Cooper Zelnick Pro Pierce Explanation Paper
I found this election, and subsequently this video, somewhat complicated to navigate. The fact that Franklin Pierce was such a dark horse candidate, as well as his lack of visibility on the national stage before the campaign made the video somewhat difficult to make. On top of this, during the election of 1852, the platforms of the Whigs and Democrats were incredibly similar, making the campaigns more focused on the personalities of the candidates than the issues.
The main themes I wanted to focus on were Pierce’s personality and abilities as a competent leader and politician, his generally acceptable views on slavery (which is to say, he was neither an abolitionist nor an ultra pro-slavery radical) and the fact that he seemed presidential, especially compared the opposition, Old Fuss and Feathers. I also chose, in this video, to spend more time updating the visuals and creating a more modern feeling and advanced set of images through the use of editing.
Initially, I struggled with the question of how much editing was acceptable, while still being historically accurate. While obviously campaign advertisement videos did not exist during this time period, the 1850s was a time of technological advancement, from the advent of the telegraph a few years prior to the increased use of photography. To that end, I thought I would use editing techniques to attempt to reflect the technological advances of the time, and thus of the era itself.
I wanted to use the beginning of my video to address one of the biggest issues facing Pierce during the campaign and election; the fact that no one knew who he was. For that reason, my first image was the heading from a newspaper announcing his nomination by the Democrats. It not only lends credibility to the candidate as a newspaper is supporting him, but also makes him seem like an established figure. This is furthered by the fact that his name appears directly below an image of an eagle, which is the central focus of the frame before it zooms out to reveal Pierce’s name and that of his running mate.
The next image is a portrait of Pierce taken during the Mexican-American war, which both highlights his military service and shows his youthful handsomeness, for which he was given the nickname “Handsome Frank.” I also chose this portrait because it makes Scott’s military service seem less unique and impressive, considering both candidates are war heroes. The first quotation I used was from a large book on Pierce that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote before the election. I thought that this lent Pierce credibility as a famous contemporary novelist was supporting him, and also highlighted him as a good candidate. While the quotation is definitely general, it espouses his presidential qualities and leadership abilities while also predicting his rise to the presidency, something that I think is effective for the beginning of an advertisement.
The next series of quotations coincided with the first use of flashy editing; I wanted not only to incorporate actual primary sources rather than simply quoting them, but also to add excitement for Pierce with editing techniques. I chose several quotations that supported Pierce and had them fade onto the page in the order in which they were printed. Finally, the rest of the article’s text fades in, which I think makes the assertions about Pierce more valid than if they were simply superimposed over a portrait of him. I also made sure to pick quotations about Pierce that were focused on his personality. Since the election was candidate, and not platform driven, I wanted my advertisement to be driven more by Pierce as a man than by Pierce as a politician.
The next quotation and image are in the same vein as the previous one. I chose an image that highlighted Pierce’s youth and attractiveness and combined it with a quotation that described Pierce as a patriot, which is the most important presidential quality possible. I wanted to use the traditional style of superimposing a textbox over an image because I use other primary source images later in the advertisement and one of the biggest issues with regard to that is the low quality of the PDFs of the newspapers. This tends to make reading them somewhat strenuous, which ultimately makes ads less successful. I thought this quotation and image would be a nice visual interlude—simple to read and look at—that would help me transition into the rest of the advertisement.
The next set of images I used were superimposed over a newspaper headline from a paper called The Patriot and specifically from an issue whose headline was “Brigadier General Pierce.” I chose to use this as a background for the two quotations I used because it was visually pleasing and also because I felt that bracketing information about Pierce with the words “The Patriot” and “Brigadier General” added to his credibility and respectability.
The first quotation served to address one of the major issues, if not the major issue of the day; slavery. While during the campaign, Pierce’s views on slavery were unclear to voters, and in fact this was one of the reasons that he was nominated, I thought failing to address the issue of slavery in the advertisement would lead to a weaker ad. Still, I didn’t want to divide Pierce’s support or to make him undesirable to any voters, so I chose a quote that made him seem incredibly moderate. I thought that casting him as a president who would preserve the status quo and protect all groups within the country would be very appealing to voters at the time.
The second segment of the quote furthers his credibility as a leader by suggesting that no matter what crises may occur during his presidency, Pierce would be able to handle them, which I thought spoke well of him. This quotation also suggested that he was a supporter of the constitution. While this is pretty obvious, and doesn’t really say anything about how Pierce will act in office and what will guide him, it does make him seem like a very safe and trustworthy candidate, something that would have been valued at the time.
The next and final substantive quotation serves to address one of the chief issues of the Pierce campaign and attempts to turn it in Pierce’s favor. I was worried that potentially ignoring the fact that Pierce was a dark horse candidate would make him seem less legitimate, so I chose to attack the issue head on with a quotation that served to marginalize his lack of visibility by making it clear that he would be plenty visible to the American public from the white house. It also served to make his election seem like more of a foregone conclusion, which I thought would inspire confidence in voters and increase the perception of Pierce as a legitimate presidential candidate.
Towards the end of the advertisement, I chose to increase the flashy editing and also to synchronize the audio and video. I partly chose to do this because in the past few weeks, the most effective videos have been those that combined audio and video while using new editing techniques, but also because I thought it would be more appealing to voters. While the beginning of the advertisement employed lengthy quotations as well as more thought-provoking content, I thought the end should appeal more to the heart than to the brain. To that end, I chose to take an image of Fillmore and then use Photoshop to fade off his head. I thought this was particularly effective as a technique when used in conjunction with the part of Pierce’s campaign song that talked about defeating Fillmore.
The song then goes on to talk about beating Scott, and while I was tempted to remove his head as I did to Fillmore, I decided that overusing that technique could ultimately weaken my advertisement, as I would be at risk of seeming too gimmicky. Instead, I chose to simply fade the image to black and white from color in an attempt to take the life out of Scott and deemphasize his importance as a candidate and competitor to Pierce.
The final two frames of advertisement were my attempt to finish in a way that incorporated the campaign slogan, the inherent presidential-ness of Handsome Frank, and a healthy dose of rhetorical flourish. I chose to superimpose a portrait of Polk onto Pierce’s body so that the final image, that of Pierce, would be the more natural looking one, and used the campaign slogan—which I pulled directly from a newspaper—along with the images. I thought the invocation of the image of Polk would not only associate Pierce with the first successful dark horse candidate, but also make him seem like a natural transition and good fit for the presidency. The audio lined up well with the final frames and I hope that the end would have been well received by voters of the time. I thought the use of the contemporary campaign song enhanced what I was going for and gave the video an upbeat and pleasing audio component which would further the message.
Sources:
http://us-presidents.findthedata.org/sites/default/files/625/media/images/Franklin_Pierce.jpg
http://www.nhhistory.org/eimages/Feb2008/piercehairstyles.htm
http://www.countryvacationsandresorts.com/blog/2011/01/traveling-with-franklin-pierce/
http://imgcache.newsbank.com/cache/ean/fullsize/pl_004102012_1951_27570_413.pdf
http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/fp07.html
http://images.wikia.com/wikiality/images/6/6f/Polk.jpg
http://www.civilwarshades.org/wp-content/uploads/shades_polk_0002.jpg
