This video essay brings together two texts—Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and the recent TV show Hannibal created by Bryan Fuller—and two ways of video-based analysis—videographic criticism and vidding (which is a specific tradition of fan-made remix videos).
My remix creates a conversation between Rope and Hannibal regarding the relationship of queerness and violence in these texts. Or in other words, it shows how both of these texts are about “murder husbands.”
In terms of structure, the video essay has three parts and introduction. The introduction sets up the characters.
Part I addresses Rope and the practice of videographic criticism. It uses techniques like the voice-over and on-screen text.
Part II addresses season one of Hannibal. It uses the techniques of vidding, which include song choice, editing on the beat, reorganization of narrative, and juxtaposition between images and lyrics. The song serves as lens of interpretation: the lyrics guide your reading of the images.
Part III merges techniques borrowed from videographic criticism and from vidding in a form I call the scholarly remix. Part III also includes images featuring graphic violence.
