"Small Bump" Ed Sheeran music video analysis

Act: Ed Sheeran

Track: Small bump

Genre: Pop Folk Acoustic

Audience: 15+

 

Relationship between visuals and lyrics:  The song is about a miscarriage that happened 4 months into the pregnancy. It seems to me that the verses are praying that the baby will survive and the video shows Sheeran sitting in the waiting room of a hospital, perhaps waiting for his wife or girlfriend come out of one of the rooms with good or bad news. You can see with the body language that he is very nervous in the video which again could mean that he is worried about a miscarriage possibly occurring or that his wife/girlfriend is in intensive care. The director has made this video quite straightforward due to the fact that the whole thing is filmed in one shot so this makes the video tell the audience exactly what the song is about.

FX: The main special effect that I can spot in this music video is the people moving around the hospital and then suddenly fading out of the picture. This occurs nearly throughout the entire video. I think that it’s representing the idea of time being a serious issue in this case. The fact that Sheeran is the only one not fading out suggests that he is waiting for an extremely long time and this can make the video come across as more emotional.

Mise en scene: The setting of the video in terms of location is quite standard if you compare it to what the song is about. There isn’t any magical or supernatural element to it which obviously makes the video more authentic and realistic. The costume is much the same as it is what you would expect to have in a video like this one.

Shots: There isn’t a huge variety of shots in this video because the entire video is in one shot where the camera pans and zooms at different times. I think that the director has purposely made it look like this because it makes everything feel lengthy, and that time is dragging on.