PARADE Magazine (2012)

Characters

Shots

• When The Discoverer finds Harry, he towers over the viewer, showing he’s in control & he object he looks at is at his mercy. He sees that Harry is something special, but what he sees is only the way he looks, his other-ness, not his talent. He hasn’t heard him sing yet. Interestingly, Harry is fully bearded (lol) when they find him. Is this a reference to him right now? Or is this simply a tool to show he’s been at sea for a long time (Eroda continued)?
• Next we see a red crab. Is this a dig at duplishitty and the whole Sebastian drama some months ago? I remember tons of Ariel memes at the time when Harry’s character turned out to be actually called Sebastian and the larries dragged that fic through the mud all over twitter. It was glorious. Ergo a dig at hetharries’ image of him? Don’t ruin my fantasy? Your fantasy is our #1 priority?
• Then we see a dirtyass industrial kitchen: it is grimey, stuff happens here that the people who enjoy their meals do not want to know about - just like in the music industry. If the people knew how bad it gets behind the literal curtain - would they still be as happy throwing their money at it? As soon as they get the call, the engine starts: the well oiled machinery of the music industry
• everything is documented right from the beginning in flashing snapshots: Harry’s discovery on the beach, where he gets ‘made’ into who he will be the kitchen, closeup of what makes him special (his tail), meeting all the important people in this world. Everyone wants to be in the shot showing off their catch (the Manager at his tail, showing it off, the Woman close to his head (stunting? or maybe AnnMarie from PR who doubled as their mental health counselor, whispering into his ear?)). Is the Kitchen The X-Factor, where he proves himself and wraps them all around his finger with his siren voice? There he sees what they’re doing to the ones that are like him but don’t stand out: they’re violently cut up, produced into quick money. It is a literal competition to survive - almost like the auditions.

• The crew is almost scared or weirded out at first but also entranced - Harry distracts them while he surprises them with showing up behind him or next to them, catching them off guard while taking everything in with wide eyes: he’s a quick learner, he soaks up how this world works immediately. Then the handler gets him with a bribe of fish: they dangle it in front of his face, and it’s what he wants.
• As soon as he takes the bait it transitions to him performing in the venue itself. We see him with cut hair and a fancy robe, showing the Manager and Handler what he can offer. Is this Harry having to prove himself, again, as a solo artist with HS, now that he’s performing in the actual venue, where there will be eventually an audience? Or is this still proving himself with One Direction?
• We see a montage of them making him feel like a star, accommodate his otherness, his tail, in a way that he truly feels like a star, and there’s so much glitter everywhere, making everything sparkly. Very interesting here: the towels they use to hydrate his tail, the thing that makes him so interesting and enticing, to keep it healthy and happy, are blue green = could be that he feels that at first they humoured Larry Stylinson - until 2012 it was not a problem and they even used the “bromance” for marketing - until they don’t anymore. While Harry’s eyes and ears are  plugged “for his own good” to relax and be distracted, you can see the handler starting to resent Harry for having to take care of Harry’s weird tail, and if he doesn’t check on him he stops actually taking care of it. In the meantime, the Manager is weirdly obsessed with the tail. Harry starts to wear a pearl necklace - the pearl is a widely recognised symbol of genderquerness (the oyster, that produces the pearl changes its sex at least once in its lifetime, usually start out male and become female).

• again, everything is documented in snapshots: Harry and how the people around him feed him and take care of him
• Harry becomes accustomed to the lifestyle and acts like a diva - or does he? He asks for tea which he uses to gargle, taking care of the one thing he knows is keeping him alive: his voice. He has the Manager give him a manicure while sitting in the women’s dressing room, a little white women’s chemise hung up behind him on the wall ready for him to slip into. He starts wearing sunglasses: he is shielding himself more, and he wears even more pearls, they’re on the sunglasses too now. He becomes more flamboyantly genderqueer and has the Manager help him express it? There’s even more pearly waiting for him to be worn on the table in front of him. More, more, more pearls!

• He doesn’t like the music they want him to sing. But the music video synchronises with the song just in that moment and has Harry say: “whatever you want” - even though he doesn’t like the songs he will sing them, because that’s what the manager wants - and otherwise he might end up dead. In return he wears even bigger feathery gowns and boas. Pearl sunglasses are a thing now. He has glitter confetti in his hair. He is fabulous.
• even though it makes it look like he’s treated like a diva, he’s still in the dingy diner with loads of filing boxes. These boxes over boxes are filled with - contracts? He is with The Discoverer in this scene. Is this Simon?

• the Manager takes care of him in order to make money off of him, literally grooms him and enjoys lubing up his tail a little too much - there’s a shot that focuses on the wedding band he wears on his finger. The way the mv is shot, there is a broad sexualisation of Harry’s tail, constantly filling the frame, lubed up, glistening, primed = Harry gets sexualised, his most sexual, peculiar features on display all the time to get more people interested and enticed. And although the Handler sees that the Manager fetishises Harry’s tail, he doesn’t say anything, only judges. 

• soon, Harry has dark circles underneath his eyes that he treats with patches. He is tired? Exhausted? But keeps going while becoming more impatient with everyone around him.
• Another round of snapshots: food/seeing what happens to people like him that don’t stay relevant (they get chopped up and eaten), there’s beer & drinks, pretty surroundings like the coral throne for him, and a prawn dangles from string: more bribe? It’s always in front of him, even when performing
• then he is finally on stage: he’s happy, wearing a pearl crown and is loaded with pearl necklaces, sings into the microphone and does his iconic whale. It’s where he’s happy. But there’s a close up shot of his birdcage tattoo = he’s still trapped and caged.

• There’s a closeup of two cherries in a martini glass: Cherry, Stunts, Alcohol? Both are parts of the world he’s living in: the show biz.

• when he’s performing in front of the audience, the people are not super into the performance, the ones the Manager so excitedly wants to sell Harry to don’t care too much about him or his performance, just want to watch the peculiar creature writhe. There’s a disparity between what the Manager thinks the audience want and what the Crowd actually want. The Boy asks to touch his tail (= his most sexualised feature), and Harry slaps him for it. Did people want to have Harry and he never gave himself away like that?
• more snapshots: of credit cards in cash machines and cash: the Manager makes a lot of money off of Harry, the way he rejects the Boy, his performance, the musicians, him singing - it all gets documented every step of the way.
• At the height of his career, his voice leaves - a nightmare coming true. The lights turn off and it gets cold, as soon as he can’t offer what the Manager thinks is profitable (his voice), his previously praised feature (his tail, his otherness) won’t save him. The Woman gets ready to dice him by sharpening her knife - she’ll take him down, too. The Handler will help cooking him, no questions asked, no emotions shown.
• The Manager actually reminisces about him Harry and misses him, even though he gave the go to kill him and make him into sushi: he doesn’t see that he was the one to make the decision and instead blames the market / capitalism. Still fetishises him in retrospect: he doesn’t actually miss Harry, but what value he had for him: profit and getting his fetish satisfied (he’s swirling his fingers in the vaseline). 
• Even of the process of destroying him they try to squeeze out a last little profit which they document in snapshots