My central goal for this video project was to create a convincing visual argument about the term “fat.” I aimed to demonstrate how the way “fat” is used today can affect people’s psychological and social health. Through video testimonials, images, text, statistics, and music, I raised awareness of how harmful the word “fat” is and denounced its use to insult and discriminate against people. This main goal was extremely important to me because I wanted to learn how to create an effective argument using more than just text on a page. Earlier in the semester, we learned about the importance and benefits of new media texts, so I was excited to voice my opinion through nontraditional modes.

 

One of my functional goals was to learn how to cut and merge parts of different videos into one. This task was challenging and tedious because I had to cut videos at exactly the right times and add a transition that was just long enough so that sentences did not begin or end abruptly, but after many edits, I am very happy with the results. An important functional and rhetorical aim was to learn how to layer different modes effectively and smoothly. Layering text on top of images or videos to emphasize an idea and adding audio underneath the visual components to add dimension were important subtle details to incorporate so as to engage and affect the audience. I had originally planned to include videos of interviewee’s immediate responses to images of “fat” people so that the viewers could get a sense what typical physical reactions and facial expressions to “fat” people are, but the footage was not as clean-cut as I had hoped. This hiccup forced me to find another way to effectively show how people instinctively judge people’s weight and associate “fat” people with negative traits, such as unattractiveness, lazy, and lack of control. So instead, I decided to layer the audio of people’s responses over the images they were responding to, which in my opinion, turned out to be just as effective. I used this mini-experiment and “fat” people’s statements on how they are treated and perceived to generate pathos. Through workshop and revision, I realized using just pathos was not enough, so I decided to also appeal to logic by including statistics, which strengthened my argument through factual evidence.

 

I learned creating an effective argument on paper is very different from creating one through video as it relies much more on our other senses, particularly sight and sound. Even though my video argument is similar to the one I made in my argument of definition paper, re-mediation required a different kind of research. I watched videos, listened to audio tracks, and searched for images instead of just perusing traditional texts, such as journal articles. Creating a video argument calls for technical and rhetorical details that more subtly affect our emotions and thinking in order to persuade us. For example, adding slow, mellow instrumental sound behind thoughtful questions and statements help set the serious tone while more upbeat, harmonic sound creates optimism and hope. Sound was also important for maintaining the audience’s attention. I have watched many videos of just text moving across the scene and within seconds, I lose interest, so I was very meticulous about keeping and focusing the viewers’ attention by playing music with text and underneath speech. Transitions are as important in a video as they are on paper. When I first started putting clips together, I did not really think about adding transitional effects. But when I watched my drafts, I realized how confusing it was to have a video of one individual talking abruptly turn into a video of a different person talking. I used both transitional effects, such as “cross blur” and “fade to white,” and text slides to shift between ideas and move the argument forward.

 

My video targets a very large audience: Americans who carelessly throw the term “fat” around. After learning about the terrible effects that calling someone “fat” can have on self-esteem and about the prevalent attitude towards and treatment of “fat” people, I decided to eliminate the word “fat” from my vocabulary and wanted to encourage others to reconsider using this derogatory term to make fun of and insult others as well. We are often unaware of the impact our words can have on other people’s lives, so I chose to create a video that uses ethos and pathos to persuade people to be more aware of the words they use.

 

Although I doubt I will create a video composition again in the future, this process definitely taught me a lot. I realized that structural details are extremely important. The type of transitional effect used, the length of a text slide, and how sources are grouped are small, but relevant elements to consider in giving your audience the impression you want them to have. This lesson can be applied to professional documents, such as résumés, where fonts, length, and headings play a large role in a potential employer’s first impression of you. Like videos, different parts of a résumé can be tweaked or emphasized for different purposes and audiences. Specific skills, experiences, or awards may be highlighted depending on its relevance to the job just as specific elements (music to set the tone, a variety of video clips to express universality and diversity, and text to emphasize facts or statistics) can be highlighted in a video to help send a particular message.

 

Overall, I am very proud of my end product and I definitely gained a lot through drafting and revising. Prior to this project, I had no experience with video editing and composition, but now I am much more comfortable with and open to creating multimodal texts.