24 Feb. 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Works cited
1)World On Fire. Dir. Sophie Muller. Perf. Sara McLaughlin. Oil Factory inc., 2006. 16 May 2007.
24 Feb. 2009.
24 Feb. 2009
The Presence of Ethos, Pathos and Logos in Sara McLaughlin's video "World On Fire."
Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Without these three qualities, a story, a picture, a video or speech does not capture an audience. There is a certain art toward drawing the attention of others and it doesn’t come from things that are bland and every day. It requires an incorporation of an appeal to the human emotion, making them feel connected to the work. You must tie in logical information that makes man think and believe in your work because it teaches them, and opens their minds. Lastly, humans want something that has credibility, can be trusted and counted on. If done correctly, you can create a masterpiece like Sara McLaughlin did with her music video World on Fire. It is so much more than just another music video. It opened up our eyes and drew attention to the growing problems of third world countries. The video stacks up budget items for a typical clip against what the same $150,000 budget would buy as relief efforts, such as cattle, bicycles, housing, education, and medicine. "Her music video, "World On Fire," won a Grammy nominee for Best Short Form Music Video. It cost only $15 to make, the price of a Sony mini DV tape. The remainder of the $150,000 video budget was distributed among eleven charitable organizations around the world including CARE, Engineers Without Borders, Help The Aged, Warchild, and Heifer International. Sara McLaughlin’s video captured the world’s attention because it combined logical statistics, coming from a well known and credible artist, while appealing to emotion with footage of poverty and deprivation from other parts of the world.
Sara McLaughlin claims that after being sickened by the amount of wasteful spending Hollywood was using, she decided to do something about it. But poverty is in the new every day. What made her music video have such a lasting impact? For me it was the logos, the appeal to ones logic. Seeing the statistics right there in front of me having concrete facts is what makes you understand the message McLaughlin intended. It doesn’t truly hit you, how grotesquely shallow and foolish we are with our spending. It’s sad to say that more people would like to say see a celebrity with their professional hair and makeup and designer wardrobe singing their song in an expensive studio, than to see that money go to help feed the hungry. How selfish our society has become. After seeing how the cost of one artist’s music video can change so many people’s lives around the world, logically you have to think, what if everyone in Hollywood did this. Raw data is the proof that people need to see in order to make them believe that we have a real issue on our hands here. Millions of people saw the numbers in that video and were ashamed of the way they had cared so much about something so superficial. It’s one thing to throw out a bunch of statistics, but if you really want to tug at the hearts of people, pathos comes into play.
When I first saw Sara McLaughlin’s video “World On Fire” I was so moved that I couldn’t help but cry. I remember the screen going black and I sat there in a blank stare. I wanted to help, I wanted to do something. The faces of these people were heartbroken. Their eyes crying out for help. Children starving in the streets women working so hard just to feed their families, Houses not fit for an animal. What was I doing in this seat watching this video in my five bedroom house on my nine hundred dollar laptop, while these people didn’t have a dime to buy a meal? Humans are definitely visual oriented creatures. We have this since of brotherhood amongst other human, which is why when you see the images of Sara McLaughlin’s video you feel like you have a duty to help your fellow man. In America the sight of a homeless child sleeping under a bridge with no food to eat, is not something you see every day, so when you do it immediately grabs your attention. You feel for them, have compassion for them, and empathy. I believe that Ethos is the most important part of this video simply because it is the shocker. What people see they can believe, and the images are incredibly moving. Human beings are wired to feel deep emotion, in fact it is the root of all that we do. If we didn’t feel some kind of hurt for the people in the video, then it could have never become as successful as it did. But as humans, it is also in our nature to be skeptical. We have to be able to trust, that what we are seeing is true and credible, which is why it is necessary for Sara McLaughlin’s video to include Ethos.
She has won three Grammy awards as well as Canada’s Humanitarian of the Year award. Many of her songs have stood at the top of the charts repeatedly, and three of her albums have gone platinum. If any singer possesses Ethos, it is Sara McLaughlin. She has always been an advocate for world peace, and the fight against poverty, but because she has made her humanitarian efforts so well known, she has become a very well respected and trusted celebrity. The more people that know who you are, the more they trust what you say, so because Sara McLaughlin was so well known, people had no doubt that the video was true and credible. In today’s world, with scam artists and fake charities, you never know where your money is going, and people have a right to be skeptical. I sometimes wonder if this video would have had such an impact had it been done by a less know performer. What is so great about McLaughlin is that she knows the power she has with her fame. She was able to take her fame and use it for good. It was such a selfless act, and there are few celebrities who are willing to do the same. She sacrificed a piece of her career by making that video. She ran the risk of losing lot’s of publicity because the video was less likely to make it on countdowns, plus it shows very little of the Artist herself. But she did it anyway because she wanted to make a statement. I respect Sara McLaughlin so much for making this video. She didn’t have to, but she did and definitely made an impact on all that saw it.
There they are, a recipe for success, Ethos Pathos and Logos. It is these three elements that grab people’s attention. Sara McLaughlin’s video made such a big difference because it was more than just someone telling us what is wrong with our society. It showed you. The video didn’t need someone talking; the statistics written on the screen had enough Logos to make people think of how wasteful we are with our money. Her video displayed images that hit your heart and leave you with no choice but to feel a sense of compassion for others. Human emotion is a powerful thing. It makes us do crazy things sometimes but most of all it provokes action. McLaughlin’s use of Pathos in her video caused people to stand up and do something about the suffering going on around them. Lastly McLaughlin’s credibility as well known and respected artist, played a big role in the success of her video. People trusted her as an artist to be telling the truth and it is part of the reason why the charities she used in her video grossed millions of dollars just from McLaughlin’s use of them. “World On Fire” made such a strong impact on me that I remember being ashamed of how materialistic I had lived my life. I now look at Hollywood and Celebrities in a totally different light. It’s almost disgusting how we pay more attention to how much the car Jay Z drives cost, then we do about the number of girls in Afghanistan who don’t receive education, or the number of homeless people living in India. Sara McLaughlin did a fabulous job of incorporating Ethos, Pathos and Logos into her video and she is a an amazing and talented artist who was able to open up the eyes of many people, while changing the lives of many others.
Sara McLaughlin claims that after being sickened by the amount of wasteful spending Hollywood was using, she decided to do something about it. But poverty is in the new every day. What made her music video have such a lasting impact? For me it was the logos, the appeal to ones logic. Seeing the statistics right there in front of me having concrete facts is what makes you understand the message McLaughlin intended. It doesn’t truly hit you, how grotesquely shallow and foolish we are with our spending. It’s sad to say that more people would like to say see a celebrity with their professional hair and makeup and designer wardrobe singing their song in an expensive studio, than to see that money go to help feed the hungry. How selfish our society has become. After seeing how the cost of one artist’s music video can change so many people’s lives around the world, logically you have to think, what if everyone in Hollywood did this. Raw data is the proof that people need to see in order to make them believe that we have a real issue on our hands here. Millions of people saw the numbers in that video and were ashamed of the way they had cared so much about something so superficial. It’s one thing to throw out a bunch of statistics, but if you really want to tug at the hearts of people, pathos comes into play.
When I first saw Sara McLaughlin’s video “World On Fire” I was so moved that I couldn’t help but cry. I remember the screen going black and I sat there in a blank stare. I wanted to help, I wanted to do something. The faces of these people were heartbroken. Their eyes crying out for help. Children starving in the streets women working so hard just to feed their families, Houses not fit for an animal. What was I doing in this seat watching this video in my five bedroom house on my nine hundred dollar laptop, while these people didn’t have a dime to buy a meal? Humans are definitely visual oriented creatures. We have this since of brotherhood amongst other human, which is why when you see the images of Sara McLaughlin’s video you feel like you have a duty to help your fellow man. In America the sight of a homeless child sleeping under a bridge with no food to eat, is not something you see every day, so when you do it immediately grabs your attention. You feel for them, have compassion for them, and empathy. I believe that Ethos is the most important part of this video simply because it is the shocker. What people see they can believe, and the images are incredibly moving. Human beings are wired to feel deep emotion, in fact it is the root of all that we do. If we didn’t feel some kind of hurt for the people in the video, then it could have never become as successful as it did. But as humans, it is also in our nature to be skeptical. We have to be able to trust, that what we are seeing is true and credible, which is why it is necessary for Sara McLaughlin’s video to include Ethos.
She has won three Grammy awards as well as Canada’s Humanitarian of the Year award. Many of her songs have stood at the top of the charts repeatedly, and three of her albums have gone platinum. If any singer possesses Ethos, it is Sara McLaughlin. She has always been an advocate for world peace, and the fight against poverty, but because she has made her humanitarian efforts so well known, she has become a very well respected and trusted celebrity. The more people that know who you are, the more they trust what you say, so because Sara McLaughlin was so well known, people had no doubt that the video was true and credible. In today’s world, with scam artists and fake charities, you never know where your money is going, and people have a right to be skeptical. I sometimes wonder if this video would have had such an impact had it been done by a less know performer. What is so great about McLaughlin is that she knows the power she has with her fame. She was able to take her fame and use it for good. It was such a selfless act, and there are few celebrities who are willing to do the same. She sacrificed a piece of her career by making that video. She ran the risk of losing lot’s of publicity because the video was less likely to make it on countdowns, plus it shows very little of the Artist herself. But she did it anyway because she wanted to make a statement. I respect Sara McLaughlin so much for making this video. She didn’t have to, but she did and definitely made an impact on all that saw it.
There they are, a recipe for success, Ethos Pathos and Logos. It is these three elements that grab people’s attention. Sara McLaughlin’s video made such a big difference because it was more than just someone telling us what is wrong with our society. It showed you. The video didn’t need someone talking; the statistics written on the screen had enough Logos to make people think of how wasteful we are with our money. Her video displayed images that hit your heart and leave you with no choice but to feel a sense of compassion for others. Human emotion is a powerful thing. It makes us do crazy things sometimes but most of all it provokes action. McLaughlin’s use of Pathos in her video caused people to stand up and do something about the suffering going on around them. Lastly McLaughlin’s credibility as well known and respected artist, played a big role in the success of her video. People trusted her as an artist to be telling the truth and it is part of the reason why the charities she used in her video grossed millions of dollars just from McLaughlin’s use of them. “World On Fire” made such a strong impact on me that I remember being ashamed of how materialistic I had lived my life. I now look at Hollywood and Celebrities in a totally different light. It’s almost disgusting how we pay more attention to how much the car Jay Z drives cost, then we do about the number of girls in Afghanistan who don’t receive education, or the number of homeless people living in India. Sara McLaughlin did a fabulous job of incorporating Ethos, Pathos and Logos into her video and she is a an amazing and talented artist who was able to open up the eyes of many people, while changing the lives of many others.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
This video goes along with My English class' study of Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Sara Mclaughlin has always been an advocate for change and I think her music video is a wakeup call to our society's obsession with celebrities and money. This video changed my entire outlook on the world of Hollywood, and inspires me to live a life focused on helping others rather than wasting money on material things
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