Against Madison Video
I tried to convey through my video that Madison deteriorated what George Washington established, was unfaithful to the United States, and was simply a minion of Thomas Jefferson. I began my film by not only highlighting George Washington’s career as a general and as the first president, but also how Washington is of the noblest stature. The background music is Vivaldi’s “Spring”, I intended for the song’s happy melody to indicate the utopia of Washington’s presidency. The first image is of his farewell address, showing that he left the nation in perfect order, emphasized with the highly complementary quote, “A life ever devoted to the dearest interests and felicity of mankind.” The next image shows him as a general, looking regal and healthy, highly capable of leading the American nation. Behind him, troops look up to him, as if to seek advice or for leadership. The next frame is of a quote fading back into the distance, which reads, “May his presidential career secure to America, at least, some of those eminent services, which has rendered Washington so much the admiration of the world”. The quote is moving backwards and out of sight, as Washington moves away from the presidency. In the next phrase there is a diminuendo in the music, and a nostalgic, scenic, and pleasant image of Washington moves backwards in Keith Burns’ effect, emphasizing that his presidential reign is ending, as is the happy music.
The next frame begins with the sounds of Mozart’s foreboding and ominous sounding “Moonlight Sonata”, along with a scary image of Madison; the video zooms in on his unfriendly and cold expression. He is wearing black and white and there is a red curtain draped in the background. I purposefully repeatedly used the colors red, black, and white in several of the images because together those colors are harsh, and my goal was to diminish Madison’s likability as much as possible. The next frame is a black and white grainy image of Madison with the quote in red writing, “Mr. Madison was one of the framers and defenders of the Constitution; but no sooner did Mr. Jefferson return from Europe than Mr. Madison commenced an opposition to the measures of government”. The grainy image is intended to imply that Madison is wishy-washy, and the quote covers part of him; Madison’s fickle actions reduce his credibility. The next frame features another black and white image of Madison with red writing over it. This time, the image is of Madison with his hand on a document. And the writing says, “Embargo of 1807” and then “ ‘A strong measure’?”. The following frames answer the question. The next frame is a political cartoon featuring Jefferson and a mob of unhappy people. The words over the image are a few of the people’s speech blurbs, “My warehouses are full”, “The goods are spoiling”, and “My family is starving”. The next frame is another political carton, again black, white and red. This carton shows two merchants who are unhappy with the Embargo Act, referring to it as the “cursed Ograbme”. “Ograbme” was one of the nicknames the Embargo of 1807 was given, along with “dambargo”, emphasizing frustration with the failure of the measure. The red words over the black and white cartoon read, “A more impudent attempt to further mislead an already misled people”. The last frame zooms in on a black and white image of Madison looking severe while sitting in a chair, with red words that read, “be not misled”, playing off the last quote, and then “vote not for Madison”.
Quotes: (in order of appearance)
New-Hampshire Gazette. “George Washington’s Birth-Day”. Vol. XLII. Issue 2152. Page 3. 02-21-1798. Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Weekly Museum. “Saturday; March; Yesterday; Heaven; George Washington; Consequently; John Adams; President”. Vol. 40. Issue 40. Page 3. 03-04- 1797. New York, New York.
Gazette. “Miscellaneous Articles. Important Crisis”. Vol. III. Issue 108. Page 1. 05- 19-1800. Portland, Maine.
New-England Palladium. “Political Miscellany. For the Palladium”. Vol. XXXI. Issue 9. Page 1. 01-29-1808. Boston, Massachusetts.
Quotes from the cartoon’s speech blurbs.
Massachusetts Spy. “Miscellany. Embargo”. Vol. XXXVI. Issue 1814. Page 1. 01-13- 1808. Worcester, Massachusetts.
Images: (in order of appearance)
Image 1: George Washington’s Farewell Address
http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/George_Washington_(1732-1799)/biography
Image 2: George Washington with Troops
Image 3: George Washington at windowsill
Image 4: James Madison in color in front of red curtain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James_Madison.jpg
Image 5: Grainy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James_Madison.png
Image 6: Black and white, hand on document (Constitution)
http://curezone.com/ig/i.asp?i=24273
Image 7: Jefferson with people unhappy about the Embargo Act
http://yesteryearsnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/embargo-act-effects-of-that-grand-system-1807.jpg
Image 8: Unhappy merchants, “Ograbme”
http://matthewashton.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/embargo-act.jpg
Image 9:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Madison_sitting2.jpg
Music: (in order of occurrence)
Vivaldi, Antonio Lucio. The Four Seasons: Spring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dYNttdgl0
Beethoven, Ludwig van. Horowitz: A Reminiscence: Piano Sonata #14 in C sharp Minor, Op. 27/2, “Moonlight”- 1. Adagio Sostenuto. Performed: Vladimir Horowitz .