Rhetoric and Composition videos

TRI short video
I thought the TRI video was extremely persuasive despite the fact that there was no narrative. They used signs and fonts to capture the audience’s attention visually. They used basic daily objects that many people recognized like Starbucks cups; they utilized stereotypes to achieve an attracting affect. They got the simple mottos like “three dollars a day” to make it an easy move to donate money but if one follows what they say daily one small step each day will result in a large distance covered over a prolonged period of time. It was persuasive in appealing with logic and reasoning clearly stating the purpose. These people wanted peace and nothing more; they wanted people to get along. The simplicity of the message imprinted easily but deeply into the audience’s mind and the fast moving slides caught attention by urging the audiences to read faster. They just wanted the audience to get their message as direct and quick as possible.

Invisible Children
In the beginning, I didn’t think the video was persuasive but a little “goofy” to be honest, since the boys were having more fun playing with the video camera and killing the snake. However, as the video progressed, the true story soon revealed without them having to even search for it. The visuals spoke for themselves and didn’t need additional analysis to tell the audience this was a serious problem. These children were homeless sleeping on the cold damp floors flooded with water. They were constantly on the run, living in fear and insecurity. You could just see it from their facial expressions. Of course, one child morosely replied in one of the interviews “I cannot cry anymore” when he saw one child crying and shot for missing his family. These children did not ask for extra but only for the war to stop so they may be allowed to live a peaceful life. The message itself was extremely persuasive itself because it aroused people to think ad reflect on their own lives. During the movie I was so engaged that when it ended and the lights flickered on I felt like I’d just returned from lowly Africa and jumped back into twentieth Taiwan where reality is defined in my life. I live here, in Taiwan and it’s just so easy to forget about these invisible children. The language techniques were done through interviews and when the young child solider was quoted saying “I get nauseated if I don’t see blood” was powerful and shocking in those simple sentences. This documentary left me changed the way I thought and gave me a knock in the head that told me to wake up because these were real people living in the very same moment I was. This documentary was successful in leaving remarkable impressions and changing perceptions. In this sense, the documentary was very persuasive in getting their message across.