Music Video Analysis - Eminem 'Stan'

The first thing that is noticed in this video is that Eminem is absent in most of it, which is not ordinary for most music videos, he only appears in flashbacks and then right at the end. But his presence is felt as Stan has a sort of shrine to him, so Eminem is there through pictures, posters and videos. The song features Eminem's voice but as Stan's monologue and Stan's appearance is a copy of Eminem. In this song and video Eminem underlines the relationship between him and his fans, he explores the over-identification of a fan with a star. The idea that a fan can feel like they know their idol personally because of how much access and information we have and know of them.
As soon as the video starts it is gloomy and rainy which is echoed at the end when Stan is driving his car. Stan's girlfriend is played by Dido who also features on the track. It starts with Dido knocking on the door of the bathroom, she is heavily pregnant with Stan's baby. Stan is bleaching his hair to look like Eminem and the house that they live in looks shabby and under furbished. The style of this scene is reminiscent of the killers' lairs in Silence Of The Lambs (Jonathan Demme 1990).
The dialogue in this scene is very important as Dido questions his behaviour and asks 'Don't you think you're taking this too far?' which then leads to a shot of Stan's basement which is a shrine to Eminem.
The fragmented cutting and movement of the camera add to the uneasiness and creepiness of Stan and his behaviour.
The final horrifying sequence begins when Dido goes down to Stan's basement and finds a picture that Stan has cut her out of and replaced with Eminem. With her in the boot of the car, Stan drives manically in the rain towards the bridge whilst recording his monologue on a tape recorder. It is essentially his suicide note blaming it on Eminem not replying to any of his letters and ignoring him and his little brother. The irony of this is that he never gets the chance to send it, because of its high use of violence and swearing I opted for analysing the clean version. This video was also heavily censored when it appeared on TV music channels.
Eminem delivers the last verse, sitting in his trailer replying to fan mail. As he writes the letter, urging Stan to get help, he realises that the news story that had been playing in the background is of Stan.
The visual imagery is closely linked to the lyrics which is a distinctive feature in most rap music videos. There is also a strong emphasis on looking and being 'peeping Tom's' into other people's lives, which is how most of us are with celebrities.

I think that this video could influence some of the choices we make for ours. None of us want a heavy lip-synching video, we would prefer to have none at all. So the narrative will be very important. Now it's just to decide whether to have a narrative that is an amplification of the lyrics or a disjuncture.