Inquiry 3: written rationale
Junior year of high school my teacher gave us the prompt, “Question society through a media device”. We had been reading Thoreau and his concepts of minimalism. Every student in the class had relatively the same project. These consisted of videos with several slides with words then mixed in where interviews of people around the school or community. One student did something completely different. This student was no straight “A” student and is what many considered a “stoner”. Questioning authority was this students forte. His movie was based around the “Jungle Book”. The software we used was far from up to date and he claimed he had lost most the project the night before, but the final project asked society if they lived above their means. The teacher loved this project and we watched it many times. Not only did the project intrigue my teacher, but it made me think as well. Before this I had never deeply analyzed a cartoon that I watched growing up.
Starting the project I thought I wanted to look at the entire “Jungle Book” and have specific scenes analyzed and remix those according to their meanings. After using “Get Tube” and seeing the quality of the most popular song from the music was extremely poor. The only videos with mediocre quality had already been remixed into other languages. I soon decided to take a different route and analyze what cartoons are trying to portray to their audience.
Unlike these cartoons, my audience is not in elementary school or younger. The goal of the remix is to show people in my generation how the cartoons growing up had a much deeper meaning than we originally believed and that the morals we learned from these classics have been forgotten over time. Although not as relevant as my Junior year in high school, the recession still cripples many people across the US. The recession was inevitable, our greed and self-obsession finally caught up. The subprime mortgage crisis was an awakening slap in the face. People all over the US were living well above their means and pretending as if it would not catch up. Many economists say it is complicated and there were many factors, which I agree with, but most of the factors would never had arisen if America looked to their most infamous cartoons. These simple, yet deep plot lines are created for the pleasure of children but were meant for all ages to learn from.
Many of the clips used are as old as the target audience so I needed to tie in relevant topics in order to show how they apply today, to college students. As I dove deeper into the clips and read more of the plot lines to the classics I found it was easier than I first thought. I kept finding more and more evidence these cartoons applied to many current problems in society. Each movie and show had good guys, bad guys, there was struggle, but then there was victory and everyone lived happily ever after, or until the next episode. All of these cartoons were so similar but had great meanings and were often different. Walt Disney and the creators of the other famous cartoons did not want to entertain children but they wanted to show them how to be positive human beings. The code to a happy life resides in messages from these cartoons. As a toddler, one of the hardest things is to understand that not everything is theirs. My mom forbid my sisters and I from saying the word “mine”. Now that our generation has grown and matured, this concept, that not everything is obligated to us, has deteriorated. We feel entitled to everything. Our obsession with material objects is not just an obsession, but also an addiction. While creating this video I looked in the mirror, and used the flaws that I have to show others the flaws with society.
At first this cartoon remix may seem comical, but I knew to have any rhetorical credibility I would need a strict outline. The outline consists of an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. The beginning outline and the final piece changed greatly. The main points consist of asking the audience what “Bare Necessities” means to them. Many of the concepts were changed and tweaked as my ideas changed and as iMovie failed to accept several clips.
The introduction is calm, yet introduces the basis of the video. It starts with the song “Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book”. I chose not to start with an opening slide because I felt that this type of opening would recur many times throughout the presentations. During this introduction I have several thought provoking comments and questions. The main point of the video is mentioned referring to morals displayed in the cartoon classics, “Did we actually learn anything?” (0.17). Rhetorically I chose to have a calm opening because I want the audience to recognize the song and where it originates. Emotionally, the audience will have flashbacks of their childhood and when they last saw the movie. Each time I hear “Bare Necessities” I have the flashback when I was in grade school and had the flu over winter break. My grandparents came in town to take care of me. As I was yaking up my insides I watched “The Jungle Book” on repeat. Each person will have a different reaction but the point is to trigger some sort of emotional response. I establish my credibility by showing that I can relate to the audience because we are the same age and the movie is meant for them.
Following the brief introduction, the video dives into the main points of the remix. There are a list of questions with texts and visuals corresponding. I ask the audience, “What are the bare necessities of life?” (0.27). Not only is this the main point but also the premise of the song. Then I rifled off are two more thought provoking questions. These are to grab the audience’s attention and get them thinking. This seems to be a weak point but later on this point is tied in with the conclusion, reminding the audience of the premise of the song. I feature a clip of Mr. Krabs, from “Spongebob”, gloating about his obsession to money. This is more of a sarcastic way to show how his addiction to money has made him a prick.
Ultimately, the reason why young adults attend college is to better their education, and create a worry free future. Today’s society is a constant competition, even to the extent of who is happier. The remix is not asking people to have less happiness, but ask them how they measure their happiness. Many people believe it’s their material worth that makes them happy. Timmy Turner, the main character in the cartoon, is a boy whose life is in the dumps. His parents could care less about him and is constantly tormented by his babysitter, Vicky. To compensate for his mishaps, Timmy is granted unlimited wishes from his Fairy God Parents. Timmy Turner is granted unlimited wishes but he always pays the price and finds himself in a pickle at the end of the day. The “Fairly OddParents” shows that it is not gifts that make a person happy.
Many cartoons begin with “Once upon a time...” and often end with “and they lived happily ever after...”, with the visuals of Pocahontas, Tarzan, and Peter Pan I wanted to show how ignorance is better sometimes. Although not literal, all three basically begin with “Once upon a time”, and would immediately end with “and lived happily ever after”, but the corruption of the materialistic world created problems for the characters. The audience sees that these characters would have been happier if their innocence was not stolen from them. They were corrupted by society and were forced to take the beaten path in order to “live happily ever after”.
The last image relates to Miami students due to the high numbers of students with body image problems. Most girls growing up idolize princesses. Historically, girls start to develop image issues in their teenage years when they move from idolizing princesses to idolizing anorexic supermodels. The clip from “Toddlers in Tiaras” shows how this problem is no longer a problem with hormonal teenagers but is an obsession of our entire society. A large TV show was created to show toddlers compete to see who is more attractive to a judge. Their parents spend thousands of dollars to make their “Princesses” more fake. This investment is only doing harm to their daughters. Body image issues are created and people will go to great lengths purely to measure themselves against others.
To tie the entire remix together I leave the audience with some morals that I believe and a quote from “The Lion King”, but to show the true message I leave them with, “Remember all of this and ‘the bare necessities of life will come to you.’ Baloo” (4:31). As the quote floats the top of the screen they lyrics are singing the same line. The conclusion is simple and reminds the audience of the main point. The introduction and conclusion are memorable because, similar to the messages presented by the cartoons, the messages do not force the audience to obey but rather offer advice.
Some may question if this remix is a copyright of the original cartoon or a copyright of the student in my seventh grade English class. The clips I use are chopped up portions of remixes. None of the clips are an entire film except for the “Toddlers in Tiaras” commercial. By no means does this remix harm the original creations. For the most part it is promoting the message of the entire original clip. The complete “Toddlers in Tiaras” preview is used and the message could be considered demeaning toward the people in the show. This reality TV show is created for the target audience’s entertainment. The audience is intrigued by how odd the people in the show act, so the producers more than likely have a similar view to the message I am perceiving. The commercial I use is merely the producer’s remix of their own show, so technically I am just using another remix. My remix is used for educational purposes and I will receive no monetary benefit from the creation. As for the claim of me copying the peer from my class, he would appreciate the rhetorical velocity and that I learned from his piece. If he ever questioned me legally he would have to worry more about himself because his remix was hardly unaltered from the original. The goal of my film is not to steal someone else’s ideas, but to intrigue people, like how the “stoner” from my seventh grade English class intrigued me.
The image I had going into the remix and the final product I have now are night and day. I made the video less author specific, and broadened the topic. Now I have a mix between an assemblage & compilation remix and a reappropriations remix. The remix can no longer be considered entirely reapproriation because I have changed the main point from learning from Disney movies through the clip of “Bare Necessities” and now the main goal is to learn from all cartoons growing up with multiple messages. “Bare Necessities” still plays for a majority of the remix, but now there are other clips, with their own audio, mixed in. Included are unique critiques along with large critiques. Assemblage & compilation is represented in my remix through the key rhetorical moves. The video shows how the videos relate positively and negatively. This combination of texts and media has the perfect medium of both types of remix.
Like the rhetorical velocity I used when borrowing the idea from my peer from high school, this remix has numerous ways it could be further remixed. Each main point could have much deeper meanings. There are hundreds of cartoons with morals tied to the plot worth remixing. If I rhetorically remixed my own video I would specifically show how Walt Disney perceived happiness. I would start with the most basic films he created and end with the creation of the world’s largest amusement parks.
Starting the project I thought I wanted to look at the entire “Jungle Book” and have specific scenes analyzed and remix those according to their meanings. After using “Get Tube” and seeing the quality of the most popular song from the music was extremely poor. The only videos with mediocre quality had already been remixed into other languages. I soon decided to take a different route and analyze what cartoons are trying to portray to their audience.
Unlike these cartoons, my audience is not in elementary school or younger. The goal of the remix is to show people in my generation how the cartoons growing up had a much deeper meaning than we originally believed and that the morals we learned from these classics have been forgotten over time. Although not as relevant as my Junior year in high school, the recession still cripples many people across the US. The recession was inevitable, our greed and self-obsession finally caught up. The subprime mortgage crisis was an awakening slap in the face. People all over the US were living well above their means and pretending as if it would not catch up. Many economists say it is complicated and there were many factors, which I agree with, but most of the factors would never had arisen if America looked to their most infamous cartoons. These simple, yet deep plot lines are created for the pleasure of children but were meant for all ages to learn from.
Many of the clips used are as old as the target audience so I needed to tie in relevant topics in order to show how they apply today, to college students. As I dove deeper into the clips and read more of the plot lines to the classics I found it was easier than I first thought. I kept finding more and more evidence these cartoons applied to many current problems in society. Each movie and show had good guys, bad guys, there was struggle, but then there was victory and everyone lived happily ever after, or until the next episode. All of these cartoons were so similar but had great meanings and were often different. Walt Disney and the creators of the other famous cartoons did not want to entertain children but they wanted to show them how to be positive human beings. The code to a happy life resides in messages from these cartoons. As a toddler, one of the hardest things is to understand that not everything is theirs. My mom forbid my sisters and I from saying the word “mine”. Now that our generation has grown and matured, this concept, that not everything is obligated to us, has deteriorated. We feel entitled to everything. Our obsession with material objects is not just an obsession, but also an addiction. While creating this video I looked in the mirror, and used the flaws that I have to show others the flaws with society.
At first this cartoon remix may seem comical, but I knew to have any rhetorical credibility I would need a strict outline. The outline consists of an introduction, three main points, and a conclusion. The beginning outline and the final piece changed greatly. The main points consist of asking the audience what “Bare Necessities” means to them. Many of the concepts were changed and tweaked as my ideas changed and as iMovie failed to accept several clips.
The introduction is calm, yet introduces the basis of the video. It starts with the song “Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book”. I chose not to start with an opening slide because I felt that this type of opening would recur many times throughout the presentations. During this introduction I have several thought provoking comments and questions. The main point of the video is mentioned referring to morals displayed in the cartoon classics, “Did we actually learn anything?” (0.17). Rhetorically I chose to have a calm opening because I want the audience to recognize the song and where it originates. Emotionally, the audience will have flashbacks of their childhood and when they last saw the movie. Each time I hear “Bare Necessities” I have the flashback when I was in grade school and had the flu over winter break. My grandparents came in town to take care of me. As I was yaking up my insides I watched “The Jungle Book” on repeat. Each person will have a different reaction but the point is to trigger some sort of emotional response. I establish my credibility by showing that I can relate to the audience because we are the same age and the movie is meant for them.
Following the brief introduction, the video dives into the main points of the remix. There are a list of questions with texts and visuals corresponding. I ask the audience, “What are the bare necessities of life?” (0.27). Not only is this the main point but also the premise of the song. Then I rifled off are two more thought provoking questions. These are to grab the audience’s attention and get them thinking. This seems to be a weak point but later on this point is tied in with the conclusion, reminding the audience of the premise of the song. I feature a clip of Mr. Krabs, from “Spongebob”, gloating about his obsession to money. This is more of a sarcastic way to show how his addiction to money has made him a prick.
Ultimately, the reason why young adults attend college is to better their education, and create a worry free future. Today’s society is a constant competition, even to the extent of who is happier. The remix is not asking people to have less happiness, but ask them how they measure their happiness. Many people believe it’s their material worth that makes them happy. Timmy Turner, the main character in the cartoon, is a boy whose life is in the dumps. His parents could care less about him and is constantly tormented by his babysitter, Vicky. To compensate for his mishaps, Timmy is granted unlimited wishes from his Fairy God Parents. Timmy Turner is granted unlimited wishes but he always pays the price and finds himself in a pickle at the end of the day. The “Fairly OddParents” shows that it is not gifts that make a person happy.
Many cartoons begin with “Once upon a time...” and often end with “and they lived happily ever after...”, with the visuals of Pocahontas, Tarzan, and Peter Pan I wanted to show how ignorance is better sometimes. Although not literal, all three basically begin with “Once upon a time”, and would immediately end with “and lived happily ever after”, but the corruption of the materialistic world created problems for the characters. The audience sees that these characters would have been happier if their innocence was not stolen from them. They were corrupted by society and were forced to take the beaten path in order to “live happily ever after”.
The last image relates to Miami students due to the high numbers of students with body image problems. Most girls growing up idolize princesses. Historically, girls start to develop image issues in their teenage years when they move from idolizing princesses to idolizing anorexic supermodels. The clip from “Toddlers in Tiaras” shows how this problem is no longer a problem with hormonal teenagers but is an obsession of our entire society. A large TV show was created to show toddlers compete to see who is more attractive to a judge. Their parents spend thousands of dollars to make their “Princesses” more fake. This investment is only doing harm to their daughters. Body image issues are created and people will go to great lengths purely to measure themselves against others.
To tie the entire remix together I leave the audience with some morals that I believe and a quote from “The Lion King”, but to show the true message I leave them with, “Remember all of this and ‘the bare necessities of life will come to you.’ Baloo” (4:31). As the quote floats the top of the screen they lyrics are singing the same line. The conclusion is simple and reminds the audience of the main point. The introduction and conclusion are memorable because, similar to the messages presented by the cartoons, the messages do not force the audience to obey but rather offer advice.
Some may question if this remix is a copyright of the original cartoon or a copyright of the student in my seventh grade English class. The clips I use are chopped up portions of remixes. None of the clips are an entire film except for the “Toddlers in Tiaras” commercial. By no means does this remix harm the original creations. For the most part it is promoting the message of the entire original clip. The complete “Toddlers in Tiaras” preview is used and the message could be considered demeaning toward the people in the show. This reality TV show is created for the target audience’s entertainment. The audience is intrigued by how odd the people in the show act, so the producers more than likely have a similar view to the message I am perceiving. The commercial I use is merely the producer’s remix of their own show, so technically I am just using another remix. My remix is used for educational purposes and I will receive no monetary benefit from the creation. As for the claim of me copying the peer from my class, he would appreciate the rhetorical velocity and that I learned from his piece. If he ever questioned me legally he would have to worry more about himself because his remix was hardly unaltered from the original. The goal of my film is not to steal someone else’s ideas, but to intrigue people, like how the “stoner” from my seventh grade English class intrigued me.
The image I had going into the remix and the final product I have now are night and day. I made the video less author specific, and broadened the topic. Now I have a mix between an assemblage & compilation remix and a reappropriations remix. The remix can no longer be considered entirely reapproriation because I have changed the main point from learning from Disney movies through the clip of “Bare Necessities” and now the main goal is to learn from all cartoons growing up with multiple messages. “Bare Necessities” still plays for a majority of the remix, but now there are other clips, with their own audio, mixed in. Included are unique critiques along with large critiques. Assemblage & compilation is represented in my remix through the key rhetorical moves. The video shows how the videos relate positively and negatively. This combination of texts and media has the perfect medium of both types of remix.
Like the rhetorical velocity I used when borrowing the idea from my peer from high school, this remix has numerous ways it could be further remixed. Each main point could have much deeper meanings. There are hundreds of cartoons with morals tied to the plot worth remixing. If I rhetorically remixed my own video I would specifically show how Walt Disney perceived happiness. I would start with the most basic films he created and end with the creation of the world’s largest amusement parks.