Because those three things occupy my mind throughout at least 80% of the day, you'd expect that my YouTube history would reflect that. And, you would be right. As vast as YouTube is, my history is really quite predictable - not to mention, simple. But, in an attempt to make myself look more interesting than I am (and to meet the standards for my first blogging assignment for class), I will perform a rhetorical analysis on the three particular videos from my YouTube history.
To This Day Project - Shane Koyczan
Disclaimer: This video is about bullying. It uses emotional language and mentions things such as depression and suicide to deliver its message.
To This Day is a collaborative project that seems to have
begun with the writing of Shane Koyczan. You can see a variety of animation
styles in the video, and in fact, many animators were credited both in the
video (and its description), as well as on this page of a website devoted to
the project. It is clear that this project goes far beyond one video, but here,
I will focus on the video alone.
The purpose and audience of this video are two-pronged.
First, the video is meant to reach victims of bullying and provide them a sense
of understanding a solidarity. Second, the video is meant to reach everyone
else, so to speak, in order to raise awareness on the life-long effects of
bullying and, hopefully, inspire societal change.
The first prong described above was clearly the most
significant to the video creators, and if that wasn't clear in the beginning, it
was made clear around the 5:30 mark when the speaker sends a message to victims
of bullying, saying that they are beautiful and worthy of life, and that those
who bullied them were wrong. In particular, the parts where the narrator said,
"they were wrong" were given emphasis through the use of tone,
volume, and repetition. Solidarity from not only the poet, but also other
collaborators was made clear in the design choices as well. Because multiple
animators worked collaboratively to deliver the visuals of this piece, the
sense of solidarity inspired by the script is enhanced, and this sort of
message is carried over to the website that viewers are directed to in the
video description.
Of course, the larger audience was addressed as well: the
potential bullies, and individuals who were/are neither bullies nor victims.
The collaborative efforts of multiple artists and the inclusion of not just one
personal story about bullying, but three, both sent the larger audience the
message that bullying is not a rare occurrence, and it is not insignificant in
people’s lives. The second message in particular was repeated in the title and
in the personal stories shared in the beginning of the video as well. In
addition to this, the powerful language used throughout the poem and the
emotional delivery by the poet were both meant to lead the audience to connect
with these stories and, by extension, the people who lived them. The animation
style changed all throughout the video, and it consistently illustrated the
emotional stories being told. The isolation felt by bullied kids was emphasized
multiple times, and in multiple ways through the animation, and this was all
meant to build up the audience’s emotional response to it.
For those of you unaware, YouTube channel owners can choose to put a certain video on their YouTube profiles that autoplays when you visit it. While the creator of this video doesn't use this as his homepage trailer anymore, his original intent, of course, was to attract an audience enough to get them to watch his videos and subscribe. He chose specific clips from pre-existing videos in order to display the skill and the silliness that you would expect to see on his channel. While the last example and this one are both videos from the same website, they serve very different purposes: the last was meant to serve a more broad purpose of raising awareness and building solidarity, while this one is merely an advertisement for a YouTube channel.
This video begins with what the Team Fortress 2 community calls a rollout, which is a display of skill requiring the player to get from one part of the map to another in as little time as possible. The rollout is finished with a player kill, which is another example of STAR_'s skill as a TF2 player. This clip sets the tone for the rest of the video, and the following clips keep that momentum going with other displays of STAR_'s skill and general silliness in games. The music played in the background of these clips compliments this fun energy.
The design of this video is arguably less artistic than the last. For the most part, STAR_ simply records gameplay and adds his own commentary to it to make videos. Sometimes, he'll edit in certain images or text (usually for comedic effect), but his editing is rather basic because the subject of his videos is the gameplay itself. In fact, the editing he does usually serves the purpose of giving emphasis what is occurring in the gameplay, and the text and images are usually aligned with the subject of the clips in order to draw emphasis to them. In this trailer, we see examples of that, which means that he is producing a fairly accurate representation of his channel.
This final video is the shortest and simplest of the three examples I have. I included this short video, however, to illustrate how videos can be effective in design and delivery without being incredibly long. I can't be sure that this is the original video because I've seen it in so many places, so I won't say anything about who the author is. Even still, the audience and the purpose are rather clear. The video is only 35 seconds long, and it doesn't really make references to a specific niche community, so I believe that the video's target audience is simple anyone and everyone. Short videos (under 1 minute) are generally very good at attracting attention from a wide array of people. The purpose was simply to share a funny clip of a cat in a more interesting way than it may otherwise be shared.
The video begins with rather dramatic music, which compliments the cat's mood of concentration as it sneaks around and prepares to jump from a window sill. The comedic factor of this video is enhanced by the timing of the clip and the video: the music matches up perfectly as the cat hides, peeks over the clothes, and then finally jumps. The single word sung in the video - "SAIL" - fits the theme and contrasts the clumsiness of the cat to further add to the comedic value. This brief, simple video is actually quite effective because its purpose and design are both consistent and clear.
