Visual Rhetoric

The Visual Rhetoric Unit

A Portfolio Assignment

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Visual Rhetoric (and the Visual Rhetoric Rewrite)

  • By now, you’ve collected as many as 4 of your 8 required end-of-semester Portfolio Items.
  • If you choose to export both your Definition/Categorical argument AND your Causal argument (along with their Rewrites), you’ll be halfway to your complete Portfolio.
  • The next Portfolio item (and the only one not directly connected to your Research Position Paper) is the Visual Rhetoric Analysis.
  • You’ll receive provisional analysis of your first draft, then post a Visual Rhetoric Rewrite, which you’ll add to your Portfolio at the end of the semester.

Visual Analysis of a Static Image

  • To get warmed up to the idea of Visual Analysis, let’s start with a static image before moving on to motion pictures.
  • Visual Rhetoric, Static Image

Visual Analysis of One Second of Video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xZv4OWCtJts%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent

Professor’s Model Analysis

0:01. The ad starts very abruptly in the middle of a scene. What’s more, in the first second, the camera is zooming quickly back so that we have to adjust immediately to a barrage of information. The suggestion the filmmakers are making is that the footage was captured by an amateur camera operator, either for home video or maybe a low-budget documentary. Either way, we are given the impression that the footage is “real,” not staged by a director with hired actors.

The image quality too is low. It’s color photography, but the color is so washed-out we get the further impression of a low-budget production. It’s almost black-and-white.

We are behind the counter of a diner. We can tell this from the “marble” countertop before us and the ketchup bottles and napkin holders on the shelf below it. Attached to the countertop is a familiar menu-holder empty of menus. Even closer to the camera (which suggests the footage was taken from the kitchen, through the service window) is a red-top bottle of Angustora bitters. Another can be seen on the counter where customers could access it, alongside the ketchup bottle and the sugar server. The only common use for bitters is as a cocktail flavor. The implication is that this is a diner where drinks are served; therefore, we have at least the implication that some diners might be drinking.

Facing us at the counter are two young boys (one black, one white) dressed in similar sport jerseys. They are probably teammates. Next to the white boy is a crew-cut man in his 30s with longish sideburns. If he were heavier, he would resemble Kevin James from “King of Queens.” The implication is that he is a robust, perhaps a bit rough-edged, working-class guy here with his team, perhaps their coach, maybe father to one of the kids. He wears a lanyard around his neck; perhaps a whistle hangs from it, and a warmup jacket: coachwear.

On the counter between him and the white boy is a fielder’s glove. They are a baseball team. The kid is not a catcher.

Behind the three at the counter, a man and a woman occupy opposite sides of a booth. They are engaged in conversation. The man resembles Joe Pesci from “Goodfellas,” advancing the impression that we’re in a working-class diner. The bowling pin behind him, part of the decor of the place, further confirms this. The lone framed artwork decorating the space is a black-and-white photo of an urban street scene. Coffee cups are stacked upside-down in the service area behind the woman, whose hand motion before her face indicates she is the one doing the talking.

They have been served. The man is pointing at something large on the white boy’s plate. In fact, he points at it repeatedly and says something about it to the boy. Most likely he is picking up the tab. Maybe he doesn’t want that big dish wasted.

From a filmmaker’s point of view, the composition of the figures is very important. The characters are arranged in a line. Black boy at counter, Joe Pesci facing Meg Ryan in booth, White Boy at counter, Meg Ryan in Booth facing Joe Pesci, Coach Kevin James gesturing with his hand toward White Boy’s plate. His active hand gesture draws our attention. When he stops moving, Meg Ryan starts moving her hand in the very same space, keeping our attention on that spot, but shifting our focus to the conversation she’s having with the Joe Pesci. In one second, we have information about two different conversations. Both are clearly important.

End of the first second.

Visual Analysis of a Complete Argument

  • A Sample Analysis: Thai Life Insurance
    • Here we examine just 10 seconds of a 2-minute long-form commercial produced by the Thai Life Insurance company to promote the universal human good of doing small selfless gestures for others. How in the world is that supposed to sell life insurance?

How Much (What Kind of) Detail?

  • You won’t need this yet, but when you’re ready to revise your Visual Rhetoric argument, you may benefit from reviewing feedback I have offered to students in earlier semesters.
  • Link to Revision Advice for Visual Rhetoric

Task