Visual Rhetoric

Almost everything in the media today involves visual rhetoric.  Whether a major motion picture or a simple commercial, visual rhetoric is quite prevalent.  While watching the movie Remember the Titans, I noticed many examples of this persuasive visual pictures.  I realized that visual rhetoric is extremely vital in creating a movie in the first place.  If the perfect setting and atmosphere is not created through the set and through the way the actors perform, the movie will not be interesting.  Consider the movie Lord of the Rings.  If Frodo Baggins of the Shire was a giant confident strong man, then the movie would loose a great amount of credibility.  Similarly, if the enemy in Lord of the Rings were very small unintimidating friendly looking people, again, the movie would loose credibility and people will loose interest.  In the movie Remember the Titans, there is a scene in which the football team is taking on a very tough opponent.  The scene shows the opponents coach looking like a very mean and angry person.  By creating this image of the football coach, the audience is able to much more easily get attached to the "good guys" facing the coach through visual rhetoric.
Television commercials work in a very similar fashion with lots of examples of visual rhetoric.  These commercials are completely concerned with their audience.  Without taking control of the minds of viewers, the commercials would be useless.  While watching television earlier today, i watched a car comercial that showed the process of the car being made in a factory.  I noticed that the factory that the car was being made in was almost completely white.  Not only was the factory completely white but also completely symmetrical and spotless.  This creates a very good image of the car for the viewers because it makes the car seem like it has zero flaws because the factory it was created in has none.  Within the same commercial, there was a scene in which a very happy and good looking family was dancing while going on a road trip in the car.  This again creates a positive image of the vehicle because when people begin to invision themselves with that vehicle, that is the image that is implanted in their head.  They believe that is they purchase this car, their family with also be happy and good looking and sing a lot.