Stan Music Video

The music video that I am going to analyse is EMINEM's video Stan featuring Dido. The story of the song is a fictional story about a man named Stanley Mitchell who claims to be Eminem's biggest fan and throughout the song Stan becomes obsessed with Eminem. The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is Eminem attempting to reply to Stan's letters, only to realise that he had already heard about Stan's death on the news. As already stated, the song features Dido who sings the chorus of the song, and she also appears in the video as Stan's pregnant girlfriend of which he abuses and later kills her. The song is from the genre of hip hop music. The rapping within the song performed by Eminem places it within this category. Rapping is a typical characteristic in hip hop music. The chorus of the song, or the main part that Dido is heard singing in the song is actually taken from one of Dido's own tracks called 'Thank You". A link to this video can be found here.

Below is the short version of Stan.



There have been two versions of the video for this song. A long version which is around 8 minutes long, and the version above which is just over 6. The video is more of a small film which has been remembered by many people. The lyrics are somewhat powerful as the character Stan explains his obsession for Eminem and also how he is going to kill his girlfriend. To see the lyrics to this song, click here. (Below is the analysis for the shorter version)

There are many ways within the video where the visuals and lyrics collaborate and 'make sense' when shown/heard together. This is apparent in the first couple of lines in the song when Dido is heard singing 'the morning raindrops on my window' and 'even if I could it would all be grey'. To coincide with these lyrics, there are indeed raindrops heard and seen through a window due to there being a storm outside the house in which Stan and Dido are in. The storm is evident through the thunder and lightning heard and seen as the room lights up with a flash. This use of pathetic fallacy has been done to show how dark and dingy the house is and also reflects the mood and persona of the lead character, Stan. The next line stated was 'even if I could it would all be grey'. Although the colour grey isn't specifically seen on the screen at this time, there are other dark neutral colours that present the audience with a creepy and dark house with little atmosphere. The movement of the camera at the beginning of the song shows the camera possible being on a crane as it goes from a low angle shot to eye line level with a window. This gives the audience a notion of looking into the lives of the people within the house. There is a lot of camera movement throughout the video that will be analysed later on.

The next most obvious visual that coincides with the lyrics is when Stan is writing a letter to Eminem. The sound of a pencil is heard against paper and Stan is in fact seen writing a letter with a pencil and paper. Another obvious link between the lyrics and the visuals is again, in the chorus when Dido sings 'but your picture on the wall'. This line is is usually always accompanied with either and establishing shot of the room in which Stan resides and writes his letters, revealing the hundreds of posters that he has up of Eminem, or the shot is a close up of the posters and the camera pans across the room's wall showing all of the posters at a closer view, as shown with the screen grab on the left hand side. These are just a few of the matching visuals and lyrics in the video. Generally because the video is a narrative, it is more than likely that what you hear within the music is what you are going to see should you watch the video.

In regards to the editing of the video, it does not appear that the cuts match the beat of the song as in the case of many other music videos. This may not be the case because the video could be seen as a mini film and cutting every few seconds to the beat would mean that the story line in would become dysfunctional and confusing with too many cuts and shots appearing. Because this video is more of a small film, the shots and cuts are more consistent and the editing is at a steady pace allowing the audience to take in what is happening. There are a variety of shots and editing techniques throughout the video that work well to establish the story line. One of the opening scenes sees Dido walking to the bathroom. When she is sitting on the toilet, the camera moves down by use of a crane (possible special effects) to show Stan underneath her in a different room. The movement into the dark room below reiterates to the audience that thought of something being wrong with the house or the people in side. The lack of colour throughout the video shows how dull the lead characters life is within the video.

The video finds numerous ways to try and promote the track. The constant referral to the artist by use of images and lyrics gives the audience a strong visualization of the artist. In this instance, Eminem, or Slim, is referred to a lot throughout the video as the story behind it explores the main characters obsession with the artist. It should also be noted that the characters name in the video is Stan, one of many nicknames that has been given to Eminem over his performing years, further relating this song to the artist. The use of images has also been used effectively in order to sell the track.The image above is of Stan looking into a mirror in his room only to be greeted by the reflection of who he wants to be like, Eminem. The constant appearance of Eminem throughout the video shows how the deranged character is constantly thinking about his idol and how he has mentally replaced his girlfriend. Other visuals such as when Stan places the photograph of Eminem over his own girlfriend also helps sell the record as it shows to the audience who the artist is and possibly to show how popular they would like the song to become.
The video for Stan is similar to some of Eminem's other videos in regards to the colours and language used. For instance, his video 'When I'm Gone', found here is another famous track by the artist with an iconic video. The reason this video is so similar to Stan is due to the colour scheme used. The consistency of the colour green is a colour that appears throughout a few of Eminem's videos. The colour was also a recurring one in the film 8 Mile in which he starred. A snapshot from the 8 Mile film can be seen on the left hand side of the screen. As you can see, the picture has the same sort of colours in as the Stan video, further supporting that the colours used are popular ones that are iconic with the artist.