Narrative Ed Sheeran: A Team First shot: looking down on herself (from THE END of the video Flash forward).

. Wakes up on a park bench: sleeping rough. She walks through the park, looking happy but a bit out of it.

Has a minor breakdown crying and whatnot.

Evening gets a drink, watches life go by.

Walking through town, selling magazines (no ones really buying them.

In front of mirror, putting on makeup, dressing seductively.

Waiting in a car park gets into a car with a stranger

They go back to his hotel room, she gets paid and they have sex.

Falls onto floor in position we saw at the beginning of video (gone full circle)

Goes to apartment takes drugs.

Afterwards, buys drugs with the money he gave her.

Narrative Theory. Todorovs theory: a equilibrium, disruption, re-equilibrium. Equilibrium Waking up on a park bench, homeless life, medium shot. Disruption Break down of character, realizing shes needs the drugs, close up. Continues to get dressed up and gets money from prostitution. Re-Equilibrium Questionable death/passing out from the drugs.

Barthes Enigma codes: narrative raises questions we want answering: Is she dead of alive? Why is she homeless? Why is she getting dressed up? Will she get in the mans car? What does she need the money for? How long has she lived like this? Where is the apartment? Is it hers? Why was she on a bench then? The video answers some of the questions eg: she gets dressed up to go with the man in the car. The music itself answers others eg: been this way since 18. However, not all questions are answered. For example we do not find out what happens to her at the end or where she takes the drugs. Propps theory: Hero presented is the female in the music video (actor used fragile links to snowflakes lyric - looking, pale, heavy eye make-up implying lost youth and rough life style). She has a mission, also, to escape the hold that drugs have on her however her attempts fail and ends up back on the drugs. Other characters include man who drives the car/man she has sex with could be an implied villain however later on in the video we see that the money he gives her is used in order to buy drugs, showing the audience that really the drugs are considered the villain and its because of them that our hero is in this state (basically telling the audience that drugs are bad). Levi Straus: Binary opposites presented in the video are the protagonists life and every day life (as we see in a series of medium and long shots of regular peoples life, these were sped up during post production to show how she is watching life go by). Also. her want to not be on the drugs versus drugs having a hold on her and her having to turn to prostitution to get money when she obviously doesnt want to (crying before and afterwards.)

Summary We found that all four narrative theories are present in the video, though Propps and Levi-Strausss arent as obvious. The reason these theories have been used is to enhance the lyrics and the message within the song, for example: we hear the lyrics crumbling like pastries which enhances the closes up on the female actress breaking down, or crumbling. We feel that these theories have been included because without them, the video would not make as such sense and would therefore loose the interest of the audience as it would not be what they expects/the same pattern. When we create our own media product, we would have to keep in mind the narrative theories and their importance to our video, especially if we choose to do a narrative video with all the narrative theories. We would have to be sure to include Binary Opposites in order to create some kind of conflict, hero and villain presented as people or states as well as enigma codes to keep the audience interested. A beginning, middle and end would need to be present in order to give the audience what they are expecting. Also, we should consider the message within the lyrics of the song and how that affects the narrative of the video and therefore the theories used.