TASK 3

Stan- Eminem

Genre and style Dear Stan is not entirely typical of the Hip Hop genre, first of all the music video tells a linear story,

atypical compared to most Hip-hop videos witch either represent ideals or just portray the main artist.

The first three verses are not even sung by Eminem, they are sung by Stan, very atypical as it lacks the

Star power most hip-hop music videos do.

While Eminem features heavily in the music video, it is hardly ever in person, usually showing up in

pictures on the wall or in videos Stan keeps. Unlike most Hip-hop videos, his appearances are very

unglamorous, him just sitting there. The reason for this lack of glamour is that the point of the video was

to show him as a normal person, and he should not be put on a pedestal. The lack of colour is not entirely

unlike many hip-hop songs, as a lot of hip hop does have bleak elements inside it, but the practically

monochrome colour scheme in this song Is still pretty different compared to most Hip-Hop videos.

Codes and Conventions

One things inferred through codes is the fact

Stan wears white clothing. While this is to stay

as close to Eminem as possible, it also shows

how unstable he is, as in western culture, white

can represent insanity, such as the white of an

insane asylum.

The colour blue is used to represent loyalty, so

when Dido’s character wears a blue shirt and

Hoddie, its showing she is loyal and courageous.

It especially shows her loyalty to Stan,

When in the car, Stan refrences Phil Collins “in the air of the night”, a song about how a man could have

saved another from drowning, but let him die by inaction. Stan claims eminem did the same to him, could

have saved him from drowning (both metiphorical and literal), but by not replying to his letters, let him

die.

Another reference is in the chorus, taken from the song “thank you” by Dido, who features in the video, it

says:

My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering

why

I got out of bed at all

The morning rain clouds up my

window

And I can't see at all

And even if I could, it'd all be grey

But your picture on my wall

It reminds me that it's not so bad

It's not so bad

The song is about having a bad life, but having that one person that shines through it and makes you feel

better. In the context of the song by Dido, this is a good thing, but in Stan, it takes on a darker meaning,

showing how for Stan, Eminem and his music is the only good point in his life. Contrasted slightly in the

Dido sings this, meaning it might be that Stan is the only good point in her life, but we know so little of

her character that its unknown.

While Eminem raps the entire thing, the lip

synching is done by the actor who plays Stan.

This is atypical of the Hip-Hop genre as it

does not show the main artist as much as it

could of. It makes sense in the context of the

story though.

Narrative The story of dear Stan is simple, the start of the story is Stan Dyeing his hair too look more like Eminem

and his girlfriend (played by Dido) starts an argument with him, claiming he has “gone too far”, after this

Stan retreats into his basement, more or less a shrine to Eminem. After this each verse is a letter or voice

recording Stan sends to Eminem, telling him that he is his biggest fan, and that his life revolves around his

music and life. After Eminem replies, Stan is driven to madness, and after his girlfriend finds an image of

Eminem pasted on to a photo of her and Stan together, Stan ties her up in the back of her trunk and

drives off the road into the water, drowning them both.

The narrative is very linear, only jumping backwards in the form of flashbacks, and moving forward

through time through the song.

Representation This is a rare example of a Hip-Hop video that

vilifies putting people on a pedestal, so the

representation in this video is lower than it

would be in other ones, but you can see that

Eminem’s face is almost always in the shot,

especially when Stan is writing his letters in

the basement, where there are hundreds of

posters of Eminem, while it works in the

context of the song, it is also to advertise his

face through the video.

Another example of representation is how

Eminem looks during the concert, the high

angle shot puts him literally above everyone

else, giving him a sense of grandeur and size.

Eminem takes on a slightly different

appearance at the end of the video, the use of

glasses and position indicates intelligence, and

his words go along with that, I hesitate to use

the word wisdom, but that’s the image that

seems to be created, representing him a lot

more mellow as he usually seems

Camera angles

An overhead, impossible shot, (made possible by

lack of ceiling). Shows the separation between

our two characters, Stan and his girlfriend.

A standard medium shot, with lightning showing

the lunacy of Stan’s basement. Lighting draws

focus to the desk, a focal point in the music video

The focus in this shot is on the letters he writes,

many of which seem unsent. The focus and the

purposeful walk show the watcher that he

intends to write another letter

A symmetrical medium shot, or two shot, as

opposed to the standard rule of three medium

shot. Made to show duality or conversation. In

this case the duality between Eminem and Stan,

Stan is looking into a mirror and seeing Eminem,

showing that he wants to be him.

Over the shoulder shot, with the girlfriend in focus, showing her in thought, followed by a similar over the

shoulder shot with both of them in focus and Stan shouting, once again showing his instability

A Low Angle Arc shot. Meaning the camera was pointing

up at the actor, and moving in a circle around them, puts

focus on his face and the words he is saying/thinking. It is

usually used to signify mental or physical prowess,

showing them bigger than they are. But in this case the

distortion of perspective serves to further show how

unhinged Stan is.

Stan wearing white as opposed to the rest of the crowd’s

black makes him stand out. It does not really show in the

picture due to cut-off, but rule of three applies here too.

Stan is standing in the middle of two equal sized groups.

This shot is done slightly low angle, showing his

vulnerability at this moment, as he comes face to face

with his idol

The close up shot of Stan’s collage, him and his girlfriend, with his girlfriend replaced by Eminem fades out

into Stan and his girlfriend’s bedroom, with his girlfriend taking the same position on the screen as Eminem,

once again showing how Stan would rather Eminem be laying there than his girlfriend. The fact that the

room is obscured by darkness further creates a dark atmosphere.

During the entire “Stan destroys his room”

segment, random frames keep on skipping. These

skipped frames give a feeling of panic and madness.

As well as this it suddenly speeds up and slows

down, giving the same idea in a less subtle way

Another two shot. This time its Stan in the reflection, for the

first time, its Eminem that’s thinking too much about Stan.

So he comes up in the window, showing how he is haunting

Eminem, he is a metaphorical or literal ghost, haunting

Eminem’s thoughts, with how things could have been

different

Katy Perry- Last Friday Night

Genre and style Katy Perry’s last Friday night is pretty typical of the genre, her poppy style is drove home by her use of

bright neon and pastel colours, that can be seen in her other videos too. Unlike many modern pop songs,

this entire video

seems to focus on

the 80’s, we can see

this from the

clothing styles and

use of 80’s stars

(Corey Feldman and

Debbie Gibson as

the parents, and

Kenny G as Uncle

Kenny, as

saxophone artist).

This creates both a

dissonance in the lyrics, where she sings about the internet, and uses terms that did not exist at the time,

such as epic fail, as well as a dissonance in the video itself, where she uses a Nintendo Wii to play just

dance, a game that came out in 2009.

The reference to previous era is not entirely atypical of the pop genre, and has done before with videos

such as “shut up and dance” or “true survivor”, both of which take place in the 80’s (a very over the top

80’s), but are written in the 2010’s.

Rather atypical of the Genre, and in

fact any genre, is the fact that this

video is shot like a movie, not only

does it feature credits at the end, it

opens with a wide camera shot

similar to a movie, and the shots

used a very cinematic, trying to

capture the feeling of the 80’s.

Even the chorography alludes to the 80’s, with the characters in the video doing dances such as the

robot, that gained traction in the late 70’s, as was still popular into the 80’s.

The song is not overtly complex in its meaning, it’s about getting to drunk at a party and forgetting what

happened, trying to piece it together from all the things that you see when you wake up, the video shows

this, starting after the party had already finished, and goes along to show you how the night happened.

This entire song is chocked full of allusions to other artists, not

just music artists either. The parents are played by Corey

Feldman and Debbie Gibson, Corey Feldman is best known for

playing mouth in the goonies, a classic 80’s film, Debbie Gibson

was an American singer songwriter in the 80’s. As well as this

the video featured Kenny G as Uncle Kenny, Kenny G was a

famous saxophone artist that came to fame with his album in

the 80’s. From these references alone you can see the creator

of the video wanted to pack as many 80’s references in the

video and they possibly could, so all the adult characters are

played by 80’s stars, furthering the 80’s motif.

The younger characters have obviously had to be played by younger artists, so we have Issac, Zac, and

Taylor hanson playing themselves in the band Hanson, and Kevin Mchall and Darron criss, of glee fame,

both also play charicters, as well as Rebecca black. This allusion to otheer artists and actors is mostly

comes down to who katy perry knows, or who was under the same label, Having Rebeeca black play a

charicter may be an allusion to her most famous song being called “Friday”, sharing the theme of Fridays

with this song.

Codes and conventions

Kathy herself is filled with conventions, her wearing

retainers, having ill-fitting glasses and messy hair all

go towards indicating one thing, she’s a nerd. This

stereotype was especially prevalent in the 80’s,

explaining the look further considering the entire

video is set in the 80’s. More than one character also

has the classic conventions of a nerdy character

Everet (Kevin McHale’s character), is another

character with nerdy conventions, the same ill-

fitting glasses, suit shirt and suspenders (sort of

fashionable now, but less so in the 80’s) and braces,

admittedly without the retainer, but still has all the

conventions of a “nerd” character. He even dreams

of fantasy, showing him to be even more nerdy

This character is not given a name, but simply by

looking at him we can assume many things, him

wearing an American football jersey lets us assume

he is athletic, his haircut and demeanour are all

conventions pointing towards him being a “jock”, due

to the 80’s theme of the video it makes sense, as this

was a style and a group of people at the time

When Kathy changes clothes, it is not immediately

shown for a modern viewer what has changed, but

rest assured, this was a legitimate style in the 80’s,

the perm and Lycra crop top were more “popular”

styles. This shows she by wearing them, has become

more “popular”

Narrative The narrative of this story is relatively simple, but is nonlinear, it starts near the end of the story, with

Kathy (the main character who Katy Perry plays) waking up long after the party finished, and trying to

piece it together, thinking about the party last night, it then flashes back to before the party started and

explains how the party went down. Starting at the end and then flashing back to the start makes it a

nonlinear story. It eventually goes back to the end, finishing slightly after the video started. They may

have done it due to the fact the song is about

with someone waking up and forgetting what

happened the night before, so starting with

that same idea means it syncs up with the

song, and also encourages the viewer to watch

the video, as they too will wonder how the

house ended up as it did, especially

considering how nerdy the main character

looks, meaning she would not be likely to host

such a party.

Representation

This video is atypical of the genre in a few respects, it is very movielike, and so instead of

being herself in the video (or at least what she wants to be viewed as), Katy Perry is

playing a character, that does not relate to her in real life. So despite her having a

clear and defined style in the other videos, this one shows her as someone completely

different from her predefined personality she shows in other videos. At the same

time, it is recognizable as her, and thus the video can be said as promoting the

artists simply due to the fact she plays the main character in it, and thus shows

up more than any other character in the video. For those who watch this video

before knowing about the artists, they would assume that exaggeration is

happening, but I think would also assume the awkward persona was genuine,

despite her being very confident in all of her other videos.

Male/Female gaze theory

Male Gaze theory states that any form of media that has conventionally

attractive woman or men will sell better with the opposite sex. We can see this

video appeals to both woman and men, with attractive characters in either

group. Both Katy’s character and The jock are both examples of male and female

gaze theory.

As with many pop videos representation is

very important, Katy is shown consistently

throughout the videos, with many close-

ups of her face in several different

occasions. Despite being nerdy and

awkward in the videos, these close-ups

are very obviously pandering towards the

male gaze, witch while it makes sense

within the context of the video, is still an

example of male gaze theory. Her strong

use of neon and pastel colours shows her

to be vibrant and fun loving, an

impression she continues to show through

other videos. The large use of pink

obviously indicates femininity, and she

does play towards the femininity a lot in

her videos.

Synergy The music video was obviously sponsored by the video game just dance, despite the game, and it console

(the Nintendo Wii) not existing when the story is set. This may be either to garner popularity for both

brands, or due to just dance paying the creators of the video to feature it in the video. At any rates fan of

the game are more likely to check out the video, and vice versa.

Camera angles

The video starts with an establishing shot of the street

the video starts off in. These are designed to show the

audience where the action is taking place. It is a very

wide shot that follows the paperboy

This close up puts focus on Kathy, Katy Perry’s

character, it’s a standard close up, and introduces her

character as she talks. This transitions into a shot-

reverse shot. In witch two characters have a

conversation, and the camera switches between the

two of them to show who is talking or to show

reactions

This transitions into a long shot, showing how much of

a mess the room is in, as well as establishing a whole

body shot of Kathy and the rest of the characters.

A two shot, showing how Everret is in love with Kathy,

and the close up two shot is used to show closeness

between the two character in the shot. Obviously this

shot is fantasy but it shows in his head that he is

interested in Kathy.

Another two shot, this time show the comparison

between Rebecca black and Kathy, one is nerdy and

unsociable and the other is sociable and popular, having

that party round her house. The duality between them

is in how opposite they are to each other

This is an extreme close up shot, these are usually either

used to show something happening to the face of a

character, or to show their expression if it is important.

In this case the extreme close up does both, it shows

how she is having her lip waxed, and then shows how

painful it is.

This is a medium shot that pans upwards from Kathy’s

feet to reveal her new style slowly. This in the context

of the video causes the viewer to slowly take in what

has changed in her new style.

A medium close up, as this is another star to add star

power, the camera focuses on Kenny.G, showing him

playing saxophone (as this is what he is usually

portrayed with, thus it is more easily recognizable as

him) The close up lingers and allows us to realize who

it is who is playing

Another two shot, this time, no duality is being show,

but it shows the relationship between these

character, without even being told you can assume

these are Kathy’s parents, just from their demeanour

and the way it is shot, the fact it is a medium shot

allows us to see both of the characters, as they are

both famous and adds even more star power to the

video, and as the shot lingers on them for a very long

time, we can recognize them easier.

Conclusion

Katy Perry- Last Friday night Katy Perry’s video is made like a movie, thus it avoids many of the hang up’s of its genre, it is instantly

more interesting that many other pop music videos, due to it being shot cinematically and having an

actual story instead of just showing off the main artists. The fact that Katy Perry plays a character in the

video is very atypical of the genre, as she does not get to show herself off as she would in other videos. I

think this makes Last Friday Night very different from most videos in the pop genre, and lead towards its

popularity.

Eminem- Stan Stan is similar to Katy Perry’s video in that it tells a story, though Stan is far more linear. The dark tone of

the video and legitimately dark and frightening story aided towards its popularity, it does not focus on

Eminem, instead focusing on a completely unrelated character who is obsessed towards him. Unlike most

hip hop these means that the video is very unglamorous towards the idea of idolisation, thus gained

popularity due to its cinematic style and unconventional story.

Comparison I think both of these videos strived to break through the conventions of their genre, and not only

succeeded, but thrived. both videos being shot cinematically I think lead to their popularity, but the tone

of both were so massively. different. Stan was dark and ended on a low note, while Last Friday night was

a feel good story. Last Friday night was much more of a “safe” video, it was pretty much guaranteed to

succeed due to the popularity of the song, while Stan’s dark tone and serious story was a risk for Eminem.

Stan also did not accept advertisement, as it was too dark of a subject to be paid by a company for it, but

Katy Perry accepted advertisement in the form of just dance. Despite Katy Perry’s video being shot more

cinematically, Eminem’s shots had more meaning, and created meaning in the words and song, while Last

Friday Night mostly had shots for the sake of them, to establish characters and places, and show what

needed to be shown, and little else.

In the end Stan had more meaning than last Friday night, but Last Friday night had a much higher budget

and was incredibly ambitious in its scale and idea, with more stars and cameos, as well as a bigger set and

more effort, I think both videos have merit in that sense, they do very different things.