Synaesthesia

Definition: The process of picturing sounds in the minds eye
A music video is...
'... a film that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations'
Andrew Goodwin - Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992)

Ed Sheeran - Thinking out loud

An English singer-songwriter and musician. In 2012 Ed Sheeran won two Brit Awards for ‘Best British Male Solo Artist’ and ‘British Breakthrough Artist’. He is known for doing slow music that usually driven by love. His popularity abroad began in 2012, in the US he made a guest appearance on Taylor Swift’s fourth studio album, ‘Red’ and wrote songs for One Direction.

Record label:

He is signed to Asylum Records. Asylum Records is an American record label founded in 1971 by David Green and partner Elliot Roberts. The song was produced by Jake Gosling, the choreography for the dance in the music video was by Nappytabs and Ed had training help from Paul Karmiryan.

Narrative and performance:

‘Thinking Out Loud’ has a clear narrative of love. Not only does the music video have a narrative of love but it is also performance based. Although there is an element of performance it isn’t performance in the sense that Ed Sheeran is performing his song, it is a different kind of performance as he is performing a romantic dance with a women, this then reinforces the narrative of love.

Mise en scene:

This music video is shot in a studio which is made to look like a dance studio and has special lighting and spot lights that follow them around the floor when they are dancing and at one point the two spot lights go together and make a love heart over them which shows that they are in love and reinforces the narrative of love. There is only one setting, it is in a studio and is made to look very romantic.

Costume and makeup:

Throughout the music video, both Ed and his dance partner wear just one outfit. Ed is wearing a waistcoat suit and the woman is wearing a pretty dress. These costumes reinforce the idea of romance as they are very smart and shows that they have made an effort to look good for each other.

Props:

There isn’t any obvious props, but you could say that would woman is a prop in a way. I say this because having her there to dance with him, helps Ed to get the narrative of love across to the audience.

Lighting:

The lighting of the video is very cleverly done. Throughout the whole video the two of them both have a spot light on them. Having a spot light brings across the idea of them being professional dancers as during dance shows the main people usually have spot lights on them. At one point when they are laying on the floor together, the two spot lights come together and make a hart over them, again this reinforces the narrative of love and romance.

Camera Work:

The video starts off with a wide shot of the girl dancing in front of a red curtain. The shot then fades out and back into a close up of the girl’s body showing that she is wearing a pretty dress, as she is walking in the camera pans out to show the whole of her. A wide shot is used to show them looking at each other with spot lights on them both, as they walk I closer to each other the camera zooms in and gets closet to them, it is imitating their movements. When they are dancing the camera is constantly moving to imitate their movements, it is never still as they are always moving around the dance floor. When the pace of the dance slows down so does the camera movements. When they are laying on the floor together there is a birds eye view shot to show that the light is making a heart around them.