and old in comparison to the girl. As they lay in bed together the protagonist is seen crying. This shows that what she is doing isnt because she wants to but because she has to.
The next shot is of the girl using the money she has just got from sleeping with the man to buy drugs. The shot shows the girl's hand in the white light, shown commonly through the video, in contrast to the dealer's hand which is in black. In this part the audience could lose the sympathy which they have for her throughout the video as she is wasting money on drugs. Alternatively, they could feel sorry that her form of happiness comes in drugs. The whole of the video strongly fits the stereotype of what comes with homelessness.
Back at the apartment shown in previous scenes , the girl is seen taking the drugs she has just bought. As she prepares to take them she lights candles and clears the room. She does this all very quickly which suggests desperation for the drugs. The shot itself shows her side on with a pipe near to her mouth and a lighter heating it at the end. The majority of the frame is blurred out, even her face is slightly blurred, and is very focused on the flame from the lighter. This could suggest that the drugs are a big part of her life but also that they are a big part of the story of how she dies.
The final shot of the video is her lying on the floor the same as she is in the first shot. Her eyes are open and she is staring up at the camera. The white light which has followed her throughout the video is basically gone accept from a slight light o the left side of her face. This could show her fading away. The rest of the frame is very black and dominated by darkness.
In conclusion to my analysis of Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team', I have gathered and learnt many things which I would like to use in my own project. For example, the time lapse is something i thought worked very effectively in the video. It really got the message across and showed how long the protagonist had been there. I want to use this in my own video as a representative of time. Another thing I liked from this video is the narrative. I think that I will use a similar kind of story line in my video. The fact that the video was in black and white is something I liked as well as I think it set the tone of the video. In my own video I think I will use black and white, however in sections instead of all the was through. I think this video analysis has been very helpful in getting ideas for my own video.
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