Ed Sheeran Music Video AnalysisGIVE ME LOVE

The video starts with the sound of sirens in the distance getting closer and a high angle shot of what appears to be a dead girl with an arrow in her neck. On her back appears to be a set of white wings. Voices can be heard on the radio as we cut to a wide shot of a policeman walking to the scene and the camera pans around behind him to reveal the scene as the music begins.

At this point the music cuts to the beat of a drum and the singing begins. In this shot the camera pans around the wall to reveal the girl At this point she does not have the wings she has in the opening shot but she is wearing the same clothing. The first words of the of the song are “Give me love” which suggest she is search of love and dies looking for it. Also in further shots we see the girl watching on at people who appear to be in love as the lyrics “Cause lately I've been waking up alone” are sung. This suggests the girl knows what she wants but is too scared or not capable of having it.

We see a close up of the girl sat on a mattress in an empty room. The room has bare stone walls and floorboards on the floor, adding to the sense of loneliness and need. The girls room is an accurate representation of her life, being empty, lonely looking like a struggle. There is also a picture of a man and woman kissing, suggesting she is jealous of other peoples love and by having it on the wall she is showing what she wants.

After this we are shown a wide shot sat on the same mattress. This reinforces the sense of loneliness because the shot reveals she is alone in the room. Furthermore, the only light in the room is coming from a small lamp, whilst the rest of the room and the back fade into darkness. This makes it look like the darkness is taking over as her feelings of loneliness and her need of love become negative to the point of hateful jealousy.

The wide shot of the girl in the café is taken from outside of it, suggesting that the glass of the window is some sort of barrier between the audience and the girl meaning there is nothing they can do to help her. In this shot the café appears to be empty, as was the room she was sat in for previous shots, suggesting that wherever she goes loneliness follows her and all she wants is to escape it.

There is a potential POV shot looking towards two wooden figures which have been positioned in a way which suggests love between them, something the girl doesn’t have and clearly pretends she does using these figures. At this point the lyrics read “I just want to hold you” which relate back to Goodwin's theory of the lyrics sharing meaning with the video. The way she uses the figures is similar to the way a child would play with a doll, especially for young girls who use dolls to create love in the same way the girl does in the video.

During the chorus the girl begins scratch at her back in various places, almost like she is physically trying escape the world she is in. She pulls out a feather from her back which begins to suggest that she is not of this world.

We are shown a blurred long shot of the girl who now has wings, this supports my idea of her not being not being of this world, which is why she is lonely or she may already be dead which is why walks around unnoticed by anyone. After we taken back to a wide shot of the café where she is still alone. The camera pans to reveal Ed Sheeran also sitting alone at another table, where he appears to be acting in a similar way to the girl. He does not really have any facial expression like the girl and because of this the viewer had a chance to relate to him in this video.

Shortly after the scene moves to the girl with mid-close up of her holding the two wooden figures but only really looking at one of them, and then placing the other down on the table. This suggests she is beginning to accept the fact that she is alone and has decided to stop dreaming about having love.

We see a wide shot of the girl aiming a bow and arrow through a door, and then from another perspective we see the girl aiming at someone down a tunnel. Th shot then turns to a wide shot of the boy walking past a girl in the same tunnel, the girl shoots the arrow at the boy and a red mist appears where the arrow hits, suddenly he falls in love with the girl. This also suggests there is a sort of magic involved.

After we see a shot of the same two people in the tunnel kissing. This is almost identical to the story of Cupid with his arrows.

This scene starts with an extreme long shot of the girl standing outside of a building alone. In this shot she looks lifeless as she stands still on the pavement just looking ahead. We then see standing in the same tunnel again as the chorus plays, it is a long shot and shows her to be standing in almost the exact same spot as the girl who fell in love with the boy. This is suggestive to say that she is jealous of the love the girl found and wishes she could swap places with her.

In the next shots we are shown a mid shot of the girl standing on top of the building she was just standing outside of. Soon after the girl begins to lead forward with no emotion showing, suggesting that the absence and inability of love has driven her to become suicidal.

There is an over-the-shoulder shot of her watching a small group of people, probably friends talking. It then converts to a medium shot of the group as the boy closest to the girl is struck with an arrow, he then falls in love like other victims of the girl.

Then there is a shot of the girl holding one of the two wooden figures while the other has been thrown away, suggesting she is no longer looking for love and has accepted reality.

The shot then goes back to the group of people, where the second guy gets struck with an arrow and falls in love with the same girl his friend does, and pushes him aside. This could mean that instead of creating love now, the girl has decided to create conflict between two friends by putting a girl between them.

At this point the music begins to get louder as she starts walking down a darkened corridor which gives off an empty feeling.

There is a close up of the girls hand with and arrow in it, she is holding it like an knife and looks like she is approaching some more people. This time however her intentions seem more violent a she approaches the people trying to hide her weapon.

The girl then begins to drift between crowds of people without them noticing as if she isn’t even there. The scene looks like some sort of club, with people dancing around happily which increases her jealousy, as she strokes the tip of the arrow against people in a threatening way.

In addition to this, the lighting around her is constantly dim and quite bleak, she bowing her head as if to hide it, which shows how she has developed from looking for love to wanting to hide in harmony with the way the music builds up to a more dramatic and lively tone as the words “Give me love” are shouted.

There are cut-to-beat shots which constantly alternate between striking people with her arrow and close ups of her dancing alone in a crowd. Whilst she is dancing her eyes are closed meaning she might in a daydream where she is with friends or loved ones. Her moves are very slow and smooth and challenge theory's from Andrew Goodwin and Laura Mulvey about women being sexual objects

There are some very unnatural shots of her in a long, wide tunnel of her flickering in and out of the shot in different places at the same time, while she remains still in the centre of the shot. She once again alone but the flashing images of herself suddenly make it feel she isn’t anymore.

The words “my my, my, my,my,my give me love, lover” continuously repeat, and as they are repeated we see the girl stab people with her arrow giving them love freely.

Once the music hits a climax and the words “my,my,my,my oh give me love” are repeated, we are taken back to the beginning of the video where the policeman is walking towards the dead girl. We see him walk into the room and kneel at her body, as this happens there is a revers shot as the camera switches to the girl and the arrow she holds turns into the same red mist that happens when she shoots someone. At this point her eyes open and there is a blurry shot of the policeman looking at her form her point of view. This suggests that the girl who has been searching for love and giving it out freely, has now found her own love in the policeman.

TheoristsDuring the video there are two shots of Ed Sheeran, both times he is sat by himself in a café and doesn’t impact the story. This means that the video for “Give me love” does not agree with Goodwin's theory of there being lots of shots of the singer in a music video. On the other there are several cut-to-beat shots, which are accepted as part of Andrew Goodwin's music video theory.

Another theory is challenged in this music video, that is the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey, as there is no obvious sexualisation of the characters in anyway, the connections made with the character are purely emotional throughout.