Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 1

Justine Gibson, Tina Vartanian Makari, Alejandra De La Torre, Rogelio Islas Munoz
John Kubler
English 114B
4 May 2014
Eminem-Stan
A wise man named Santiz once said, Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes
the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.
The art of music comes in various forms; however, the message or themes conveyed in the song
is different for everyone. Creating a music video for any song is a challenge because it is the
visual interpretation of the song. Our creative team struggled with the interpretation of the song
Stan; however, using the writing skills we have acquired throughout this semester were able to
compose our own music video. During our effort to develop a well entertaining music video we
were successful in linking ten of our in class discussion topics to our music video and create a
well informative newsletter explaining how we used these topics in the video. The setting of the
video and the characters that were involved in the making of the video as well as the ten topics
will be presented further into this essay. Each person in the groups task was crucial for making
our assignment come together and a success.
The music video for the song, Stan by Eminem, is shot in Denver, Colorado. The videos
time period was in the early years of the 20th century. Stan and his girlfriend live in a trailer
home on the west side of town. In the first scene we are introduced to Stan, Eminems biggest
fan. Stan, played by Draco Malfoy, walks into his man cave and admires his shrine of Eminem
pictures. The hundreds of photos all around the room show his obsession with the famous rapper.
The camera angle begins to slowly turn to show the audience how much Stan idolizes Eminem.
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 2
During this scene, Stan is wearing a white t-shirt with Eminems face on it with the words rap
king scrolled across the top of it, a pair of dark wash jeans that happen to be sagging and a
black leather belt. The t-shirt symbolizes Stans obsession with the rapper and how he sees him
as his king.
In the next scene, Stan is being shown stalking and gathering information about his idol
on the computer. He is wearing grey sweats and a t-shirt; however, this time it is black and white
with a mug shot of Eminem on it. Again, this is portraying the love affair Stan has for Eminem
and he goes as far as wearing clothing with his face on it. While on the computer Stan begins to
write Eminem several emails with his personal information so that he will contact him.
After waiting several weeks, Stan begins to get upset because he realizes that this is the
third time he has tried to contact Eminem with no response. Immediately the scene shifts to the
bathroom where Stan had drugs and weapons. The music video turns rather violent and bloody
when Stan begins to cut himself for pleasure. He also begins to take lines of cocaine to ease his
pains. The audience then sees the blood all over the sink and the cocaine lines on the counter.
During this scene Stan is in a white t-shirt with bloodstains all over him and a pair of dark wash
jeans. In the next scene, we are introduced to Stans girlfriend, played by Brittany Murphy, who
happens to be pregnant with his child. She is being shown wearing black sweat pants, a white t-
shirt with a black leather jacket over it. As Brittany walks through the door, Stan comes out of
the bathroom and begins arguing with her in the living room. As the argument progressed, Stan
begins to beat her until she went unconscious. In the background, the audience hears Eminem's
lyrics ...my girlfriend's jealous cause I talk about you 24/7... A few days later, Stan woke
Brittany up from her sleep, tied her up and threw her into the trunk of his car. I went for more of
a gangster type look and an outfit that would be similar to what Eminem would wear, so I
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 3
chose an all-black hoodie, black sweatpants, a grey beanie and a pair of timberland boots; while
Stans girlfriend is shown in a black and white nightgown, crying with makeup smeared all
over her face. The scene then shifts to Stan ...doing 90 in the freeway... on a cold rainy night.
While driving, he begins to record his thoughts and feelings to Eminem. As he approached a
bridge, Stan drives his car off the road while his pregnant girlfriend is in the trunk of the car tied
up. The last shot of the girlfriend would be a flashback of her in a dark setting with her hands
close to her chest as if she was praying. The next few seconds of the music video would be more
like snapshots of what was happening. The car sinking in the water, the ambulance arriving to
the scene and rescuing Stan, Brittany and the unborn child passing away, and the arrest of Stan.
The final scene of the music video would be Stan in an asylum wearing a straightjacket staring at
an Eminem picture and smiling.
We have chosen ten topics that we have worked on throughout our class period that we
were able to link to our music video. For each topic we explained what it was and how it was
used and defined in the original music video. We analyzed the data we got from original music
video and we were able figured out how to incorporate these ten topics in the music video we
were going to depict. The next few paragraphs will present the ten topics we have chosen to be
included in our music video.
The first three topics presented in the song Stan by Eminem is from project space that
deals with the space around us and how we use it. Materialism/display of possessions involves a
person displaying something he or she values greatly in a room or around their home which is
how they enjoy using their space. An example of this would be when wealthy people surround
the inside of their homes with expensive cars. These cars are displayed as trophies for their
achievements and as something they really treasure. In the song this is displayed when Stan
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 4
mentions to Eminem, I got a room full of your posters and your pictures signaling that Stan
enjoys seeing Eminems pictures in his home. In a way Stan is idolizing pictures of Eminem as a
shrine that is the most important thing to him in his house and wants to display it. To depict this
in the music video we will display a room full of all pictures Stan obtained by stalking him in life
and through social media. He set up the pictures in his man cave, which is a place he enjoys
being in, to surround himself by the one person he is obsessed with.
Another topic from project space is media impact on society, which means how
television, music, the internet all affects us and our space around us. Nowadays, the media has a
huge yet negative impact in our society because it is everywhere. Young boys that come from
poor backgrounds and listen to rap music are influenced by the lyrics because they believe they
can relate to the rappers. As a result, some boys become gang members that see rap music as
their religion and rappers as their God. In this case Stan mentions to Eminem, Im just like you
in a way...I can relate to what youre saying in your songs. Eminem is known to write violent
lyrics in his songs. Since his music really influenced Stan, this caused Stan to do violent things to
himself and others. Eminem is showed all over the media and people like Stan become obsessed
and follow his lyrics like religious bible read the bible. By letting these kinds of negative impacts
in the media surround our space, it forces us to start accepting it. In the music video we would
demonstrate this by showing Stan trying to look more like Eminem and become more violent
with his girlfriend like how Eminem was with his girlfriend in real life.
The final topic part of project space is traffic handling issues, which relates to the Los
Angeles areas problem of congested highways and roads. This affects the space around us by
limiting the time and speed we travel by in order to be safe. The Los Angeles area highways are
congested the majority of the time because of the large population of people that need to
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 5
commute. In the song, Stan mentions to Eminem how he is doing 90 in the freeway alluding
that he is going to get into some kind of accident. To justify the traffic handling issue in this song
we will show Stan speeding in the freeway while it is raining. Bad weather usually gives an
assumption that something bad is about to happen. There are others driving in the freeway at
night especially truck drivers. Stan is under the influence so he is recklessly driving as he
approaches traffic starting to become congested. At this point Stan is swerving through the
freeway not trying to get stuck in traffic and not knowing where he is going. Thus, Stans car
loses traction colliding with a big trailer and falling over a bridge.
The next four topics presented in the song Stan by Eminem is from project text, which
deals with self-identity and being defined as a performative text like gay, bisexual and what it
means to be a female and male. Female gender identity issues deals with the certain behaviors
females should act like. However, it also includes the violence and abuse females encounter for
being a female. Rape and domestic violence within a couple is an example of female gender
identity issues. When Stan is recording himself for the last time to send to Eminem, he is in a car
speeding with his pregnant girlfriend who is screamin in the trunk... [and he] tied her up...cause
if she suffocates shell suffer more. Stan didnt care that his girlfriend was pregnant or he
wouldnt have wanted to hurt her. He never really loved his girlfriend as much as he loved
Eminem that is why Stan tried to kill her. In the video we will show the pregnant girlfriend tied
up in the trunk of the car before the car accident. Previously to this we are going to show Stan
hitting his pregnant girlfriend and verbally abusing her at their trailer home telling her to leave
because he doesnt like her, which we will show as a flashback, before he was on the freeway
speeding.
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 6
The second topic from project text is male gender identity issues, which deals with the
certain behaviors how males should act. It also has to do with violence, aggression and crisis of
masculinity in males. Eminem, the writer of the song Stan, has been known in the media as a
person who has many violent songs related to male aggression and abusive behavior. Stan
portrays himself as an obsessed Eminem fan, who gets angry for not getting a response from
Eminem after he wrote to him several times. Being let down by the one person he idolized and
was in love with was a huge impact in his personality which made him aggressive. Stans
aggression started when he mentioned to Eminem how he thinks its fucked up you dont
answer fans. Stan also became violent with thoughts of suicide as he realized Eminem was
letting him down by not being interested in what he had to say to him. Stan wrote to Eminem
sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds proving to the audience he is a violent
person capable of anything if he is willing to hurt himself. Stan than records himself saying I
hope your conscience eats at you and you cant breathe without me, to Eminem confronting him
at the fact that he is disappointed by who his god turned out to be. All the violence and
aggression Stan has alludes to the fact that he had mental issues that dealt with becoming
obsessed with someone he only knew by the music. I also believe Stan was going through a crisis
of masculinity for acting like a teenage girl who is in love with a boy band. No adult male in
their right mind would be this obsessed over a rapper. To demonstrate male gender identity
issues in the music video we will show Stan going through a dark time by cutting himself and
having a crazy look on his face. We would also include Stan being violent to himself by taking
drugs and screaming at everyone that wanted to help him. Finally at the end of the video Stan
would have survived the accident and portrayed in an asylum.
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 7
Strong language usage among public has become very common, in fact the use of
vulgarity is used throughout the new age media and music. The use of strong language has given
music a whole new perspective adding a lot more emotion from the artists in their lyrics. For
example the Lyrics written by Eminem from his song titled Stan give us an idea of how he uses
vulgarity in his lyrics to add emotion. Strong language vocabulary such as bit**, Fu** it, sh*t,
fuc*ed up, are spread throughout his lyrics to give us a sense of his emotions. Stan the character
playing the boyfriend role in the song uses this strong language towards his girlfriend to show
empowerment over her and his aggression and anger towards slim (Eminem) for not writing back
after receiving his fan letters. The use of vulgarity has become an issue and many artists have
started to use it in their songs to show empowerment not weakness and perhaps to build up their
reputation stronger.
A significant percentage of people cant identify themselves as gay or lesbians because they
experience sexual and emotional attractions and feelings for people of different genders at some
point during their lives. For lack of a better term, they are called bisexuals. Bisexuality has been
an issue rather more of a confusion, a double standard issue. Stan the character previously
expresses his love for Eminem even though he has a girlfriend whom is pregnant. He mentions,
My girlfriend's jealous cause I talk about you 24/7, I loved you Slim, we coulda been together.
The way Stan expresses his love for Eminem makes us think he is confused of whom he really
loves. Giving us an example of a double standard issue, hes confused of who really has feelings
towards. The way he expresses the love he has for Eminem gives us an idea of the obsession he
has over him, he loves him so much he clearly wishes to be with him rather than with his
girlfriend. This shows us how artists can become such an obsession to the point you plead for
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 8
them to be with you. We will use this topic in our video by letting Stan express his deep feelings
for Eminem while showing how much he admires and loves his work.
The internet can be a very helpful resource and a form of entertainment for many.
However the privacy of millions is threatened, your browsing history can be recorded and all
entered information on a web site is stored and can be accessed. Companies watch over your
history and use that information to send you advertisements based on what you searched for.
Anyones information can be accessed through the Internet, it has become a risk to enter your
information online being aware that your privacy is threatened and someone out there can
basically access your personal life information. In fact even famous artist addresses are posted
online so the fans can find out where these artists live. Previously mentioned the song Stan gives
us an example on how the Internet is used to find personal information of an artist. Stan who
plays the fan role in the song uses the Internet to find Slims personal life information. After
doing so he uses his email address to send him fan emails. We will use this topic by showing
Stan search for Slims information on the Internet and after finding it, well show Stan send him
three fan emails.
The Social Media enables users to create or share content or to participate in social
networking. Being one of the primary ways to communicate with friends and family social
networking has been around for several of years now and its still growing. Social Networking
basically enables you to communicate with anyone you please to wherever they are. Famous
well-known artists all over the world have these social networking accounts so that they are able
to stay in touch with thousands of their fans regardless of where they are. Stan the boyfriend in
the song mentions to Eminem hit me back, just to chat, truly yours, your biggest fan, because
he is such a big fan as its portrayed throughout the whole song we can insinuate that Stan tries
Gibson, Vartanian Makari, De La Torre, Islas Munoz 9
to keep in touch with him through social media as well. We can use this topic by showing Stan
desperately wanting to talk to him through well know social networking cities such as Facebook
and Twitter.
Multitasking can be a great skill but rather dangerous in some ways to. The ability to
multitask can help you get two or more things done at the same time. Many use the ability to
multitask in their workplace and others use it in dangerous times. Driving and texting/recording
is also known as multitasking, its the most common action done by many drivers while driving
making it a dangerous ability. Inclusively deaths and accidents have occurred because of this
habit. For example the song Stan concludes by Stan driving and recording his last message for
Eminem. While recording he loses control of the car and drives of the bridge he was driving on
and killing himself in the accident. We can use this topic showing Stan driving his vehicle with
his pregnant girlfriend tied up and locked up in the trunk resulting in a fatal car accident where
they all die.
Our visual interpretation of the song Stan, written by Eminem, had a lot to do with issues
that we as a society face on a daily basis. We incorporated themes that we had discussed in class
with our video such as: the Medias impact on society, traffic handling issues, female gender
identity issues, violence, abuse of alcohol and drugs, vulgar language, bisexuality, social
networking, etc. Although our music video contained these topics, it also told the story of a
young man named Stan and his struggle to find himself. Unfortunately at the end of the music
video Stan does not have a happy ending; however, it shows the realism in the song.