Give Me Love- Ed Sheeran

This music video has elements of a narrative video. The most commonly used theme within narrative videos is love. Give me love is based around love, hence the title. The music video shows a girl acting as cupid, with love arrows, again representing this theme. The video also tells some sort of story, as we see the girl throughout the video shooting arrows at strangers to make them fall in love, and we get the impression that she is depressed, or trying to find love. The artist is only featured twice throughout the music video which is very uncommon in many modern pop music videos.

Relationship between the visuals and the lyrics

• The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in this particular music video has been specifically done to enhance the meaning behind the song. The artist himself said this about the song: "It's about a relationship that fell apart and you're asking for it to be put back together. Most people get to a point where they drink themselves into a dark corner in that situation. It's that point of view.” This is where we can then see why the artist chose to use the imagery of cupid as a motif throughout the video. He is trying to tell the story and closely link the lyrics ‘give a little time to me, we’ll work it out’ back to the idea of cupid being able to fix relationships and bring people back together. I think that the narrative as a whole is very clever and the visuals are just there to enhance the deeper meaning to the lyrics so the audience can see what the artist is really trying to say.

Genre

• This is a pop song and therefore the song itself follows quite closely to the conventions that are featured in many pop songs. As a genre, pop music is extremely eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Such elements include generally short to medium-length songs, written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), as well as the common repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and hooks. This song follows this musical structure.

• In terms of the visuals, it doesn’t necessarily fit in with the common conventions of a pop music video where the lighting is bright and the use of colour creates a happy atmosphere. Instead there is a lot of low lighting used that fits nicely with the slow pace of the song

• This video begins with a medium shot of a female who appears to have an arrow in her neck, surrounded by blood, which is a connotation of death or injury. There are diegetic sounds of police sirens over this shot, then carrying over to the next shot which is a medium shot of a police officer, which suggests that a tragedy is going to happen, which relates to the meaning of the song and also what happens at the end of the video. The story then goes backwards in time to how it all started, as it shows the female character looking around a brick wall and the song begins to play. There is then a cut to an extreme long shot of a man and a woman kissing, implying that the song is about love, which is a very common theme within pop videos.

• There is then a cut to a medium close up shot of the female looking quite upset and depressed. She is wearing a white vest top and has bleach blonde hair, emphasising an idea of innocence and purity, which is a stereotypical view of a young female character in a pop video. It then cuts to two photographs on the wall, one of which has two people kissing on it, relating back to the theme of love. Through the use of low key lighting, a gritty feel is created, and the positioning of the female character within this long shot suggests she is very lonely and isolated from the world. This gives off a sense of realism, and shows what it is like for some people in the world, which is not something a pop video usually does, therefore breaking the conventions. There are then various shots of the female character, showing her facial expressions which suggest she is very sad.

• The video then cuts to a number of different medium close up shots of what looks like the female trying the scratch or hurt herself. She then pulls a feather from inside her back and holds it up. The feather is white, which implies this idea of innocence; however it is covered in blood, which relates back to the idea of a tragedy or some sort of injury. However, it then cuts to a long shot of the girl standing in a spotlight with a pair of wings. The low key lighting surrounding the spotlight on the female makes this shot more contrasting and clear, informing the audience that she has wings. The wings represent an angel and heaven, re-emphasising the innocence. There is then a similar shot to this with the girl standing in the street, and then a cut to her sat at a table alone in a cafe. It then cuts to a medium long shot of Ed Sheeran, the actual artist of the song, sat at a table in the same cafe as the female character.

•There are two shots in which show numerous tools that could be harmful, suggesting that some sort of tragedy is going to happen. There is then a shot of two wooden models holding hands, emphasising the theme of love in a very different way compared to other pop videos.

• There are then a few shots of different people being shot by the arrows, and desperately wanting to find love with whomever they see first, resembling the myth of cupid’s love arrows. There is then a shot of the female standing at the side of a railway waiting for an oncoming train, and this cuts to a shot of the female on the train, which has been done to make the audience aware that she is travelling further away to do her job cupid.

• As the songs begins to climax and the editing pace picks up, there are many close up shots of different people, and then the protagonist beings to stab arrows into their backs, causing them to fall in love with whoever they see first. There is a blue tint in the lighting in this sequence, giving off a gritty feel, adding to the realism of the video. There are not many pop music videos that show verisimilitude, so this breaks the conventions of the pop genre. There are then many close ups of the female characters face and also various shots of people dancing and also being stabbed by the arrows, leading them to kissing each other, which is also captured too. The editing in this sequence is fast paced, which seems like time is being fast forwarded, creating a hectic vibe.

• Once the climax has ended, and the music calms down again, there is a close up profile shot of the female holding an arrow to her throat. It then cuts back to how the video begun, with police cars and the same police officer as before. The next shot is the same as the opening shot, however she opens her eyes quickly and the arrow disappears, followed by a blurred point of view shot of the police officer, suggesting she has found her love, showing that the equilibrium has been restored.

• This is mainly a narrative video; however it has features of a time disordered structure, as the narrative goes back in time at the beginning, without sign posting this for the audience, which is an unconventional feature of this genre.

Promotional Media

How this will influence my own work

• I love the colour enhancement that has been used on the footage in this video, it adds to the overall atmosphere of the video and gives the shots a more emotional look

• I also love the narrative of the whole video and the twist on the normal idea of who cupid is, the storyline doesn’t focus on the artist themselves and therefore goes against the idea of the star image and that the video is only used to promote the artist and I like this

• I also like some of the slower paced editing used in this video, it connects well with the audience and makes you listens to the words that are being sung more than just focusing on the visuals.