Exigence

 

This project was assigned by Professor, Dr. Tharon Howard as an assignment for the course English 8570: Digital Rhetorics Across Media. It was designed to expose me to the experience of creating animations that utilize animation rhetoric. I was instructed to create a short cyberpoem that changes the traditional meaning of a poem using animation of images and audio effects in order to achieve a rhetorical effect on viewers.

 

Audience

 

Dr. Howard, my peers, and the young internet community served as my audience, which drove my video creation process.

 

Rhetorical Strategies

 

In “The Rhetorical Situation,” Lloyd Bitzer states, “discourse is rhetorical insofar that as it functions (or seeks to function) as a fitting response to a situation which needs and invites it” (6). Cyberpoems are contemporary inventions that can give traditional poems a visual new meaning. For younger generations, who are heavily influenced by technology and visuals on the internet, learning about old poems through textbooks is a bit outdated. However, making videos in which the poems’ words are still present, but take on a new modernized meaning, motivates students to learn these important poems. Thus, cyberpoems can be utilized as a fun tool to teach unmotivated students about multimodality and traditional, significant poems.

 

In “Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric,” in his discussion about kairos and appropriateness as it pertains to the audience, John Poulakos states, “some of the factors contributing to one’s sense of the timely and the appropriate are one’s discretionary powers, the cultural norms in which he participates, his reading of the situation he wishes to address, [and] his image of his audience” (42). My cyberpoem provides a modernized twist on the popular poem “The Red Wheelbarrow” through a relevant and currently discussed character in society, a police officer, and recent technology, Adobe Premiere. Bitzer also states that “the situation controls the rhetorical response in the same sense that the question controls the answer and the problem controls the solution” (6). I included a police officer, upbeat music, motion effects, and a humorous tone in order to address my main audience, which was my peers and the young online community, in the hopes that my rendition would encourage them to explore this original poem and those similar to it.

 

Prior to starting the project, Dr. Howard indicated that my cyberpoem should feature a title slide on which the characters and setting of the story are shown. Also, according to Stephen Denning in Squirrel INC., step four of "crafting a story" is to "specify the time and place the story happened" (12). So, in order to properly introduce the story, I decided to utilize a red background glistened with rain, to represent the red wheelbarrow "glazed with rain" in the cyberpoem story. I also wanted to include one of the characters of the story on my title slide, so I chose an animated chicken gif; the gif was also chosen so as to foreshadow the chickens' triumph in the story. I also chose a music clip to introduce and end the video that is reminiscent of being on a farm, so as to establish the setting of the video at the beginning and to maintain this same tone at the end of the video.

 

I inserted "fade into white" transitions in between my title slide and story, because I wanted to make it clear to viewers that I was transitioning from one idea to the next, and prepare viewers for a new scene, which is similar to how transitions are commonly utilized in movies. In On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse, Aristotle states that “the lexis will be appropriate if it expresses emotion and character and is proportional to the subject matter” (210). Since the cyberpoem is designed as a short film, I wanted the style of the animated poem, including its transitions to be reflective of this type of media. I also included a "fade into white" transition after my credits to indicate that the viewer had reached the end of the video.

 

Initially, I wanted to completely animate my cyberpoem from scratch, frame by frame using the Adobe Premiere Pro CC tools, however, I determined that within the time frame I was given to complete the project, I would not be able to animate from scratch and finish on time. I quickly learned that "a frame by frame approach becomes too expensive in terms of time and effort" (Buxton 305). So, I decided to incorporate clip art instead, and employed the advice of Bill Buxton, who stated that "One alternative in such cases is to use tools that let you animate objects in the scene, rather than draw frames" (Buxton 305). So, I utilized the motion tools within the Adobe application to animate my clip art images, to drive the story. In addition to saving time, this method also made my plot clearer to viewers. Inserting clip art against a static background clearly showed my intentions. I found that "mixing media [...] establishes a clear figure-ground relationship that helps disambiguate what is being manipulated from what is doing the manipulation" (Buxton 303). I also inserted relevant sounds, such as chickens clucking, a gunshot, the sound of a gunshot ricocheting, and a rainstorm to strengthen the plot of the story and indicate to viewers what exactly was occurring during particular moments.

 

Process

 

Phase 1: Research & Learn Adobe Premiere Pro CC

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Prior to this project, I had never heard the term "cyberpoem." Therefore, the first step of this project was to find published versions of cyberpoems to get an idea of what they were, to learn what form mine should take, and to form ideas. I watched several examples during class and searched for more on YouTube. After watching a few cyberpoem videos, I began to become acquainted with Adobe Premiere Pro CC through class tutorials and YouTube tutorial videos.

 

Phase 2: Plan & Execute Video

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Since my intended audience would be diverse, I wanted to choose a poem that was widely known and respected; thus, I chose to make a rendition of The Red Wheelbarrow, which is commonly referenced for its strong visual imagery it conveys. I wanted to steer away from this traditional idea by adding humor and irony to the story. When brainstorming what I could exactly portray, I referred back to Denning's words: "Humor can take the form of satirizing your own thoughts or actions" (85). As an animal activist who frequently discusses the killing of animals, I decided to create a video in which, for once, the animal wins. I found that this approach would further align with Denning's steps to "crafting a story" as well. He indicates that step eight is to "make sure the story has an authentically happy ending" (19). I also thought the story would accurately "communicate [my] personal identity"(Denning 120).

 

After this thought process, I began to create my video in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. First, I collected all of my images and gifs online. Afterwards, I started making a title slide and choosing a font to accurately portray my story. I proceeded to insert the animated gif chicken; I found this to be a tedious process, as I had to insert the gif several times and animate each of them using the motion tools, in order for the chicken to move across the title slide and eventually disappear. I added my opening music clip and added a fade in and fade out transition to it.

 

Next, I made the background slides with the farm setting and the lines of the poem. After setting up the poem frames, I began to insert my chicken, wheelbarrow, and police officer images in the appropriate frames, and utilized the motion tools to move the police officer so as to follow the flow of the story. I had to utilize Adobe Photoshop and an online color changer tool in order to change the size and color of the wheelbarrow and chickens prior to their insertion. When I came upon the rainstorm scene, I had to watch a tutorial online that explained how to create a rain effect in Adobe Premiere Pro CC. After watching that tutorial twice, I proceeded to create the rainstorm effect. After finishing the story frames, I began to make the credits slide, compiling all of the sources of my images, gifs, and music and sound clips. I again underwent the tedious process of incorporating the animated gif chicken, and I also placed the police officer "killer" on the credits slide as well.

 

Phase 3: Execute Final draft

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I presented my first draft to Dr. Howard and my peers, who suggested that I move the chickens closer to the wheelbarrow so as to accurately portray the words of the poem. As a result, for my final draft, I moved the chickens closer to the wheelbarrow. I also noticed a small error, and fixed it by adding an "s" to the credits at the end of my video.

 

Constraints (artistic proofs)

 

I was given a short time frame to learn how to utilize the Adobe Premiere Pro CC application. As a result, I heavily relied on Google search and YouTube tutorial videos. Also, I had a small collection of free clip art to choose from to utilize for the video. As a result, I had to use a police officer as my "chicken killer" as opposed to a more practical character, such as a farmer. However, using a police officer did aid me in kairos and appealing to my audiences.

 

Reflection

 

Overall, given the time frame to complete this project, I am satisfied with the rendition of William Carlos Williams's poem I was able to conjure up. Aristotle states that “character is almost, so to speak, the most authoritative form of persuasion” (39). I wanted to utilize a popular and well known poem by a renowned poet and make this clear in the title slide, so although the tone of the poem would be satirical and humorous, people would be more inclined to watch the video and attempt to discover the argument being made. Thus, I used Williams’s ethos to strengthen my own for the project.

 

Additionally, I am satisfied with the red, watered title background, which I feel perfectly introduces the story that features a red wheelbarrow "glazed with rain." I was very fortunate to find an animated chicken gif as well to properly and energetically introduce the story. This project also introduced me to the animation and audio effects within the Adobe Premiere Pro CC software, which will prove beneficial in my future projects. If given more time, I am sure I could have incorporated more original, animated images within my project, however, the outside clip art images served their purpose well in the video.

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Works Cited

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Aristotle. On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Trans. George A. Kennedy. New York:

       Oxford University Press, 1991. 25-51, 172-214.

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Bitzer, Lloyd F. “The Rhetorical Situation.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 1.1 (1968): 1-14.

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Buxton, William. Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design.

       Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. Print.

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Denning, Stephen. Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership through Storytelling. San Francisco:

       Jossey-Bass, 2004. Print.

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Poulakos, John. “Toward a Sophistic Definition of Rhetoric.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 16.1

       (1983): 35-48.