Fearmonger -- Project 5 Artist Statement
      I had grand ideas about making a multi-self-character video, but I let the end of the semester creep up. I had to turn to an idea earlier in the semester. It was to make a Fox News gif coupled with slasher movie clips at the end of each reel. At the time I chose to do a different gif idea but with it in my back pocket and an open project for the final I thought it would make a great piece.
           For project 5 I hunted down some clips of Fox News oozing fear stories. This was not hard to find. I then slipped in some well-placed horror movie clips in a building tension of fear. All of this was blanketed by a silly old spooky song âThe Boogie Man is Hereâ to acknowledge the silly nature of Fox Newsâs hype that everything they donât agree with or believe in is DANGER, DOOM, PANIC, CRISIS and should be FEARED to rally up their viewers. Nothing sells like catastrophe and the next dire circumstance in Fox Newsâs eye.
           Now do not get me wrong, there are real crises in the world and Fox will occasionally hit on them but most of the time they peddle slopped and one-sided views. In so many ways Fox News is like a constantly running horror movie. The innocent people of the world stumble onto a dark evil that is going to kill everyone. The darkness hides and stocks, all the while, these innocent people do not know what they face. Each new darkness they reveal must be stopped at all costs or the world will end. Even if they end up âwinningâ, it is not for long because there is a new evil lurking around the next corner. They get their viewers so riled up sometimes itâs dangerous to others. If this were not so sad and terrifying to watch in the real world, it could be a hilarious fiction.
           For my video, Fearmonger, I try to show the building of fear and the then fanning of those fear flames Fox News spews. I then laced it with a personification of horror with movie clips to amplify to the audience what Fox is projecting. The blending of the clips together is done with a cartoonishly goofy song in hopes of representing the absurd nature of the over the top and unfounded fantasy of doom Fox News shovels daily. This artwork is something meant to be laughed at and with, but also highlight the fear porn sold to Fox News viewers on a constant basis.