This video for the song/rap written by Eminem called 'Stan' follows a strong narrative storyline which was actually based on a true story that impacted Eminem's life enough to make him write this song about it.
This video shows a clear star image of Eminem being adored and admired by a fan who does everything just so he can look like him or feel like he is doing his utmost to admire his image such as tattoo the name 'Slim Shady' on his chest. Because we see this fan go completely mentally and physically 'crazy', this shows that the star image being portrayed to him is so 'good', if not 'too good', as the fan loses his mental health and the love for his girlfriend over the love he has for Eminem.
This narrative video adheres to the typical 'story' in similarity to a fairy tale, with a beginning, a middle and an end. At the beginning, there is equilibrium and that is shattered by the fact 'Stan's' girlfriend is unhappy with the way she in being treated. Throughout the piece, as his girlfriend gets more and more unhappy and he becomes more and more mentally unstable, there is un-equilibrium. And finally, to complete the 'story' there is the resolution (the ending) which in this case is not a happy solution but it is a resolution to all the suffering and pain this man felt, as he kills himself. This makes Eminem feel awful about not replying sooner though so it could mean that the situation is not entirely resolved but just passed on to another person i.e Eminem.
We see iconography being used in this by seeing the posters of Eminem all over the fan's basement walls. This actually shows that Eminem's production company/management and Eminem himself do not think highly of fan 'obsessing' over him as it can have disastrous consequences, like is shown in this video when the obsessed fan kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend by driving off a bridge when Eminem does not reply soon enough to his message.
The fact that Eminem himself is not in the video questions the reason why Dido (the featuring artist) is in the video, playing the pregnant girlfriend. This suggests that they did not want the video to completely tell a story throughout with no lip-synching as it is quite a heavy topic, so they made Dido a character in order to break apart the narrative from the song.
This video is very unlike any of Eminem's newer videos which suggests that his star image has changed from being 'thoughtful' and an independent artist to a more mainstream and 'wide-audience-appealing' artist with songs like Love The Way You Lie FT Rihanna. However, this video has a massive impacted on the audience as it tells such a sad story, hereby making sales of the record higher as it appeals to a wide marketing audience.
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