Movie trailers are what make the film industry go round. Not only are they a key part of the marketing industry in film, they are part of the cinematic experience. Without the trailer people wouldn’t want to see the movie. Relying on summaries and critic reviews wouldn’t help because they aren’t relevant to them. In order for movie makers to reach out to the public they need trailers. It allows for people to see if that particular film is relevant to them and their interests. Through the use of rhetoric, movie makers persuade people to see their film, while at the same time dissuade others.
In order to properly understand how trailers work the best thing to do is watch them. See the techniques filmmakers use to persuade people. According to Compose, Design, Advocate, “The idea behind analyzing communication is to figure out how it works: How do the pieces fit together and work with each other to affect a reader or viewer in a particular way?” (316). Thus, I watched the new Steve Jobs movie trailer in order to see the rhetorical techniques. The trailer portrayed Apple icon Steve Jobs in both good and bad lighting and showed how he overcame many obstacles in order to succeed while going through personal character flaws . The question at hand, however, is who is the audience the filmmakers are aiming this trailer for? One could argue that the trailer is aimed for Mac users, or even simpler fans of Steve Jobs. Although the film is about Steve Jobs and his journey with Apple, the intended audience for this film are supporters of Steve Jobs.
Although the filmmakers are trying to appeal this movie to as many people as possible, they are simultaneously dissuading people. This trailer provides insight on that subject as it shows how Steve Jobs was selfish and disregarded his coworkers. “You’re issuing contradictory instructions. You’re insubordinate. You make people miserable. The board believes you are no longer necessary to this company” (1:05). On top of this, the trailer also portrays Steve Jobs as a poor father. At time (0:36), Steve’s ex-partner (with whom they share a daughter with) says, “Your Apple Stock is worth 441 million dollars and your daughter and her mother are on welfare.” The reason filmmakers used these quotes was to depict Steve Jobs as heroic, considering he juggled his personal life with his career with his vision to revolutionize technology. While this is undoubtedly appealing for some viewers, the examples above certainly verify the claims of those who dislike Jobs, thus dissuading them from liking the film.
People who support Steve Jobs would find relevancy in the trailer is shows how he overcame constant criticism to revolutionize the technological world. There are examples of the filmmaker using the pathos appeal to persuade his audience. According to Texas A&M Writing Center, “ In a pathetic appeal, rhetoricians tap a reader’s sympathy and compassion, anger and disappointment, desire for love, or sadness to convince the audience of their argument.” In the beginning of the trailer, Steve Jobs talks about his vision with the computer. “What if the computer was a beautiful object. Something you want to look at and have in your home. And what if, instead of it being in the right hands, it was in everyone’s hands” (0:10). This clip is a clear example of the author using the pathos appeal as it shows his innovation and creativity, which would appeal to supporters of Steve Jobs. At time (1:56), the trailer depicts the significance of what Steve Jobs had created. These examples would appeal to supporters of Steve Jobs as they portray him and his contributions to the technological world.
This is an example of how trailers intend to do one thing but could intentionally do something else. For the filmmakers, the goal of this trailer was to attract as many viewers as possible by depicting Steve Jobs as heroic. Juggling hes personal life with his career with his vision to revolutionize technology is undoubtedly inspirational, and through use of rhetoric highlighted this. However, even though the intention by filmmakers was to persuade people to see their film, they dissuaded others simultaneously. While there was a significant effort to persuade people through the use of rhetoric it was a bit counterproductive as I suggested.
"Steve Jobs." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
"University Writing Center - Rhetorical Analysis." University Writing Center –
Rhetorical Analysis. Texas A&M University, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
You-Writing-)/Academic-Writing/Analysis/Rhetorical-Analysis>.
Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate: A Rhetoric
for Integrating Written, Visual, and Oral Communication. New York: Longman,
Why do you think the quotes in paragraph 3 are supposed to be portraying jobs as heroic. Couldn't they be intentionally showing he was flawed in order to add credibility to their documentary for the people who don't like Jobs.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a valid point Mason, but I do believe that the filmmakers were trying to show the audience what Steve Jobs contributed to the technological world.
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ReplyDeleteIt seems like the point of your paper was the use of rhetoric in trailers. I'm pretty sure this is your thesis statement, "Through the use of rhetoric, movie makers persuade people to see their film, while at the same time dissuade others." However, I think your thesis should have been about the purpose of the trailer, not about how the movie-makers use rhetoric. The point was to write a rhetorical analysis on a specific trailer, which, as stated on the Texas A&M writing center website is,
ReplyDelete"A rhetorical analysis should explore the rhetorician’s goals, the techniques (or tools) used, examples of those techniques, and the effectiveness of those techniques. When writing a rhetorical analysis, you are NOT saying whether or not you agree with the argument. Instead, you’re discussing how the rhetorician makes that argument and whether or not the approach used is successful."
Things mentioned in that quote should have been in your thesis statement. Like we talked about in class, and also mentioned in TSIS, it's like analyzing a piece of art, you look at it and think "I wonder what the artist was trying to illustrate" and about the "so what? Who cares?" part of it, then come up with a hypothesis (something like, "oh, the artist was trying to show his audience [something you have to consider when analyzing like this] w and does so by doing x, y and z.") then testing that idea by doing a rhetorical analysis in which you try and see if your conclusions match your hypothesis. Also, from an intuitive point of view, the directors and producers want as many people as possible to see the movie, so it wouldn't just be "supporters of Steve Jobs" mentioned in your 2nd paragraph. They would want a broad audience, not just people who prefer OSX over PC. And I believe you mixed up the quotes part too, as Mason said, the quotes in paragraph 3 don't make him sound heroic, but rather shrewd and callous. However, the quotes in the next paragraph make him sound more heroic (although I would use the word visionary or dreamer). Also, I suggest you cite your sources at the end, throughout you do, but I think you were supposed to list the sources at the end in MLA format
This was very interesting to read. I like how you started off talking about the importance of trailers. The quote you picked from CDA was a great considering what you discussed after the quote. I think that what you wrote here gives great insight about Steve Jobs.
ReplyDeleteI found it shocking to read this quote, “Your Apple Stock is worth 441 million dollars and your daughter and her mother are on welfare.” I had no idea that Steve Jobs had had any children. I also had no idea of his rude and obnoxious behavior toward his faculty and staff. With so much success, one would think someone of his stature would be humble and appreciate his ascend up his ladder of success. Do you believe his amount of success caused the selfishness? Do you believe that his lack of moral ethics added to the decline in his health that ultimately led to his death?
ReplyDeleteI found this analysis interesting because I can tell you have a decent wealth of background information on Steve Jobs. I like how you approach the positive views of Jobs as an innovator but also his negative side. Do you think it is more important to be a cut-throat creator in this constantly evolving world, or someone with morals who lives a "good" life?
ReplyDelete