1. Joey Kabango
Task 3
Stan-Eminem
"Stan" is a song by American rapper Eminem featuring British Singer Dido. It
was released on December 9, 2000 as the third single from Eminem's third
studio album The Marshall Mather’s LP (2000). It peaked at number one in
eleven countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland and
Australia.
The genre of this music video is Hip-Hop but it doesn’t really have the same
features as other Hip-Hop videos. Because other rap videos involve things as
money, women, jewellery and the most expensive cars but this music video it
shows a struggling couple living in a beat down home. The song tells the story
of a person named Stanley "Stan" Mitchell who claims to be the biggest fan of
Eminem. Stan writes a series of letters to Eminem; with each verse he becomes
gradually more obsessed with him, and when there is no reply he becomes
progressively angrier. He finally creates a voice recording of himself driving his
car into a lake, with his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk, as shown in the lyrics
He even chooses to ignore his girlfriend that is pregnant with his child. Stan’s
girlfriend is starting to notice that Stan is acting strange that he is no longer
himself, in the video she’s trying start a conversation with him and he’s just
talking about how great Eminem is. One night she went to Stan’s secret room
and saw a whole shrine to Eminem and she saw a photo of him and Eminem
glued together.
In the first verse, an obsessed fan named Stan played by Devon Saw is writing
to Eminem for the third time, hoping his hero will write back. Rain and thunder
can be heard in the background throughout, as well as the sound of the pencil
scratching onto the letter. He explains the level of his devotion, "I got a room
full of your posters and your pictures, man", and maintains that he sent two
letters to Eminem but he "must not have got 'em".
The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is
Eminem as himself attempting to write to Stan and reason with the troubled
young man, only to realize that he had already heard about Stan's death on the
news.
2. Joey Kabango
In the second verse, Stan is clearly frustrated. He begins somewhat
optimistically ("Dear Slim, you still ain't called or wrote/I hope you have a
chance"), but begins to lose his temper by the second line ("I ain't mad, I just
think it's f***ed up you don't answer fans"). The thunder in the background
steadily becomes louder, underscoring Stan's anger. Loud thunderclaps
coincide with Stan's outbursts of anger. The verse also establishes Stan's
deteriorating well-being: "Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it
bleeds/It's like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me." Stan
mentions his little brother, Matthew, who Stan imagines is an even bigger fan
of Eminem than Stan himself. He thinks that Matthew considers Eminem as his
idol, but actually it can be seen that Matthew actually idolizes Stan and his love
for Eminem.
This is what Stan is saying to the cassette before he crashes off the bridge, “So
this is my cassette I'm sending you, I hope you hear it. I'm in the car right now
doing 90 on the freeway. Hey slim, I drank a fifth of vodka you dare me to
drive.... See Slim, (screaming) shut up bitch I'm trying to talk! Hey Slim, that's
my girlfriend screaming in the trunk. But I didn't slit her throat. I just tied her
up see I ain't like you. Cause if she suffocates, she'll suffer more then she'll die
too. Well, gotta go, I'm almost at the bridge now—oh, shit! I forgot! How am I
supposed to send this shit out” those are his final words.
The lighting of the music video was pretty dark because it was meant to suit
the song, the song can’t be an inspirational song if the lighting and background
doesn’t match. The song was a really touching song the effects, house,
background and the environment really sold it to the audience it showed the
audience that this sort of stuff really does happen in real life. The only time
when Stan’s happy is when he meets Eminem with his little brother and when
the ghost of Stan is watching Eminem.
3. Joey Kabango
If Eminem done the song alone if wouldn’t have given a powerful enough
message so, he teamed up with English singer Dido because she has a unique
touch to her voice that that sounds really sad and touching would make the
audience really feel the song and what he is saying. This tells the story about a
man that is obsessed with Eminem. When his letters are not answered, he puts
his pregnant girlfriend in his trunk and drives off a bridge. The song ends with
Eminem answering his letter and realizing Stan was the man in the news who
drove off the bridge.
There is no male gaze theory because this hip hop video isn’t like other hip hop
videos. Stan’s always wearing bright clothing especially white, and in this video
it represents craziness/lunacy.
4. Joey Kabango
The camera shot just above is an over the shoulder shot, and the purpose of
this type of shot is very common when two characters are having a discussion
or when a character is looking or doing something and will usually follow an
establishing shot which helps the audience place the characters in their setting.
This is a close up shot of the popular English song artist Dido, the medium shot
is a general, all-purpose shot. Medium shots are used for dialogue sequences,
and they allow the viewer to pick up on the character's movements and
gestures. Body language is important to conveying emotion, and the medium
shot remains close enough to capture that emotion.
You can see by Dido’s posture that she has a lot on her mind and she’s worried
about Stan’s obsession with Eminem and she could be thinking that he loves
him more than her and probably love him more than their child.
5. Joey Kabango
Last Friday-Katy Perry
The next video I will be analysing is Last Friday by Katy Perry, the genre of this
music video is pop music. You can tell by the beat of the song for example
every time the beat drops it cuts to the next sequence, another example is the
colour coding the image is surrounded by 1980s-style neon colours and swirly
graphics. In the video it shows a tale of a teenage girl that is considered an
unpopular geek/nerdy girl, when she enters the party nobody notices her
because of how she looks and how she’s dressed and no one wants to give her
the time of day.
This is when the male gaze theory occurs when her friend gives her a major
makeover she’s getting wooed by all the boys and now she’s drawing all the
attention and feeling like she’s a somebody now
