"Give me love" Ed Sheeran music video analysis

Act: Ed Sheeran

Track: Give me love

Genre: Pop Folk Acoustic

Year: 2011

Relationship between visuals and lyrics: From what I can make out of this video, it possesses quite a clear narrative. The story seems to be about cupid (the girl) giving love to others, however she falls into a state of sadness due to the fact that she is giving love to other people but she is unable to find love herself. One of the first scenes of the video shows cupid looking at a couple standing together and at that very moment, Sheeran sings “because lately I’ve been waking up alone” which suggests her loneliness and her lust for a lover herself as she has nobody by her side but is constantly creating relationships for other people.

Mise en scene: The costume that the director has decided to use in this video comes across as quite magical due to the fact that the video is portraying cupid giving love to others. This gives the video more of a supernatural kind of feeling as if to say that she may be from the heavens and this definitely gives the video an exciting or intriguing theme. The makeup on her is also in a way slightly gothic but in a happy and romantic sort of way (very difficult to describe). This is perhaps to tell the audience that she is in between the emotions of sadness and happiness but is finding it difficult to see how she actually feels. The main prop utilised is the bow and arrow. This is obviously a very important and iconic prop as it is what cupid would be expected to possess. There is also a scene of Sheeran sitting in a café drinking a cup of coffee on his own (could also suggest him feeling lonely) and whilst he sits there he’s turning the spoon in the cup as if he is feeling pensive about a particular subject or somebody he loves. The cup of coffee shows this off perfectly.

Male gaze: There is a definite form of male gaze portrayed in the video, however unlike other videos such as “Summer” by Calvin Harris, the male gaze is somewhat beautiful and not provocative like in other music videos.

Shots: The video starts off with mid to close up shot of a policeman and I think that this was used because the director wanted to perhaps make it clear to the audience that the policeman is a character of some importance so the mid to close up shot of him introduces him perfectly to the people watching the video. Furthermore there are a number of zooms and other close up shots of her face (to show her emotions to the audience). The zooms are used because I think the director intended to make the audience feel like they are in the scene with her thus also possibly simultaneously making them feel her emotions.