Week 15

Our multimedia project is going well.  We filmed our commercial last Sunday.  We included four scenes.  The first scene was a shot of my legs running through the "woods," (a few trees by the intramural field), followed by a scene of Michelle running through the woods.  Then it went to a close-up shot of BuJu Juice, our sports drink, perched on the branch of a tree.  My hands, as well as Michelle's, are shown struggling to reach for the drink.  Neither of us manage to grasp it, and then the shot zooms in on the label.  The next scene has moved to the gym, and starts with the camera zoomed in on the bottle, so that the viewers would hardly know that the location had changed at the beginning of the scene.  Then Trae drinks the BuJu, while Katies doesn't.  They stretch and then beginning a running race.  Trae takes off super fast, and Katie is no competition.  She then says "Why didn't you bring me a bottle?"  Then she says "From the jungle to the gym, BuJu."

There are many reasons behind the choices we made for our commercial.  Our target audience is males between ten and thirty, and as Trae pointed out, and our research showed, males in this age range are very vulnerable to advertising that involves sex appeal.  So we had three females running in our video.  We also present BuJu as an intense drink that is not for the weak, by having people running and struggling to get it.  We also showed the athletic prowess it provides, which should appeal to many males in this age range.  We had exciting music that will pump up our audience.  Jungle drum beats that implied strength and danger were used in the parts of our video shot in the "woods."  The "woods" scenes are exciting and invoke pathos and curiosity in the audience.  "Eye of the Tiger" was played during the gym scene, which is a song that is synonymous with athletic prowess, being a prominent song in the Rocky movies.  This end scene appeals strongly to logos, because

I am responsible for the print advertisement in our group.  I am drawing a male dangling off a cliff to reach for some BuJu Juice perched in a tree on the edge of the cliff, with a deep ravine below.  It is appealing to those who like adventure and danger, typically 10 to 30 year old males.  I am also emphasizing the two most appealing colors to males: blue and green.

Week 14

Rhetorical Analysis of a Song- "The General," by Dispatch

This is an anti-war song that uses appeals to ethos and pathos, as well as logos to make its argument against warfare.  It begins by describing a "decorated general with a heart of gold."  The lyrics continue to establish his ethos by describing how experienced he is, and the "respectful fame" he earned with "many medal of bravery and stripes to his name."  The song then appeals to emotion in the listener by stating that the general "grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face."  The lyrics get the listeners sympathy by hinting at the sordid side of war.  This appeal to pathos continues as the song describes the general being unable to sleep because he was not sure that leading his infantry into battle was the morally right thing to do.  He gets up the next morning, and it is a "gray morning," which foreshadows the misery that will soon be present on the battlefield.  He then tells the infantry, who are lined up and courageously ready for battle that he has seen the "others" and their "mothers," and that "this fight is not worth fighting."  This is an appeal to pathos; by pointing out that their opponents are real people with mothers, which are a symbol of love and protection, the listener begins to sympathize with the general and see that perhaps killing other people is not the right thing to do.  Pathos, as well as logos, are then appealed to with a carpe diem argument.  The general tells his troops that as "young men" they "must be living," and that they "got no time to lose."  This not only seems logical, but it strikes an emotional chord with the audience, who is mortal and is sensitive to the argument that life is short and should be lived to the fullest.  The soldiers eventually take his suggestion and leave the battlefield.  The general, however, stays for the battle and we can see he will basically martyr himself for the good of his troops, which adds to his ethos.  This chorus in which the general tells them to go home is later repeated to add power to the argument.  The phrase "go now you are forgiven" is also repeated through out the song, and especially at the end.  It is reminiscent of the Christian refrain "go now in peace," so it appeals to those who are a part of or at least respect Christianity.  This phrase is also comforting in a secular sense.  The general, who we respect because his ethos was well established, tells them they are forgiven, and it also implies that the soldiers forgave their enemy.  It is a phrase that gives them a clean palette on which to start living life to the fullest, and to not hurt others just because a group is their supposed enemy.  This argument, with the appeals to pathos in the audience, combined with the well-established ethos of the emissary of the pacifistic message, is highly effective.

The music does not have a distinctly militaristic sound, and does not seem to have a direct correlation with the message of the song.  There is very catchy acoustic guitar that makes a person want to listen to this song even before they get the meaning from the lyrics.  The instrumental part of the song does have the power of drawing in people who might not even sympathetic to the pacifist cause.  They think they are just listening to a catchy, fun song, but they eventually  pay attention to the lyrics and may realize they agree with the message.  It is a subtle way of changing people's opinions about warfare.

The lyrics of the song can be found at the following location: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/dispatch/general.html

Week 13

Our multi-media assignment is coming along nicely.  We actually finished the planning that is due on Tuesday on Thursday.  We also went to the library and found books that will give us great information about advertising, such as what our appeals to our audience (athletic people, especially males, from ages 10-30) and how associating yourself with a brand can improve your argument through ethos.  Our group has decided to get together next weekend to film our commercial, in which a man will be running through the jungle.  We made a few changes to our project, as follows:

commercial:  We will have an omniscient person filming someone running through the forest, and grabbing the BuJu.  He will then gulp the drink, and the camera will zoom in on the label of the drink.  When the camera zooms out, the same person will be drinking the drink, but in the middle of a soccer field.  We transition it into a situation that will our viewers can relate to.

print ad:  A person will be on the edge of a cliff, reaching for a bottle of BuJu that is perched on a tree that is leaning out over a very steep ravine.  This person is clearly risking his life to get the coveted juice.  The word BuJu will be written in the rock of the cliff.

We have decided on yellow, green, and black for the billboard, but this is subject to change depending on our research of what our audience enjoys.

Week 12

Our group for the multimedia assignment got together for the first time on Thursday, and actually made a lot of progress in our short meeting.  We quickly decided on a product: a sports/ energy drink.  We brainstormed names, such as LiquidRush, and eventually came up with BuJu.  It sounded intense, and we thought a name that rolled off the tongue would quickly gain popularity.  This name also steered the direction of our campaign.  We decided that BuJu was from a tree deep in the jungle and until it was recently discovered, only the fierce natives of the area where the BuJu fruit grew knew of its powers.  We found this idea enticing, and tried to expand it into all areas of our advertising campaign. 

 

radio ad- drums in the background, a deep, intense voice telling how this secret fruit has been discovered in the heart of the jungle

billboard- an image of the bottle (which will look somewhat similar to a tree trunk) and branches growing out of it, the word BuJu and a slogan featured prominently on the sign

print ad- a glowing bottle of BuJu up on a pedestal deep in the forest, possibly fierce natives around

commercial-shaky camera- person filming is running through the jungle, saying how they must find the BuJu juice, war-painted natives w/ spears come out of forest/  person running with camera finally reaches the juice (up high on a pedestal, like in print add) and gulps it down

pathos-the excitement of these scenes, and the intense that the juice seems to invoke will make people want that intense feeling with more energy as well as better sports performance 

logos- if all these people want this juice, and it is a secret that makes these natives so fierce, it must make me strong and energetic

ethos- perhaps BuJu could be from the makers of a famous drink, such as Gatorade, to give it credibility

audience- athletic/active people from age 11-30, it is slightly more geared towards males (the advertising campaign is more typically masculine), but woman can also find this promised athletic prowess enticing

Week 11

I did not learn much about my paper from my peer reviews.  A few grammatical errors were corrected and I was complimented on clear thesis and good paper.  Talking to Jessica about my paper, however, was more productive.  I summarized each paragraph and read these summaries to her.  She gave me good advice to eliminate a paragraph which I saw did not relate to my thesis once she suggested removing it.  I had forgotten to include captions for my visuals, so I formulated them with Jessica's guidance.  Having never written captions for a research paper before, it was helpful to have the guidance of a more experienced writer.  I was concerned that he synopsis in my conclusion was too short and left the reader feeling unsatisfied, so I added another sentences, and Jessica felt that my paper was well concluded.  

While self-editing my paper, I noticed a few mistakes in my paper.  I had not capitalized some proper nouns and had to fix some tenses.  I worked very hard on my first draft, so editing for the final draft has been fairly simple.  Other than the three major problems I talked to Jessica about - organization, captions, and the conclusion - my editing has been minor.  I am very happy with my paper, and feel that I wrote a very persuasive argument with a lot of good sources.  I started early on my paper in order to finish it early, but instead I wrote nearly 4500 words and did not finish early!  Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately considering all the extra work I did, I picked a topic that fascinated me and so I had more than enough to say about it.  In fact, I had to leave out many topics that were in my original outline.  It was probably the most enjoyable paper-writing experience I have ever had, considering how much I was interested in the subject.

Week 10

Reading articles about digital remixing was really interesting to me, because my friend is a huge fan of these musical mashups.  "The Hood Internet," a site where mixers who go by the name The Hood Internet, post their remixes.  The site has just come out with its third album, which feature titles such as: Fleetwood Mac vs. Daft Punk- "You Make Lovin' Harder, Better, Faster Stronger," and "Three 6 Mafia vs. The Long Blondes - Lolli Lolli Pop That Century."  I find my friend checking this site every time he goes online, and he has a The Hood Internet t-shirt that he ordered offline.  

While there is no question that these are quality pieces of musical creativity that add to the music scene and certainly have a large following, their legality is another question.  New technological advances make mixing others' work and posting them for the world to listen to accessible for anyone who takes the time to learn the technology.  Yet major issues come out of this practice.  Firstly, if the original artists' permissions are not asked, the song could be remixed into something that would offend the artists, or not be consistent with the image they are trying to portray or what they stand for.  And if people begin selling these remixes for their own profit without negotiations with the original artists, then it becomes stealing.  As Dexter Holland, the lead singer of offspring comments about the potential selling of the Grey Album, which mixed the Beatles and Jay-Z, "It's the Beatles' musicianship, songwriting and performing that you're benefiting form.  It's the actual recording.  That's what they own.  They own the masters.  You can't take something someone else owns."

In this age, taking others' digital work and slightly altering it into something new is simple, yet the basic law that must rein is respect.  It would be terrible to stifle the creativity of this new art form, but it would be equally deplorable to change artists' music into something they are against, or to give them no money for selling what was originally their work.  Communication and respect for the artist must be key in this new age of digital remixing.

Week 9

Chapter 13 discussed the danger of video games romanticizing violence.  Not only are games becoming more visually realistic, but they are merging real-life situations with fantasy.  Games that simulate fighting against Arab terrorists have become popular.  People think they are modeling reality in these games, and so gain a perspective on world events through these games.  Yet, as Anne-Marie Schleiner, a professor at the University of Colorado, points out, while these games are realistic in some ways, a "number of complexities [are left out] such as economics, religions, families, food, children, women, refugee camps, flesh bodies, and blood, and smell, among other factors.  Osama Bin Laden has been put into many video and computer games as a target, which mirrors a military aim of our country.  However, some of these games encourage stereotyping Arabs.  One game has Osama Bin Laden as owner of a corner grocery store in a city.  This is a common motif in America, and so stereotypes the Arab store owners as terrorists.

Interestingly, one organization trying to make its games exactly match reality, even if it is less fun or exciting for the player.  This organization is the United States Army.  They make simulated war games such as Full Spectrum Warrior, which attempts to give a thorough and realistic view of what modern day warfare truly is.  Clive Thompson, a 2003 Knight science-journalism fellow at MIT, tried the game out and found that, while he is a skilled gamer, it was easy to lose all his men in under three minutes.  Unlike other video games, this one showed that cars are not actually good cover from snipers.  This game is meant to teach judgement more than straight shooting skills.

Comparing two screen shots from a 1980's Atari game and a modern-day game, Kuma/War, reveals interesting similarities and differences.  The poor graphics of the first game made it seem very far from reality, while the visual of the second shot almost made my heart start pounding because I felt that I was about to be shot at by two Arab terrorists.  Though both games put you in the position of the soldier, the second one was much closer to reality, but still lacked the complexities noted above.  This skewed picture of reality can be dangerous for the player's understanding of the world.