'Stan ' Analysis

Here is Eminem's 'Stan'. Within the music video the colour scheme is very dark and has an intense feel due to the gloomy surroundings and foreshadows the rest of the video with violence and death. The video is narrative and has two main characters and shows each of their lives which contrast massively one being the fan, the other the star.

The fan who is named 'Stan' is presented to be 'crazed' and 'obsessed' as during the music video we see his basement, which has been dedicated to Eminem and we see that he has feelings of great desire to meet him. We also get a sense that Stan's life is deeply unsatisfying for him regardless that his girlfriend is expecting a child as he seems completely engrossed with Eminem. During the video the lyrics also suggest that Stan is extremely angry and releases this anger onto his girlfriend using violence and also states that he self-harms giving an overall negative representation towards this character.

Eminem is shown in two different ways, one with his star image and the other as a 'normal' person. When a star, we see him on the stage performing to thousands of fans and contrasting to this we see him being an 'ordinary' person reading and writing alone. This links to Richard Dyers theory of paradox 1 where he states that the 'star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer'. Towards the end of the video, we also see him whilst writing a letter, offering advice to Stan and also includes a signed autograph suggesting to the audience that Eminem does care and wants to help showing that he is not just a performer but actually a normal person (this is also highlighted by his clothes he is wearing including his glasses suggesting his intelligence).

Throughout the video we get a sense that tension is rising as the situation between Stan and his girlfriend rapidly spins out of control and Stan becomes more and more aggressive due to Eminem not responding to his letters. As things build, we see the girlfriend (played by Dido) enter the basement and she becomes confronted with the true extent of his idolisation which creates an erratic response from Stan which then leads to the next scene of Stan sending a final message to Eminem. In the last 2 minutes we see Stan drive off the bridge with Dido in the boot ending in a tragic consequence, however a solution is created for the video due to the end of the difficulties for both Stan and Dido (Stan with his obsession and Dido within her abusive relationship).

Narrative Music Videos

Analysing Music Videos

Here I am choosing four music videos to analyse.



Here is Lana Del Rey's 'National Anthem'. The music video is narrative and includes intertextuality as it references Marilyn Monroe singing to John F Kennedy and the shooting of him, it is also set in the 1960s during his presidency in which she portrays Marilyn Monroe for part of it and Jacqueline Kennedy throughout.

In the video there is evident condoning of alcohol, sex, drugs, money and scandal which is often characteristics within her videos and similarly she has a leading male who plays her love interest and in this case her husband and shows their idyllic life during his presidency. The video also includes non-singing narration as still in character she talks about JFK. She is clearly being shown as 'the star' as she has the most camera time and has her unique appearance which appeals to her audience which I would say was late teens.

With many of her videos, Lana Del Rey often wants to take her audience to a different time or era in order to show an event or tell a story this is often why she includes her own narration and speaks to the audience to voice her opinion sometimes in character and sometimes without which helps her fans feel more apart of her world.



Here is Gorillaz 'Feel Good Inc.'. Within the music video it shows a story from their fictional 'universe'. As far as 'star image' goes Gorillaz are known to pretty much never appear in their own music videos and hardly on stage which is their USP for the music industry like DeadMau5 and Daft Punk. Within the music video the absence of real people is unnoticeable as their audience are used to never seeing the real artists and their career has still managed to be successful anyway due to the marketing of the fictional characters.



Here is Arctic Monkeys 'Why'd You only Call Me When You're High?'. During this music video we see the whole band in the beginning at the pub with their other songs playing in the background. The video only starts after 1:40 and I think this is so the audience is more interested and has been introduced to the context before the music as it helps us get a better understanding of the story being portrayed.

The video continues as a narrative from the lead singers night and describes being drunk and shows him walking on the streets back to an ex-lovers house all without singing. Within the performance his looks are very rock n' roll wearing black and leather appealing to their known target audience. There is clear sexuality references as well as alcohol and cigarettes, but the video does also have some humorous elements. As we know the Arctic Monkeys like to party quite a lot due to the publicity they receive I think some fans like this music video in particular as it gives them a 'real insight' into their life.



Here is the song 'Wonderwall' by Oasis. The music video has been edited in black and white and shows the band performing and also 'messing around' on set and singing to the camera, bringing forth the idea of simplistically  that their band is . This video is quite a simple idea but also fits the songs tone. Their performance enhances their known personality's of been 'relaxed' and not wanting lots of attention. Their is no evidence of drugs, sex or alcohol as they are just performing as a band. It also does include other characters in order to make it more interesting and the star image is being subtly shown in the band as there is not too much interest on them.

Richard Dyer Theories

 

A2

We made it! I have finished the AS course as I did the exam last week and I NAILED IT. Here will be the start of my A2 blog for this year and I'm very excited to explore the different aspects that A2 media will bring forth and enter the new challenge of learning about the media industry and creating an epic music video.

Audience Feedback

One of the things that my group and I thought would be helpful would be to get a group of people, let them watch our thriller and then give us feedback on what was good/ what to improve.

Some of criticisms we received and one of the most popular view was that they didn't get our intended reading, as they thought the actor killed himself afterwards, not getting the view of him threatening the police with the gun. However, they all did agree that if it was a full film, they would of understand the next scene and realised what our actor was doing.

A lot of positive feedback was related to mise en scene as everybody commented on how well our room looked like a motel room and little details were noticed like the fire safety sign at the back of the door. They also commented on the lighting and how they thought it looked very realistic but could of had another colour to add to the street lamp.

Another positive was towards our overall editing and sound as they thought the sound effects used were useful in telling the story and really built up the tension whilst the editing was slick and quick.

Evaluation Task 7 - Looking back at your preliminary taski, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?