Kriti Mehrotra
Directed by Philip Barantini (‘Adolescence‘), Netflix’s ‘One Shot With Ed Sheeran’ follows the titular international sensation as he takes to the streets of New York with his trusted guitar in hand. He actually performs his hits while wandering throughout the city in the hopes of creating some magical, spontaneous moments while encountering fans both in planned and unplanned ways. In other words, the singer challenges his musical intuition and lays his reputation on the line as he explores key landmarks to form lifelong memories before making it to his evening concert on time.
One Shot With Ed Sheeran Filming Locations
‘One Shot With Ed Sheeran’ was indeed filmed entirely in New York City, New York, on September 29, 2025, with the help of at least 1,000 different individuals as a part of the original production. According to reports, there were only three camera operators, but then there was also Executive Producer Ben Winston, Ed’s tour team, the people on the streets, police for security, and many others. As for why The Big Apple was chosen as the shooting site, Ed has admittedly always loved the city and how it feels like a movie set at all times, so he wished to highlight the same in his own way.
Manhattan, New York City
The first vision in ‘One Shot With Ed Sheeran’ is that of the iconic Empire State Building before the camera pans down and heads into the renowned Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center. All of this was actually filmed in real time, so the first location was 311 West 34th Street, following which Ed rushed out of sound check to surprise fans Tia and Steven during their proposal on The High Line. The singer then walked beside the newly engaged couple to the High Line Pigeon, a 16-foot hyper-realistic sculpture installed at 10th Avenue and 30th Street, where he sang some more.
Ed subsequently got on a double-decker tourist bus to travel all the way near the Hudson River, where he attended fans Carly and Deserae’s rooftop birthday party at Ink 48 Hotel at 653 11th Avenue. From there, he ran to his beloved local Irish pub called The Landmark Tavern at 626 11th Avenue to perform alongside a trad band named Beoga before jumping into a car with Camilla Cabello. They sang “Perfect” as she drove him to the subway on 50th Street, just for him to then get down, go in, jam alongside the Red Baraat band, and get into the tube while still continuing to perform.
Ed ultimately got off on 34th Street, following which he walked back to the now-packed Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center, where he performed “Azizam” for the screaming crowd. The entire journey took the singer a little more than an hour, with him showcasing his innate talent as well as his intituteness every step of the way, all the while also interacting with fans as much as possible. Whether it be the crowd gathered for him at the High Line Pigeon or fans bumping into him on the streets and requesting selfies, he catered to them all with an appreciative, unfaltering smile.
One Shot With Ed Sheeran Truly Lives Up to Its Title
While many might assume the footage in ‘One Shot With Ed Sheeran’ is comprised of several long takes carefully stitched together to create the illusion of a single take, that’s not true in any capacity. “One Shot – it’s exactly what it says,” director Philip Barantini revealed in ‘The Making of One Shot with Ed Sheeran.’ “We start, and we don’t stop until we get to the very end… The camera doesn’t cut.” The idea for this project originated while Executive Producer Ben Winston was speaking with someone shortly after watching ‘Adolescence’ (another single-take production) and decided to do something similar.
Ben obtained the contact information of filmmaker Philip within 20 minutes, who actually agreed despite some initial hesitancy about doing another one-take production, as this was “real life.” In fact, he has since asserted that ‘Adolescence‘ was a cakewalk compared to ‘One Shot’ because they “had more time, and we weren’t in the busiest city in the world. This was 100% more stressful.” According to his own accounts, they planned everything meticulously in the weeks leading up to the shoot, but they only had one day of rehearsals to check and rectify any oddity they encountered.
The entire shoot was complicated because it not only demanded impeccable choreography from those behind the scenes but also immediate changes in the face of fan encounters or traffic. Thankfully, as per Philip, Ed was game for everything, asserting that he can make changes to any song in the blink of an eye – all he needs is an idea of how long to extend them or how quickly to end them. So, that’s precisely what they did on the day of the shoot, enabling them to have a total of three full takes from which they picked the best one, albeit with some fast-forwarding and sound mixing.
They could have stitched together the best parts from each take as the final cut, but they chose not to so as to maintain the integrity of the project as well as the hard work of all those involved. However, yes, this does mean that Tia was proposed to by Steven three times and that Carly as well as Deserae were “surprised” by Ed for their birthday thrice too. The most difficult job was arguably that of the three camera operators, though, because they had to seamlessly carry out their handoffs not only to one another but also to cranes and drones.
That’s how they were able to get the shot of the Empire State Building, the car rides, and the Manhattan skyline after the birthday party at Ink 48 Hotel. In other words, although there was a lot of meticulous planning and preparation involved, ‘One Shot with Ed Sheeran’ was indeed filmed in one shot, and that’s what the singer himself is also incredibly proud of. “It definitely felt different than coming into a gig…,” he candidly told Tudum. “This is the best thing I’ve ever done in my career, in terms of scale and impressiveness. Everything’s led up to this point.”
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