Born Into Coal

I thought that “Born Into Coal” was a very well-done, interesting, and engaging documentary. I enjoyed how the introduction and closing were connected. In the beginning, Arianna was preparing for the pageant and planned on leaving the coal behind. However, at the end of the documentary, she won and decided to stay and keep coal as a part of her life. One aspect of this documentary that I thought was successful was the style. Most of the shots were very quick and transitioned to the next one seamlessly. Also, the filmmakers did a good job at using B-roll to keep the viewer’s interest during the interviews. When they did show the person being interviewed, the shot was often a close shot. This is where I had one issue with the film. Occasionally, the person would be looking directly into the camera. Instead of adding a dramatic effect to the documentary, I found it off-putting. Another aspect of “Born Into Coal” that I enjoyed was the way the film showed the life of the coal miners. It showed a miner leaving and coming home from work, as well as another miner having to get checked for black lung. Both of these demonstrated the sacrifices that these men had to make to provide for their families. If I had to storyboard this documentary, I would separate the film into four parts: the introduction to Arianna and her family, the discussion of the mining deaths, the life of a coal miner, and the pageant. In conclusion, I thought this documentary utilized many different elements successfully and was very well-done.

Visual Rhetoric

The two websites that I chose to compare were IGN and Gamespot. I frequent these two sites quite often due to the fact that I am an avid gamer. Both websites are extremely similar in both their structure and audience. The target audience for both websites would be 18-30 year old males. This is typically the age group for "gamers". This audience is also reflected on the advertisements that run on the sites, as they are video games, movies, and products that would appeal to this demographic. As far as structure goes, both IGN and Gamespot have a toolbar at the top of their page that allows the user to be directed to reviews, trailers, and various consoles. This is then followed by the main story, which is accompanied with a large image that takes up a majority of the page. Other top stories, usually around 4, are listed horizontally after the main story. The rest of the page is filled with articles that are organized by most recently published. On the right side of both websites is a list of games that were just released, organized by the best review score. This allows the reader to easily view the best games out at the current time. Even though IGN and Gamespot are very similar, I believe that IGN has a more visually pleasing website. Everything is organized neatly, and the pictures that accompany each article are scaled nicely. On Gamespot, I feel like the pictures are too large and take up take much space, leading to a jumbled website. This just goes to show how important visuals are to the average person. If Gamespot had balanced their images, the website would be much more organized, and I would be more likely to visit it.

Visual Rhetoric

While both "The Last Meal" and "No Seconds" projects share a common subject, it is clear that they are also very different. They are also great examples of the use of visual rhetoric. The first piece, "The Last Meal", connected the meal with the convict. Each slide had a picture of the criminal who was about to be executed with their last choice of meal. This allowed for the viewer to look into the eyes of the criminals, something that "No Seconds" did not do. However, I do believe that this also took away from the actual meals, as the images were quite small. Another interesting point about "The Last Meal" was that after about 2 or 3, it gave information on the death penalty. I found these facts to be very fascinating and thought that they successfully added another element to the project. One aspect that I did not like about this was the text on the right of the images. I didn't like the notebook paper background and found the tilted writing to be sort of distracting. The next project that focused on the last meals of criminals was "No Seconds" (I enjoyed this title much more). The purpose of "No Seconds" was strictly to display the last meals of several different convicts. Each slide consisted of a birds-eye view of their last meal. The backgrounds differed on each slide, and the colors often complemented with the food. I found this project much more compelling because I was interested in seeing the different kinds of meals that the inmates chose, and this one displayed the meals much better. I also thought that "No Seconds" did a better job with displaying the information on each slide. The information was neatly displayed based on facts about the inmate and then the various food selections that they chose for their last meal. In conclusion, I believe both projects did a good job of using visuals to draw the audience into their work. While they both had similarities and differences, I felt like "No Seconds" focus on high quality images of the meals made it the better project.