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(Click to see the music video)
I am analysing Stan by Eminem (featuring Dido), this video is all about an obsessed fan and the journey they go through trying to get in contact with the star, which in this case in Eminem. This type of music belongs to the rap genre. I know that this song is of the rap genre because Eminem is one of the most Famous rap artists. Characteristics of a rap video are low angled shots, voyeurism, run down areas and explicit lyrics which can all be found in this music video. Andrew Goodwin says in his book 'Dancing in the distraction factory' that music videos have their own style and iconography which we can see if present in Eminem's video. This song also features Dido who sings the chorus of the song making it appeal not only to rap fans but to a broader audience.
This music video is presented as a narrative, there is a camera shot of a window
here the audience can see that the weather is raining, there is a strong wind with thunder and lighting. This creates a pathetic falacy throughout the video as the weather conditions can reflect and Stan's anger problems. The camera begins to move through the window where a pregnant woman is on the bed (Dido). It is dark in the room until lightening strikes and we see the woman is alone creating a sense of isolation. The lighting also gives the audience a chance to see the basic room setting
indicating lack of money. The video uses a straight cut to the bathroom where we see a young male pouring bleach over his head (which we later learn is so that he looks like his idol). The room is lit artificially and the light successfully shows the grime and dirt on the walls and floor again reinforcing their basic living conditions. The male (Stan) looks up and his hair begins to change colour to blonde, he looks into the mirror where the lighting strikes again 
creating a possesive look and a pesimistic atmosphere, the look on Stan's face also rein acts that of a mentally unstable person. Dido knocks on the bathroom door asking to be let in, the camera uses an above ariel shot to create spacial awareness and show the partitioning between Stan and Dido in there separate areas 
. Stan opens the door and shout 'what' in her face, she is shocked at what he has done to his hair and says 'your taking this too far'. Here the audience does not know what is going on and so it intrigues us to find out what he is taking too far. She says his name 'stanley' to which he replies 'don't call me that' in an angry manner, this is unusual as this is his name and again this makes the audience consider Stan's mental state. The melody of the song begins at 1:22.
The song begins with the chorus and the lyrics 'the morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all. And if I could it'd be all gray' which amplifies the harsh weather conditions in the music video. The scene moves to what appears to be a mobile home often used by stars on tours. It contrasts with Stan's house as we can see by the style of the clock
that the star has much more wealth. The camera then returns to the bathroom scene where the camera begins to pan down the house where again we see a floor partitioning and the scene is situation in the basement of the house. 
The chorus repeats itself again and the lyric 'picture of my wall' seems to link in with all the posters Stan has of 'Slim' on his wall. The setting in the basement is dull and dark and uses on light bulb without a shade on it again emphasizing the lack of wealth. Stan sits at the table where he begins to write a letter 
as the audience we can hear the pencil scribbling on the paper as he writes enhancing his actions. He begins to rap explaining how he sent letters to him but he must not have got them, here Stan seems calm and optimistic that his idol will get in contact with him. The camera here films Stan as a medium long shot, and even uses an over the shoulder high angle shot creating spacial awareness. An important action here is when the television is on and the star waves 
and Stan waves back as if they are directing it at each other, this again reinforces and hints that Stan is mentally unstable. The lyric 'sometimes I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot 'em' is complimented when the over an ariel shot shows Stan scribbling on the paper
. He begins to ask Slim about his life and says how his girlfriend is pregnant to, the scene then switches to his pregnant girlfriend creating a sense of reality when writing the letter. As he is rapping we realise that Stan knows a lot about his idol Slim and talks about how he heard about his uncle Ronnie, we know that Slim is Stan's idol when he says he is his biggest fan twice. The lightning throughout this section of the song emphasizes the amount of posters Stan has on his wall
as when it lights up the audiences attention is grabbed to the walls when the room has been lit up for a few seconds.
The song returns back to the chorus where there is a significant amount of camera movements and fade transitions. This helps the passing of time where we see the letter Stan wrote falling out one of the postal trolleys at the post office
. It also shows Stan and Dido at home where we can see Stan is becoming increasing agitated and angry which is reinforced by his arm movements and angry look on his face 
. On the second verse the audience are met with a low angled shot of Stan dominating the shot 
. The low angle on the camera means the audience can really feel Stans growing fustration. His eyes are like daggers and we can see the anger in his face. This is contradicted by the lyrics 'i aint mad' which is ironic. Stan talk about when he went to one of his concerts and how Slim ignored them when they waited 4 hours for an autograph. When on stage Slim looks one at Stan and looks disinterested. As the audience watching we know this is a sterotype for stars as they have a lot of fans and therefore can not speak to every fan which Stan does not seem to understand. When Stan met Slim in Denver, Slim said he would write back to Stan which is what he is hopeful for. The obsession with Slim is amplified when Stan gets Slim's name tattooed on his chest 
. In every shot of Stan in the basement there is always a poster of Slim in the background. The audiences initial thought of Stan being mentally unstable is confirmed when the lyrics say Stan likes to cut himself to see how much he bleeds which is not a normal thing to do. The camera here points down to a magazine of Slim where on a page is a bloody hand print 
, which therefore visually compliments this lyric. Stan takes a picture of himself and his girlfriend and places slims picture of the girlfriend 
. This obsession is amplified here with the lyrics 'i talk about you 24/7' and 'ps we should be together too' showing Stans desire to be with Slim.
We are then brought back to the chorus which significantly is always when Dido is included in the video. Dido makes her way into the basement where Stans obsession for Slim is at its most powerful as she is doing this we see that Stan has woken up with an angry look on his face, Dido picks up the picture that Stan made and is horrified by what he has done (this is reinforced by the way she places her hand over her mouth),
as she is doing this the camera is placed carefully so that we can see Stan coming up behind here creating a tense atmosphere. The lyrics 'its not so bad' almost contradicts itself when we see Stan grabbing his girlfriend.
The scene cuts to a car driving on the road
and we see that Stan is driving with one hand on the wheel and one recording a casette tape
. The audience can tell by his face that he is extremely angry and we are concerned for his safety this is amplified when Stan says 'This'll be the last package I'll ever send your arse'. The weather conditions outside are still harsh and Stan is driving fast down the motor way. The different camera angles used in this scence ehance the weater conditions as we can see the rain falling hard on the windscreen so much so that you can barely see out of it, additionally the lighting on the car creates a harsh lighting tone. The opening lyric for this verse is 'Dear Mr, I'm to good to call or write my fans' almost mocking Slim and we can sense a sarcastic tone in Stan's voice. In the car the audience can see a picture of Slim hanging from the inside mirror 
; as we see this the camera also shows Stan's relfection in this small miror, this extreme close up shows the hatrid and anger in Stan's eyes. Stan does not realise that his letter got lost at the post office and blames the no resonse on Slim; on the cassette he tells Slim that he is doing '90 on the freeway' which is dangerous considering the weather conditions. This danger is increased when we learn that Stan has had a 'fith of vodka' and asks Slim 'dare me to drive'. This lyric is complimented by the image of Stan having to steer out of the way of an oncoming truck 
showing his lack of awareness on the road.
After steering out of the way of the truck, Stan goes on to talk about a song by Phil Collins in which someone who could not be saved from drowning. He says 'that's kinda how this is' which creates a tense atmosphere as we now know Stan's intentions of committing suicide. He starts to reflect on what has happened and says how he only wanted a letter. Due to Slim not replying to Stan it caused him to rip all of the posters off Slim off of the wall; this lyric is complimented and amplfied by a cut away of Stan back in the basement ripping all the posters off the wall
. Stan is getting increasing agitated and agrivated at the thought that they 'could of been together' but Slim ruined it for them both. We sense guilt when Stan tries to make Slim feel guilty about what he has pushed Stan to. The lyrics use personification when Stan says 'I hope your conscious eats you' portraying that Stan hopes he can not live with himself after what he has done.
The audience is horrified to find that Stan's pregnant girlfriend is in the boot of the car and he is driving dangerously on the road. This danger is amflied when we see that Stan eye gaze is directed away from the windscreen of the car showing lack of attention. The cassette recording comes to an end when Stan is almost at the bridge, here we see an image of a 'bridge out'
meaning that it is unsafe to drive on. In a panick he says 'oh shit! I forgot! how am I suppossed to send this shit out?'. Here the music seems to fade and the sound of wheels screeching across the road show Stan's loss of control which eventually leads him to edge over the bridge in the car 
. The car plunges into the water, here the effect of slow motion is used to slow down the pace of this dramatic scence which therefore enhances it to create a more dramatic effect for the audience.
Ironically as the car plunges into the water the scene uses a fade transition to show Slim finally reading Stans letter. Throughout the section of the music video the camera uses cut away shots and fragments them to show the sinking car and the reply of the letter. This audience are made to feel as if Stan's death and that of his girlfriend could have been avoided if Stan had just waited a while longer. We can see the car sinking as the camera has been positioned underneath the water, the chorus plays here which fits well with this horrifying scene. The chorus comes to an end where we see the picture of Slim
descends in front of the camera almost like Stan is being put to rest with Slim. The next verses come from Slim which show his reply to the letters he has received from Stan. When writing the letter there is some movement of the camera which creates a sense of motion in the moving trailer. The camera is placed at desk level 
in which we can see Slims hand movements and facial expressions. Just like with Stan the audience can hear the diegetic noise of the pencil which has been enhanced. He apologies that he could not write back sooner and also notices that Stan may not be mentally stable when he says 'C'mon, how fucked up is you?'. He also refers to when Stans says we should be together and responds to say 'That type of shit'll make me not want to meet each other'. During this verse the music video uses the effect of vignette 
and a low tone colour to create the effect of a flash back, they are images the audience has seen before so even though they are not extremely clear we can still work them out. In this scene the lyrics really contradict the visual images for example Slim says 'before you hurt yourself' we see the car being pulled out of the lake 
. A straight cut is used to show Stans younger brother at Stan's grave where we see that he has also died his hair bleach blonde 
. The audience therefore feel the younger brother may grow up to be just like Stan. Slim does not realise when he talks about some drunk man who drove over a bridge with his girlfriend in the trunk of the car however the realisation soon begins to set in when he says 'his name, it was you! damn'. The music is stopped where we hear Slim says 'damn' and the lightning and thunder strike. In the window the audience can see a creepy image of Stans reflection which creates a sense of his ghostly presence. 
Editing because of the fast tempo of this video, means that there are a montage of images which means the audience have to watch it more than once to grasp the real meaning of the video. Along with this the lyrics help to establish a general feeling and mood in this video and as the audience we can relate it to this video.
This music video is presented as a narrative, there is a camera shot of a window
here the audience can see that the weather is raining, there is a strong wind with thunder and lighting. This creates a pathetic falacy throughout the video as the weather conditions can reflect and Stan's anger problems. The camera begins to move through the window where a pregnant woman is on the bed (Dido). It is dark in the room until lightening strikes and we see the woman is alone creating a sense of isolation. The lighting also gives the audience a chance to see the basic room setting
indicating lack of money. The video uses a straight cut to the bathroom where we see a young male pouring bleach over his head (which we later learn is so that he looks like his idol). The room is lit artificially and the light successfully shows the grime and dirt on the walls and floor again reinforcing their basic living conditions. The male (Stan) looks up and his hair begins to change colour to blonde, he looks into the mirror where the lighting strikes again creating a possesive look and a pesimistic atmosphere, the look on Stan's face also rein acts that of a mentally unstable person. Dido knocks on the bathroom door asking to be let in, the camera uses an above ariel shot to create spacial awareness and show the partitioning between Stan and Dido in there separate areas . Stan opens the door and shout 'what' in her face, she is shocked at what he has done to his hair and says 'your taking this too far'. Here the audience does not know what is going on and so it intrigues us to find out what he is taking too far. She says his name 'stanley' to which he replies 'don't call me that' in an angry manner, this is unusual as this is his name and again this makes the audience consider Stan's mental state. The melody of the song begins at 1:22.The song begins with the chorus and the lyrics 'the morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all. And if I could it'd be all gray' which amplifies the harsh weather conditions in the music video. The scene moves to what appears to be a mobile home often used by stars on tours. It contrasts with Stan's house as we can see by the style of the clock
that the star has much more wealth. The camera then returns to the bathroom scene where the camera begins to pan down the house where again we see a floor partitioning and the scene is situation in the basement of the house. The chorus repeats itself again and the lyric 'picture of my wall' seems to link in with all the posters Stan has of 'Slim' on his wall. The setting in the basement is dull and dark and uses on light bulb without a shade on it again emphasizing the lack of wealth. Stan sits at the table where he begins to write a letter as the audience we can hear the pencil scribbling on the paper as he writes enhancing his actions. He begins to rap explaining how he sent letters to him but he must not have got them, here Stan seems calm and optimistic that his idol will get in contact with him. The camera here films Stan as a medium long shot, and even uses an over the shoulder high angle shot creating spacial awareness. An important action here is when the television is on and the star waves and Stan waves back as if they are directing it at each other, this again reinforces and hints that Stan is mentally unstable. The lyric 'sometimes I scribble addresses too sloppy when I jot 'em' is complimented when the over an ariel shot shows Stan scribbling on the paper. He begins to ask Slim about his life and says how his girlfriend is pregnant to, the scene then switches to his pregnant girlfriend creating a sense of reality when writing the letter. As he is rapping we realise that Stan knows a lot about his idol Slim and talks about how he heard about his uncle Ronnie, we know that Slim is Stan's idol when he says he is his biggest fan twice. The lightning throughout this section of the song emphasizes the amount of posters Stan has on his wall as when it lights up the audiences attention is grabbed to the walls when the room has been lit up for a few seconds.The song returns back to the chorus where there is a significant amount of camera movements and fade transitions. This helps the passing of time where we see the letter Stan wrote falling out one of the postal trolleys at the post office
. It also shows Stan and Dido at home where we can see Stan is becoming increasing agitated and angry which is reinforced by his arm movements and angry look on his face . On the second verse the audience are met with a low angled shot of Stan dominating the shot . The low angle on the camera means the audience can really feel Stans growing fustration. His eyes are like daggers and we can see the anger in his face. This is contradicted by the lyrics 'i aint mad' which is ironic. Stan talk about when he went to one of his concerts and how Slim ignored them when they waited 4 hours for an autograph. When on stage Slim looks one at Stan and looks disinterested. As the audience watching we know this is a sterotype for stars as they have a lot of fans and therefore can not speak to every fan which Stan does not seem to understand. When Stan met Slim in Denver, Slim said he would write back to Stan which is what he is hopeful for. The obsession with Slim is amplified when Stan gets Slim's name tattooed on his chest . In every shot of Stan in the basement there is always a poster of Slim in the background. The audiences initial thought of Stan being mentally unstable is confirmed when the lyrics say Stan likes to cut himself to see how much he bleeds which is not a normal thing to do. The camera here points down to a magazine of Slim where on a page is a bloody hand print , which therefore visually compliments this lyric. Stan takes a picture of himself and his girlfriend and places slims picture of the girlfriend . This obsession is amplified here with the lyrics 'i talk about you 24/7' and 'ps we should be together too' showing Stans desire to be with Slim.We are then brought back to the chorus which significantly is always when Dido is included in the video. Dido makes her way into the basement where Stans obsession for Slim is at its most powerful as she is doing this we see that Stan has woken up with an angry look on his face, Dido picks up the picture that Stan made and is horrified by what he has done (this is reinforced by the way she places her hand over her mouth),
as she is doing this the camera is placed carefully so that we can see Stan coming up behind here creating a tense atmosphere. The lyrics 'its not so bad' almost contradicts itself when we see Stan grabbing his girlfriend.The scene cuts to a car driving on the road
and we see that Stan is driving with one hand on the wheel and one recording a casette tape . The audience can tell by his face that he is extremely angry and we are concerned for his safety this is amplified when Stan says 'This'll be the last package I'll ever send your arse'. The weather conditions outside are still harsh and Stan is driving fast down the motor way. The different camera angles used in this scence ehance the weater conditions as we can see the rain falling hard on the windscreen so much so that you can barely see out of it, additionally the lighting on the car creates a harsh lighting tone. The opening lyric for this verse is 'Dear Mr, I'm to good to call or write my fans' almost mocking Slim and we can sense a sarcastic tone in Stan's voice. In the car the audience can see a picture of Slim hanging from the inside mirror ; as we see this the camera also shows Stan's relfection in this small miror, this extreme close up shows the hatrid and anger in Stan's eyes. Stan does not realise that his letter got lost at the post office and blames the no resonse on Slim; on the cassette he tells Slim that he is doing '90 on the freeway' which is dangerous considering the weather conditions. This danger is increased when we learn that Stan has had a 'fith of vodka' and asks Slim 'dare me to drive'. This lyric is complimented by the image of Stan having to steer out of the way of an oncoming truck showing his lack of awareness on the road.After steering out of the way of the truck, Stan goes on to talk about a song by Phil Collins in which someone who could not be saved from drowning. He says 'that's kinda how this is' which creates a tense atmosphere as we now know Stan's intentions of committing suicide. He starts to reflect on what has happened and says how he only wanted a letter. Due to Slim not replying to Stan it caused him to rip all of the posters off Slim off of the wall; this lyric is complimented and amplfied by a cut away of Stan back in the basement ripping all the posters off the wall
. Stan is getting increasing agitated and agrivated at the thought that they 'could of been together' but Slim ruined it for them both. We sense guilt when Stan tries to make Slim feel guilty about what he has pushed Stan to. The lyrics use personification when Stan says 'I hope your conscious eats you' portraying that Stan hopes he can not live with himself after what he has done.The audience is horrified to find that Stan's pregnant girlfriend is in the boot of the car and he is driving dangerously on the road. This danger is amflied when we see that Stan eye gaze is directed away from the windscreen of the car showing lack of attention. The cassette recording comes to an end when Stan is almost at the bridge, here we see an image of a 'bridge out'
meaning that it is unsafe to drive on. In a panick he says 'oh shit! I forgot! how am I suppossed to send this shit out?'. Here the music seems to fade and the sound of wheels screeching across the road show Stan's loss of control which eventually leads him to edge over the bridge in the car . The car plunges into the water, here the effect of slow motion is used to slow down the pace of this dramatic scence which therefore enhances it to create a more dramatic effect for the audience.Ironically as the car plunges into the water the scene uses a fade transition to show Slim finally reading Stans letter. Throughout the section of the music video the camera uses cut away shots and fragments them to show the sinking car and the reply of the letter. This audience are made to feel as if Stan's death and that of his girlfriend could have been avoided if Stan had just waited a while longer. We can see the car sinking as the camera has been positioned underneath the water, the chorus plays here which fits well with this horrifying scene. The chorus comes to an end where we see the picture of Slim
descends in front of the camera almost like Stan is being put to rest with Slim. The next verses come from Slim which show his reply to the letters he has received from Stan. When writing the letter there is some movement of the camera which creates a sense of motion in the moving trailer. The camera is placed at desk level in which we can see Slims hand movements and facial expressions. Just like with Stan the audience can hear the diegetic noise of the pencil which has been enhanced. He apologies that he could not write back sooner and also notices that Stan may not be mentally stable when he says 'C'mon, how fucked up is you?'. He also refers to when Stans says we should be together and responds to say 'That type of shit'll make me not want to meet each other'. During this verse the music video uses the effect of vignette and a low tone colour to create the effect of a flash back, they are images the audience has seen before so even though they are not extremely clear we can still work them out. In this scene the lyrics really contradict the visual images for example Slim says 'before you hurt yourself' we see the car being pulled out of the lake . A straight cut is used to show Stans younger brother at Stan's grave where we see that he has also died his hair bleach blonde . The audience therefore feel the younger brother may grow up to be just like Stan. Slim does not realise when he talks about some drunk man who drove over a bridge with his girlfriend in the trunk of the car however the realisation soon begins to set in when he says 'his name, it was you! damn'. The music is stopped where we hear Slim says 'damn' and the lightning and thunder strike. In the window the audience can see a creepy image of Stans reflection which creates a sense of his ghostly presence. Editing because of the fast tempo of this video, means that there are a montage of images which means the audience have to watch it more than once to grasp the real meaning of the video. Along with this the lyrics help to establish a general feeling and mood in this video and as the audience we can relate it to this video.
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