Stan Music Video Analysis

Stan Analysis

I really like this video by Eminem, and it’s definitely one that you want to watch over and over again. We get a strong sense that it is going to be quite a scary video right from the beginning as the opening shot is a quick zoom into a window, outside it is night and stormy. It’s raining heavily and we can hear claps of thunder. This creates an eerie, depressing mood even before the song has even started. The next thing we see is a tough looking man wearing a plain white vest, with lots of tattoos on his arms, bleaching his hair over the sink – this is slightly strange behaviour in the middle of the night, made even stranger when he stares at himself in the mirror creepily, seemingly pleased. We then see a pregnant woman walking down a poorly lit corridor. A strong colour theme that has emerged is black –very gloomy and connotes death, so it is implied right from the beginning that this could have a scary, even fatal outcome. As Stanley opens the door to the woman we see a birds-eye-view extreme HA shot, and now we can see the run down bath room he is in, showing that he is lower class, and possibly suggest that life is a struggle. Stanley shouts and grabs the woman who we can now assume is his girlfriend showing his angry erratic behaviour, as he slams the door shut behind him the music begins. This long build up to the song started is very cinematic and not like a music video at all and they are all quite long slow shots. This beginning helps to establish their volatile relationship, and we can assume that Stanley is an erratic, obsessive person as the woman says ‘you’re taking this too far’, which is quite frightening.

When the music starts it is quite quiet especially compared to the rain and thunder outside which makes it seem like it is being in their house. When we first see Eminem he is sitting on a tour bus, when a man hands him mail. We can still hear the rain on his tour bus which implies that he is fairly close by, and also indicates that he is part of the narrative not just doing the performance part of the video. Eminem and Dido both being in the narrative creates a synergy between narrative and performance.

As the video continues it shows the isolation of the 3 characters. Dido is shown singing alone in her room, and the divide between her and Stan are shown by the shots of Eminem on his wall and him looking up, idolising him, ignoring his girlfriend. There are a lot of fades to black and flashes between shots which I think represents time passing, and Stan sending lots of letters. But I think it also shows Stan’s confused, scrambled state of mind. In my opinion one of the eeriest scariest parts of the video is when Stan sticks a photo of Eminem over a photo of his girlfriend. I think that this shows that he really has gone a bit crazy, as he thinks he knows Eminem, he thinks they’re friends. This is a great example of how a music video completely enhances a song, as just by listening to the song, while you may realise that it is about a fan, you would not be able to imagine in such detail the story that has been built up from it, and eerie details such as sticking Eminem’s picture next to him. Although this video seems to indicate the passing of time, and shows flash backs to other locations, all of it is at night so that the depressing, dark feeling continues through out. Further more the lightning flashes and thunder claps seem to get more violent and the song goes on, representing Stan’s growing anger and impatience at Eminem,

The fact that Stan is the main character in this video and Eminem is playing himself make it seem more real, which I think enhances the scariness of it, as for those 6 minutes you really start to think that he is a really person, obsessed with Eminem. Additionally when Stan and his brother are at the concert it does look like a real concert, again enhancing the realism of this video. And I think that is what makes it so successful, the fact that the narrative is quite epic and complex compared to most videos, and that you start to believe it’s real. And of course the performances (especially from Stan) are all very moving, making the entire thing more believable and effective.

Carol Vernalis

Carol Vernallis says the camera in music video seems to mimic the way we view sonic space... do you agree? Do you think we are conditioned by music video to read sonic space in particular ways?

She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However, this is predefined for us by the Director - we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director's choice than we do in film - do you agree?

Yes I agree when we listen we do jump around and focus on different sounds. Because music videos usually have such fast paced editing, and jump around so much, we don’t have time to register the image in our mind, and start to look outside of the directors choice because it’s already cut to another image. However when a music video is done well this jumpy style will hold our attention right through until the end.

She says music video experience is more like listening than viewing - do you agree?

I have to disagree with this, because although the viewing of a music video is designed to enhance the listening experience, many music videos are so intriguing and captivating that watching them is far more about the viewing experience. Also even if you don’t particularly like the song, if the music video is good you may still want to watch it over and over again, whereas you wouldn’t want to just listen to the song over and over. Additionally you watch music videos to see how a singer/group have presented themselves and what their visual interpretation of the song is compared to yours – therefore I think that the enjoyable experience of watching a music video is definitely far more about viewing.

"We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame" - Agreed?

Yes I agree, we definitely fill in the blanks using our imagination, and create in our heads what we want to see, or what we think fits.The constant motion in a music video and the variances it shows mean that a strong CU is a stable point.

The music video "brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us" - do you agree?

Yes the CU is the stable point as it is usually of the lead singer (the money shot/beauty shot), therefore providing us with familiarity in amongst the fast, montage that we see in most music videos.

Is the viewer "sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through the editing"?

Yes because it is the editing which completely creates the meaning. This is because the same set of shots, if re-arranged, can mean something completely different. The editing process is what forms the narrative of the video

Music video is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective - agreed?

I don’t fully agree with this because although the director may be freer, the audience can only see his/her perspective as it is usually too fast paced for us to have time to think anything else.

Carol Vernallis believes the image alone cannot tell the story - do you agree?

Yes I do agree with this, because images can only tell a story to an extent, but music is what creates the atmosphere and the mood of the sequence. For example if you ever watch a horror film with the music off, it wouldn’t be half as scary – music enhances images to a great extent and they definitely do not work to tell the story as well on their own.