"Eyes Closed" was the first of the fourteen music videos recently released as part of the new album 'Subtract', by Ed Sheeran. This was also the first visual piece associated with the work released to the public and as such, generated much anticipation and discussion around the unreleased new music to follow. Upon it's release it quickly scaled charts and gained millions of views globally. In addition to it's reach on digital platforms, "Eye's Closed" also focusses around relatable, emotional themes of overcoming sadness, self-consciousness and grief that are portrayed in this music video.

Going into the filming of "Eyes Closed" the goal was to portray Ed as the saddened, lonesome main character, amongst crowds and people carrying on joyously around him. As the lyrics express what he's truly feeling, a character was created to physically portray these emotions and to represent his sadness that sticks with him throughout. The video mostly takes place at night around a local bar with a few other cast/background. We see Ed dancing alone amongst the crowd before leaving the scene to begin strolling down various streets and neighborhoods. By the end of the video, Ed stands alone on a dock covered by the moonlight where for the first time, he turns to face his own monster. By this point also we've seen other people's sadness monsters visible, expressing that this is a universal experience felt by others as well.

The strategy and implementation of "Eyes Closed" was ultimately that it would tie in to the themes and concepts of the entire 'Subtract' album, as the artists intention was to release a visual album as a whole. With this being the first piece to premier from that project, the ideas and creative approach were all introduced in this music video, that would carryon in the rest of the project. "Eyes Closed" in particular, is a song about the passing of a close friend to Ed Sheeran, he's announced since it's release. Greif and sadness are something that's felt universally and in this video, to have those feelings portrayed in a lighthearted nature with the blue creature was part of the creative strategy.

The music video for "Eyes Closed" takes place in a small English town, focussing around a local bar with a few patrons and Ed seemingly 'alone' with his thoughts. Shortly into the video we're introduced to the big blue monster, which metaphorically represents Ed's sadness that follows him around, growing larger in every scene it appears in. The blue monster is unavoidable and follows Ed throughout the video, while Ed stumbles into various different rooms and locations including a fish & chips shop. Even when we see Ed dancing in crowed the bar room, it's still as if his feelings and emotions are with him which we're reminded of as the monster continues to find it's way to follow him. This culminates to the end sequence of Ed turning to face his monster once and for all, where the monster is gone and Ed attempts to move on.

The creation and execution of this music video was a big undertaking and something we're very proud to have accomplished. All fourteen music videos that tie into that visual album for 'Subtract' were filmed together in just a few short weeks. With this in mind going into production, there was little room for error or time to pick up shots elsewhere as each shoot day had a thoroughly planned out and ambitious goals for filming. For "Eyes Closed", the big undertaking was to bring the big blue monster to life and to be a fun invented piece that hasn't been seen before. What you see in the video is a cross between special effects and a real, hand-crafted suit worn by someone in the film. Special Effects were implemented to create the illusion that the monster gets bigger and bigger throughout the video, taking up entire rooms by the end.

The engagement and responses to "Eyes Closed" were largely felt on digital platforms like Youtube, Instagram and Twitter. In just a few weeks the music video has surpassed 40 million views on Youtube and continues to be viewed around the world. From the audience perspective, the hope is that the experience from this video is relatability and empathy, to be able to understand what others might be going through in dire times. With this again being the first featured music video from a larger body of songs, the objective from the artist perspective was that this music video could lead you to explore more of their work to follow.