Bakewell: 'ancient capital of the Peak...'

Town Information:

           Bakewell is a small market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, deriving its name from 'Beadeca's Well'. It is well known for the local confection Bakewell Pudding. Set in an enviable location on the banks of the Wye, with the river meandering gently through the city centre, this beautiful old market town is in the heart of the Peak District, surrounded by stunning countryside views.
            Less than 200 years ago, Bakewell presented a completely different picture with narrow streets and timber framed properties, many of which had thatched roofs. The modern layout of the town only came about in the 19th century. Visitors flock to shop and explore the town’s nooks and crannies, to admire the fine stone Derbyshire buildings, or just to relax in by the clear, sparkling waters of the River Wye.
            Modern Bakewell has something for everyone, and everything for someone, from its many historic buildings and its wonderful riverside walks along the banks of the Wye, to its award-winning newly designed and recently revamped town centre.

Some Landmarks:

            All Saints Church is a church founded in 920 A.D., during Saxon times and the churchyard has two 9th-century Saxon crosses. One cross is the Beeley Cross, dug up in a field at a disputed location near Beeley and moved for some years to the grounds of Holt House near Darley Bridge. The other cross is the Bakewell Cross, eight feet high and almost complete. It was carved in the 7th or 8th century.

Bakewell pudding is a jam pastry with an egg and ground almond enriched filling. It is not to be confused with Bakewell tart, which is a completely different confection, made with shortcrust pastry, an almond topping and a sponge and jam filling; Mr Kipling also made "Cherry Bakewells", often also known as Bakewell tarts. The origins of the pudding are not clear; however, the generally accepted story is that it was first made by accident in 1820 when the landlady of the White Horse Inn left instructions for her cook to make a jam tart with an egg and almond paste pastry base.

Three shops in Bakewell offer what they each claim is the original recipe. The Bakewell Tart Shop & Coffee House sells four different variations of the confection, including: "Bakewell Tart," "Iced Bakewell Tart," "Moist Bakewell Tart," and "Traditional Bakewell Pudding"; whilst The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop and Bloomers of Bakewell both sell a "Bakewell Pudding."

Signs and Symbols of Contemporary Christianity

       Since I’ve moved to Montevallo, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a local church to attend. The interesting thing about churches is that, most often, a person can tell simply by the building, the décor, and the lighting whether or not a church will be the right fit. For example, whenever I walk into a church with wooden pews, ornate stained glass windows, and low-hanging chandeliers, I’m typically correct in my assumption that I’ve entered into the realm of conservative Christianity. On the other hand, when I find myself standing in the lobby of a church with massive television screens projecting advertisements for the bookstore, the child care center, and the multi-story gymnasium, I’ve stumbled upon a contemporary mega-church, equipped with its own coffee shop and café. After trying out several churches that fall between these two extreme ends of the spectrum, I’ve found a church that feels (more or less) like home to me. Like virtually any church, however, there are aspects of this church that can be observed, analyzed, and possibly even criticized to provide some detail about the goals, the values, and the audience (for lack of a better term) of the church.

            For example, this church is not a typical church building; it doesn’t have stained glass windows or a steeple. This church is a metal warehouse with roll-up doors, exposed steel beams, concrete floors, little to no decorations, and metal folding chairs. This physical architectural design provides some insight into the ideals and values of the church; not only does it suggest that the church is oriented towards a younger, more casual demographic but it also reflects the church’s desire to be good stewards of their resources (since these buildings are far cheaper to build and maintain), to keep the focus away from the physical building of the church, and to emphasize the important aspect of a universal Church that encompasses every aspect of a believer’s life and that is not confined to the walls of a particular physical space. The lack of decorations and embellishments within the church also suggests a sort-of minimalistic idea of Christianity; it implies that worship is not about the appearance and the aesthetics of a place but rather about stripping away all distractions in order to focus on God.

            The building is also dimly lit during the services; the warehouse’s black walls and ceiling, coupled with the dim mood lighting onstage, provide the building with a certain overwhelming mood. The stage lights often shift between several colors depending on the tome of the message or the tempo of the song. The dim lighting and shifting between colors to change the mood—reds for an upbeat, energetic song; blues for slow, contemplative music—is an attempt to create an intimate worship experience for the audience. The intent is to remove the focus from each individual and instead to pace it on the act of worship itself; the dim lights allow the audience to forget about their surroundings and immerse themselves in the service. However, sometimes it comes across like slight emotional manipulation since it tries to force the audience to feel a specific way. Likewise, the lighting on only the stage can create the feeling that the members of the church are attending a concert rather than participating in a worship service.

            The worship service consists of a large band playing loud, upbeat music. At its basic level, this is intended to draw in a younger crowd. The church emphasizes enthusiastic, participatory, active worship rather than a dull, passive consumption of information given in a sermon. This active participation in the service itself reflects the church’s desire to have active believers. The church’s motto/slogan/statement of purpose is “A diverse community of believers developing passionate followers of Christ to impact the world.” This suggests both an emotional investment as well as an active involvement in the church, a belief that is reflected in the church’s service itself; attendees are invited to actively participate in the worship service.

            During the sermon, the pastor speaks informally and conversationally. He doesn’t use a pulpit or a podium, and he moves freely about the stage, gesturing and reenacting stories and anecdotes. He dresses informally, usually in jeans and a button down, and he regularly references his laid back manner (both of speaking and of dressing). His emphasis on being casual is both an invitation to the members of the church to be comfortable with themselves as well as a way for him to connect more personally with the audience. It also is a way to shift the focus and attention from a single individual (in this case, the pastor) unto the overall focus of worshiping  His manner of speaking and his informal clothes make him seem approachable and personable, and he constantly reminds the church that he is just an ordinary guy who struggles with the same things and makes the same mistakes as they do. He regularly uses the first person plural “we,” “us,” “our,” which suggests to the church that there is no hierarchy of believers. This casual atmosphere not only is an attempt for the church to appeal to a younger generation but it also is a way to live out through a service the idea that people should come to church, to religion, to God “just as they are.”

            By closely examining and analyzing the signs and symbols of a church, one is able to learn a considerable amount about their beliefs, their values, and their intentions. As for my church, the entire atmosphere is intended to take away focus from the individual and emphasize the active worship experience. From the warehouse to the clothes the pastor chooses, each element of the church has been chosen intentionally to project onto both members and visitors of the church certain moods, ideas, and values. Sometimes these choices are successful, but sometimes they feel rather contrived and forced. 

Visual Rhetoric in Minimalist Movie Posters

The Minimalist Movie Poster

There is a fairly new artistic movement in which artists and graphic designers take famous movies, strip them down to their visual essence, and create a minimalist film poster. These minimalist posters often lack images of actors or characters depicted in the film and visuals lifted directly from the film. Unlike most film posters, these minimalist renditions provide the viewer with the bare minimum in regards to visuals. While film posters today often contain close-ups of famous actors, striking visual images from the film, and a laundry list of celebrity names that distract the viewer from the real tone and mood of the poster itself, these minimalist designs offer little more than a few choice colors that capture the film’s tone and simple images that hint at what the film is about. For example, these two minimalist movie posters for the films The Pianist and The Social Network contain little to no information about the stars of the film or the big-name directors, and they certainly do not provide enough visual images to divulge any excess information about the films’ plot lines  These two posters provide the viewer with a stripped-down portrayal of the tone and content of the films. By examining the color schemes, textures, and images provided by these two posters, viewers are able to determine the basic premise of the films, and they can possibly form some idea of the overall tone and mood of the films.

The Pianist

iskander1989's The Pianist

            

       This minimalist movie poster by an artist known by the username iskander1989 portrays the film The Pianist in which a Polish Jewish pianist (played by Adrien Brody) attempts to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto during WWII. While the original posters for this film are already very simplistic, iskander1989 decides to strip away as much excess as he can to provide the viewer with extremely subtle hints about the film. Someone unfamiliar with the plot of this film might not be able to determine exactly what it’s about from this poster alone; however, there are several elements of this poster that, when analyzed closely, reveal a considerable amount of information about the film. 

For example, the first thing someone might notice about the poster is (1) its simplistic color scheme. The artist’s choice to use blues, blacks, grays, and whites reflects the film’s overarching tone of loss, sorrow, and misery. It also reflects the films setting to an extent; most of the film takes place in the cold, frozen winter months. Likewise, the artist has chosen to give the poster a (2) wrinkled texture. This choice not only illustrates the physical appearance of the main character Szpilman (Brody) as he struggles to survive the harsh winter months but also suggests the imperfection and degradation of Europe during WWII. The predominant visual image of this poster is the (3) piano keyboard lining the bottom of the picture. This is an obvious reference to the film’s original poster, containing little more than Brody’s hands playing the piano:

Image from IMDB.com

The frame is dark, and the only things illuminated are Brody’s hands on the piano and the Jewish identification badge that Jews would have been forced to wear. The artist’s decision to allude to the original film poster was a wise one because anyone familiar with the film would immediate recognize that particular image of piano keys and associate it with the film The Pianist. The artist also chose to incorporate (4) the simple silhouette of a man into the composition of the keyboard itself. This decision reflects how important creating and playing music was to Szpilman during his time in hiding; his music is a part of himself as much as he has become a part of his music. The creation of music throughout the film was how Szpilman dealt with his grief, loneliness, and anguish. Another major component of this minimalist poster is the fact that (5) the keyboard is made to look like the crumbled remains of buildings. This image of decay and dilapidation being incorporated into the keyboard itself suggests that during his fight for survival, every element of Szpilman’s life has been destroyed. The character has been separated from his family, he has been forced out of him home, he has lost his job, and he has had to fight each day to get the food, clothing, and shelter he needs to survive. Again, this image of the broken and demolished buildings harkens to another one of the film’s original posters. The artist has once again chosen to allude to an iconic image associated with the film: 

Image from IMDB.com

This poster shows Szpilman wandering through the crumbling remains of the Warsaw ghetto. iskander1989 is clearly alluding to this image; however, he has stripped the image down to the essential element of decay and destruction, providing the viewer with a more desolate, empty, lonely image.

The Social Network

Matt Chase's The Social Network

            In the same minimalist vein, Matt Chase created this stripped-down poster for the film The Social Network, which follows Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) as he creates and launches Facebook. The original poster features an extremely close-up image of Eisenberg with a text overlay that reads, "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies." This original poster instantly causes the reader to expect a film about Facebook as well as anticipate internal conflict and betrayal throughout the film. Likewise, Chase's minimalist poster portrays the same ideas but in a more subtle way. By closely examining his choices of image, color, font, etc. the viewer can glean a good deal of information about the film.

AKADoom's The Social Network

As with the poster for The Pianist, the (1) color scheme plays an extremely important role in providing the viewer with meaning about this poster and about the film in itself. It is completely impossible in today’s technology-fueled culture to see these particular shades of blue and white and not think about Facebook. However, the colors in this poster are not quite as bright or vibrant as the actual colors on the Facebook site. This dulling and muting of the colors possibly suggests the overarching element of distrust, betrayal, and paranoia associated with Columbia Pictures’ portrayal of Zuckerburg and the creation of Facebook. While the film has several humorous moments, it’s laced with suspicion and disloyalty. Unlike other minimalist renditions of The Social Network’s poster (like the one here by tumblr user AKADoom), Chase's poster does not necessarily scream Facebook, and his use of technological images is subtle. His approach is very successful; there is no denying the connection between his choice in colors and the color scheme of Facebook. Chase also chooses to incorporate slight suggestions to technology; (2) he sets up the title as if it is being typed on a computer. Even if the viewer were unaware of the film’s depiction of Zuckerberg as the creator of Facebook, this element ensures that he or she will be able to assume that the film will contain a technological element. Likewise, Chase portrays the (3) light coming in through the window as making a computer keyboard. This image not only further illustrates the technological element of the film but also suggests that technology was extremely pervasive in the life of Zuckerberg; the film portrays him at first as a computer-geek, genius with few social skills but a wealth of knowledge regarding hacking, coding, etc. Technology completely consumed his life. In creating a poster with very few details, Chase had to determine what image would depict the most information about the film. His choice to focus mainly on this (4) algorithm scribbled on a window is extremely vital. By looking at this image, the viewer might assume that the film will contain mathematical jargon (which is does to an extent), and this might turn people off from watching the film. However, Chase also chooses to show (5) a beer bottle on the window sill. This juxtaposition of complicated algorithms with alcohol is interesting. Both are images directly from the film, in this scene,

 but the combination of the images on this poster depicts Zuckerberg’s carefree lifestyle and the recklessness with which Facebook originated. 

Works Cited

AKADoom. The Social Network. 2013. Photograph. Tumblr.com. Web. 14 Oct 2013. <http://minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com/image/45705032455>.

Chase, Matt. Cinema Re-Imagined: The Social Network. 2011. Graphic. Behance.net. Web. 14 Oct 2013. <http://www.behance.net/gallery/Cinema-Re-Imagined/1268211>.

iskander1989. The Pianist. 2012. Graphic. Worth1000.comWeb. 14 Oct 2013. <http://www.worth1000.com/entries/671918/the-pianist4>.

J.K. Rowling "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination"

Ethos and Pathos

Aristotle lists and defines three important rhetorical tools that can be used to persuade an audience to think, act, or feel a certain way—ethos, pathos, and logos. Most basically defined, ethos is a speaker or writer establishing his or her own credibility. This technique is often employed to initially gain an audience’s attention and trust; the audience is convinced that the speaker or writer is competent, well-informed about the topic, and trustworthy. Likewise, pathos encourages and persuades audiences to act because they are being appealed to at an emotional level. Often, speakers or writers will use specific stories, anecdotes, or provocative language to move the audience to feel a certain way. Finally, logos is a rhetorical technique that appeals to an audience through logic; an argument is presented and then expounded upon in a logical progression that leaves the audience convinced of its authenticity. These three rhetorical tools are often used simultaneously in an attempt to gain the trust of the audience while at the same time moving them to connect both emotionally and intellectually with the subject. For my purposes today, I’m going to focus on the usage of ethos and pathos.

Ethos:

Ethos is defined “in classical rhetoric, [as] a persuasive appeal based on the character or projected character of the speaker or writer.” Speakers and writers often begin to persuade an audience by trying to gain trust through establishing their credibility. With the exponential rise of digital media—whether in formal advertising or informal social media—the establishment of credibility and trustworthiness has become almost entirely founded upon prevalence in an online forum. Something or someone is trustworthy if it can be Googled; a topic is only legitimate if it has an article on Wikipedia; a person only exists if he or she has a Facebook or a Twitter account; products and brands are deemed worth buying because we were told so by an add on a website. In order for speakers and writers to employ the use of ethos in order to gain credibility in the digital age, they often refer back to an online article they read or a video they watched or an advertisement they saw. 

For example, in this video by the End It Movement, an organization that seeks to raise awareness and funds to end modern day slavery, the video attempts to gain credibility by using trustworthy and recognizable websites like the Google search engine and what looks like Google maps. The video focuses a lot on searching on the internet for the information that they are providing. The makers of the video are virtually shouting at their audience, saying, “It’s real; we promise! Pull out your iPhones and Google it!” They show that people have posted on Facebook and Tweeted about the issue, and they show that videos can be found about the issue on YouTube. They even go far as to prompt the audience at the end of the video, saying, “SHARE THIS VIDEO.” The heavy emphasis on an online presence makes the video appear more trustworthy and more credible. The makers of the video also use other methods to establish their credibility such as historical information about the slave trade to establish credibility by comparing the number of people enslaved in the world today to the number of slaves that are believed to have existed throughout history and important historical and political figures to emphasize that slavery is still prevalent in the world today. They have images of Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and protestors fighting for freedom and rights, and they play sound bites of both President Obama and Nelson Mandela. All of these attempts work together to prove to the audience that the End It Movement is a legitimate and trustworthy cause.

And just in case this video didn’t convince you, here are some trustworthy celebs that say End It’s for real:

Nick Cannon
Trevor Bane
and Matt Hasselbeck

Pathos:

Pathos is defined as “an appeal to an audience’s emotions.” Pathos can be employed through several techniques—a speaker or writer can use extremely powerful language, compelling stories or anecdotes, a particular tone, and even simple things like body language, dramatic pauses, and facial expressions to impart an emotional attachment to his or her topic. An emotional appeal to an audience through digital media is often multifaceted and complex; it often entails both images and sound and well as the aforementioned techniques. Because of multimedia productions, a simple speech or piece of text can be just one of many layers of a particular persuasive appeal. I’m again going to focus on a video created for the End It Movement because I think that they take these rhetorical techniques and almost caricaturize them. 

In this video, they somehow take an appeal to emotion to the very extreme while at the same time, stripping down the information to the bare minimum. This video is really long, so I’m just going to focus on the first three minutes or so and talk briefly about the rest. At the opening of the video, all that the viewer sees and hears is a black background with red and white text overlay and some urgent, dramatic music. The very use of such contrasting colors and varying font sizes and boldness for the text makes certain words—like “SLAVERY” and “FORCED” and “PROPERTY”—stand out to the viewer. The makers of the video have cut the video down to its skeleton to provide the basic information that a viewer would need to be impacted by the video, and they slowly transition between frames and text to impart the gravity of the situation onto the viewer. After the music builds to create dramatic tension, the video shifts to show a girl breaking through a window and trying to escape people who are trafficking children. They maintain the dramatic music throughout this, and when the scene is over, they bring back the black background and red and white font before delving into the personal stories of three individuals who have been enslaved and have managed to be freed from slavery. Before telling the viewer the real stories of injustice that have actually occurred, the makers of this video felt the need to create an emotional atmosphere of suspense, tension, and upset in order to prepare the viewers to really understand, respond to, and act to prevent the stories of injustice that follow. All of this works together to create an emotional response within the viewer; we’re supposed to feel an urgency to stop this sort of injustice from happening, we’re supposed to recognize that trafficking children is wrong, and we’re supposed to be outraged into action.