P2

Bloodstream, by Ed Sheeran

a) key functions of the roles within the production team

b) equipment used

c) skills needed to carry out each role

M1 Learners compare the contributions and responsibilities of each of the roles analysed, and their impact on the production process

Video Concept

This music video follows an 80s rockstar (played by Ray Liotta) going mad (implied to be due to drug use). The video features the rockstar drinking, standing on his roof, singing karaoke, burning his guitar, destroying half-finished glasses of alcohol, sitting along in his mansion, and riding a horse through the mansion. 

Ed Sheeran - Singer

Writing and performing the song, sometimes appearing for the videos as an actor, contributing to pitches and coming up with ideas himself occasionally.

The lyrics of the song were inspired from a time Sheeran was convinced to take MDMA at a friend's wedding party in Ibiza. The song is meant to reflect his experience at the time, through lyrics like "spinning" and "tell me when it kicks in". 

Sheeran and Nava have worked together on 9 music videos total at the time Bloodstream was released. Sheeran’s first major label video (You Need Me, I Don't Need You) was also shot by Nava. The video was mostly footage of a performer singing the lyrics in sign language. 

Sheeran says that it's never good for a music video to be too normal. That perspective is likely what made this video as insane and entertaining as it is. 

He always writes his own songs, excluding the few occasions where he has done collaborations with other artists or covers of other songs. He fills the role of both singer and song writer in this case. 

The skills he would need for his role as a singer are: written communication skills, verbal communication skills, creativity, good singing, confidence on stage, and lyric writing skills.

The equipment he would use for the role could include: microphones, audio editing software, 

Emil Nava - Director

Pitching ideas and creating treatments for the music video, instructing the actors and cameramen, working with the cinematographer to set up shots, working with the singer/song writer to come up with concepts for the video. 

Bloodstream was mostly Nava's idea.

The first concept Sheeran got for the video was Nava sending him a 7 second clip of Ray Liotta asleep on a horse. 

After that, Sheeran and Nava went back and forth on ideas until they landed on the concept of Liotta playing an 80s rockstar going mad around his house.

Some of the videos Sheeran and Nava have collaborated on had to be heavily edited due to them going to far, for example the music video for Sing which featured a puppet of Ed Sheeran as the protagonist. 

Nava stated half jokingly in an interview that he enjoys making music videos with Sheeran because he actually likes Sheeran's music. 

Their interview can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRdqPxYJuTU&ab_channel=EdSheeran

The skills he would need for his role as a director are: verbal communication skills, written communication skills, confidence, creativity, practical production, and problem solving. 

The equipment he would use for the role could include: cameras, clapboards, lights, and green screens.

Comparison

Both the director and singer roles are very involved in the production process of a music video, and both would have high authority on the final cut. As Sheeran not only sung but also wrote the music, all of the ideas the cast came up with would go through him, and according to him and Nava, they worked together on every pitch and idea until they landed on the right idea. There seems to be enough trust between them that once they decide on the direction of the video, Sheeran would leave the finer details to Nava. As the singer, he would likely be involved in both the pre-production and post production, for coming up with ideas and helping organise and create advertisements and tours featuring the song.

Whilst Sheeran is in control of the basic ideas in the video and the basic plan, Nava is in control of how the video itself will work. As the director, he will navigate the actors and cameramen in order to properly convey his vision through the camera. Nava is involved in the pre-production and production itself, from the creating the base concept to creating the video itself. 

Without Nava the video would be completely different. He was responsible for the idea of an 80s rockstar, so removing him from the project would remove that concept. There's a high chance that with a different director, the production team wouldn't have chosen the same idea Nava went for, so the entire video would have been led in a different direction. 

However, as Ed Sheeran was both the singer and the song writer, without him being involved in the production there would be no song or music video. The creation of the song is the only reason the video exists. If everyone on the production was there except Sheeran, then the video would inevitably be completely different, even if the music that replaced it was based off similar ideas and experiences. There is a small chances that Nava would still be led to the same ideas, but both agreed in their interview that they work together to construct the concepts for the videos they work on, shaping each one from different sides and perspectives, so without Sheeran the style and pacing of the video would definitely be completely different. 

Thinking Out Loud, another music video created by Sheeran and Nava, is the perfect example of how the pair work together. The video centres entirely around a dance between Sheeran and a professional dancer. During the pitching phase of the video's creation, Nava wanted to make the video "bigger", to take it beyond just the dance and make it larger than life, like with most of the other videos he has worked on with Sheeran, but Sheeran on the other hand decided it would be better to keep the video on just the dance. In the end, both agreed that the final result worked really well. Sheeran was a lot more involved in this video than in Bloodstream or You Need Me, I Don't Need You, as this time he was the main actor. For the video, he had to spend 5 hours each day learning to dance, then 2 hours doing promotional work, then a concert immediately afterwards. When they talked about it in their interview, he said it was "the most effort I put into anything I didn't love".