After rotting away in my dorm during freshers’ week, I was very eager to get going with this project. I knew I wanted to submit a video, and do something that would be fun to make in the limited space I had to work in.
Postcard 1: Eurovision
The first thing that came to my mind was the Eurovision Song Contest. Each act has a postcard, initially introduced as a way to kill time between acts, but have since evolved into short, cheesy clips of the singer/band who is about to perform exploring the culture and sightseeing spots that the host country has on offer. Eurovision has a high production value now, so I wondered what it would be like in an apocalyptic post-covid economic depression scenario, in which the UK was hosting and needed to send in the most crappy contestants to ensure their chance of losing, and therefore relieving themselves of the financial burden of hosting the contest next year.
I decided to go as camp as possible, taking on a drag persona like the great Verka Serduchka, but in the style of a contestant from the 80’s, with big hair and bright clothes, like this one from 1987.
Working within the limitations of my dorm, I wedged my green screen into my wardrobe doors. This was by no means a perfect fix, but it complimented the low budget look I was going for, and added an obvious dissonance between me and the environment I was pretending to be in, which the viewer could assume to be due to a lack of funds or self-isolation.
During the editing process, I used a technique called ‘datamoshing’ to add to the feeling that everything was falling apart. Using some outdated software, I could remove some of the video’s P frames which occur when there’s a transition. This produces a very pixelated effect, which deteriorates when a wiping motion is made.
The music I used was from a very unsuccessful but incredibly self aware Eurovision entry from 1980, by the band Telex. Titled ‘Eurovision’, its lyrics are about the viewers watching the show, voting, and all the technology required to do so. I manipulated the audio to make it sound more distorted and hollow during the postcard sequence, but if I had time to go over this project, I would have tried to add some original music.
Postcard 2: A Sad note
For my second postcard, I wanted to play with the idea of a digital postcard – a living postcard – taking some inspiration from the scenes in soppy romance films when they write a sentimental note to each other, and a voiceover reads the words.
I decided to play the role of the stamp, and made a frame to go around my head. This was partly inspired by the drag queen Charity Kase, who has often used painted card as props for his daily drag looks. The boldly coloured and flat appearance of these props partially enhances his cosplay of cartoon characters. The blend of 2D and 3D have a surreal effect.
I wanted to combine these ideas and styles to create a new, gimmicky postcard of the future. We are a generation obsessed with the moving image, so I wanted this card to be as lively as possible. Perhaps, in the future, we don’t just consider how our handwriting looks on the page, but the whole process of writing the letters must be documented too.
