In Eminem’s m music video for his song “3 a.m.” the director did a masterful job of styling the video in order to really bring the viewer into the story. The use, or lack thereof, of color and lighting throughout the video really helped to set the depressive/drug induced scene that was the theme of the song. The majority of the video is shot in black and white with very dull lighting with the exception of brief ‘blasts’ of bright light to enhance the eerie feeling of the location. In addition to the lighting used, the filming technique is key to immersing the viewer in the story. Most of the scenes were shot with what appeared to be a handheld camera in the style of “The Blair Witch.” The jerkiness of the camera along with the scratchy quality of the video played a large role in creating the tone of the video. The final main element that I noticed play a large role in making the video very effective was the use of editing. To kind of go along with the handheld technique used, the editing jumped around a lot in quick bursts. When all of these elements are combined with the beat and lyrics, they come together to really bring the song to life. In this day and age of music video basically being short films, the creators of this one have done a masterful job of telling this particular story

. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrBcVx33Ek