Narrative Case study: Ed Sheeran The A teamÂ
Narrative Techniques
Narrative techniques are used through out a wide array of different music videos whether they are mainstream or niche. There are a broad collection of narrative techniques that are used to enhance the music video's story which could influence an audience. They also make the music video more interesting and helps to involve the audience with the story.
Information about The A Team and Ed Sheeran Ed Sheeran is a British singer-songwriter who is originally from Framlingham in Suffolk. He was made 'famous' in 2011 although he had been performing since 2004. Although he became part of the mainstream culture in 2011, he was originally an underground artist who performed in places such as Norwich in all the local pubs. The song 'the A team' was released in 2011 and it is off his first album +. Many different artists have covered the song such as Birdy and the band Boyce avenue. The A team is a folk ballad but due to commercialization of the song it has become known as a mainstream pop ballad. The song reached the top 10 in the UK, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Israel, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands. It also won Best British single in the brit awards in 2012. In 2011 The A Team had sold 801,000 singles. 801,000 copies.801,000 copies.801,000 copies.
Narrative of the A team The narrative of Ed Sheeran's music video for The A team is a linear narrative which is when the story of the music video is told in a specific order which is generally chronological. In The A team the story is told in a chronological order with a few other narrative techniques included to make it intriguing and so it can develop the story for the audience to understand. These two pictures are the first and the last shot of the music video which shows that it isn't a circular narrative but the two shots used are slightly different. The first shot is a slight high angle which exhibits the characters emotion but the last shot is a low angle which displays the moving sky and the overlapped video of the female character singing.
Flashbacks The A team music video uses Flashbacks to display the main female characters life before she passed away. Flashbacks are examples of memories from the past which gives context to the video and often the lyrics. The flashback is made present by the camera staying in the same position but it does un-focus the shot to define to the audience that it is a flashback and that they aren't in present time. The camera also zooms out to demonstrate to the audience the main female character which also helps to develop the story and give the audience some context as to the shot before which is the other female character being upset. This song is an example of one of Goodwin's theories which is the visuals linking to the lyrics. The video doesn't use any flashforwards as they want the audience to focus on the tragic hero which is the females life and struggles.
Impressionist narrative The music video can be linked to part of Goodwin's theory which states that there is a link between visuals and the lyrics. This also relates to an impressionist narrative which is featured in Ed Sheeran's music video for A team. An example of this is when in the lyrics it talks about paying rent which previously in the video, the audience observes that the main character is homeless and sleeping rough. This, although the lyrics and visuals aren't at the same time still has some relation to each other.
Repetition Repetition in this music video is used a select few times throughout to develop the story and to help the audience to understand it. An example of this is 0:13 and at 4:34. Although these shots aren't the exact same they do have the same composition and the same shot type which is a mid shot. These two factors help to display the character and the effects of what she has done to herself. By choosing to use repetition in the video it reinforces the effects and reminds the audience of the beginning of the video which relates to the ending. This could also be known as a circular narrative which means that it starts at one shot and then returns to that shot at the end of the video. The two aforementioned shots are an example of these even though they aren't at the very beginning of the video and the very end it does come full circle in the story and does end the story in the video.
Character types  There is only one character mainly involved in the whole video which is the female protagonist. From the video the audience can tell that she is quite young and also hopeless.  You can also tell that she is an antagonist to herself as she involves herself in activities such as drug taking and prostitution although throughout the video the audience would perceive her as broken and misunderstood as well as someone who clearly needed help she is the reason for her own downfall and ultimately her death
ď‚š In Ed Sheeran's Music video for The A team it uses a wide variety of narrative techniques but some of these are fairly similar. These help to establish the storyÂ