Visual Rhetoric- starbucks

0:00: There is a four door car parked in a drive way in front of house with a basketball hoop. All of the doors of the car are opened. It is a nice day out and the car is parked like it was just backed in. the family is most likely either just getting back from somewhere or leaving to go somewhere.


0:02: in the next second of the video, the boy on the left looks like he is trying to take something from the other boy. The boy that is trying to take something is looking at the other child, while the other child looks like he is holding onto something that isn’t pictured in the video at the moment. The girl in the backseat is looking away, ignoring the fact that these two boys, possibly her brothers, are arguing.

0:03-0:04: The camera zooms into the girl in the backseat. She has her eyes almost closed and is chewing on something, most likely a piece of gum. She has headphones on, not paying attention to anything other than her music. Then the camera zooms to a man in the driver’s seat. He looks a little frustrated. He is most likely these three children’s father, so the fact that these two boys are arguing over something is probably bothering him.

0:05-0:06: The camera then zooms back onto the girl in the back seat but from a side view rather than straight on, like before. She is blowing a bubble with the piece of gum in her mouth.

0:07- 0:09 The camera then shows the boy who before looked like he was getting annoyed with his brother. His mouth is opened, probably shouting at his brother for taking something from him. The camera then moves to a lady sitting in the passenger seat, most likely the children’s mother. It looks like she is looking into the rear view mirror to see what the two boys are fighting about. She opens her mouth slightly like she is about to say something but then the camera switches to the father’s eyes in the rear view mirror most likely looking back at the boys as well.

0:10-0:13: The camera switches back to the girl in the back seat and she just popped her bubble and is looking out the car window. It then moves back to the two boys and they both have their hands on a bag of cheese doodles. It looks they are both pulling the bag so that they can have it for themselves and not share with each other, however, this is causing the cheese doodles to start spilling out of the bag. The camera moves to the boy’s face on the right and then back to the center so both of them are pictured in it. They are still tugging at the bag causing the cheese doodles to fly out everywhere.

0:14-0:16: the camera zooms into the dads face and he is looking at something, most likely the rear view mirror looking back at the cheese doodles flying out. The cheese doodles start falling towards him and he moves his eyes slightly away, looking forward. He looks extremely annoyed. While the dad’s face stays the same, the cheese doodles are flying forward towards him in the background.

0:17: The camera switches back, focusing on the two boys. Both of their mouths are opened, probably because they are yelling at each other. To the left of them camera is blurry but it is the mother looking back at them. In the background the sister is looking at them, she looks shocked. Both of the boys then turn their heads and eyes towards their mother as she opens her mouth to say something to them.

0:18-0:21: The camera moves, just focusing on the mother. She is still in the passenger’s seat but is turned to look at the boys. She mouths the word “now” and then the two boys stop tugging at the bag and the daughter in the back seat looks away. The camera then zooms into the boy on the right buckling his seat belt.


0:23: The camera zooms away from the father and now you can see the father, mother, and one of the son’s. The mother is turned; it looks like she is talking to the son who is not pictured at this second. The son that is pictured is looking away. Lastly, the father has a smile on his face, probably because they can finally leave for wherever they are going already!

0:24-0:25: The camera is still at the same angle. The mother turns forward and the father puts his hand on top of the wheel and sighs.


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2 Responses to Visual Rhetoric- starbucks

  1. davidbdale says:

    This is fine as far as it goes, Starbucks, but imagine you are the reader, not the viewer, totally dependent on the author (that’s you!) for every detail. You need to communicate not just the visible images but the inferences we draw when we see them. Directors with a good budget who have only 30 seconds to tell a story don’t waste a single frame. Tear this thing down as if every leaf on the tree was intentional.

    Some of the details will turn out to be irrelevant, perhaps (maybe the time of day isn’t important), but we don’t know that while we’re watching. So report it anyway.

    0:00: A late-model four-door car in very good condition is parked in a driveway facing the viewer. All four doors are wide open. We cannot determine the make or model of the car because the emblem on the grill is indistinct, so we conclude this 30-second spot will not be an ad for a new car.

    Both the car and the house indicate a well-off owner or family lives here in a prosperous leafy suburb. The sun casts angled shadows on the well-maintained house, so it is either mid-morning or mid-afternoon. The sky is pure blue and cheerful.

    Oddly, the car has been backed in from the street toward the garage. The only reasonable explanation is that the driver wanted to load or unload something from the trunk, into or out of the garage or house. A nice glass basketball hoop with a fresh net faces the driving, giving the clear indication that athletic kids live here.

    See what I mean? Draw conclusions from everything we see (just as we all do the whole time we watch anything) and report on everything you conclude.

  2. davidbdale says:

    Provisional Grade at Blackboard

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