MPSE Wavelength

Spring 2024

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36 M PS E . O R G have aged so well that they are used on a daily basis on television and radio advertisements. As a film sound designer, my interest is focused on how Ethos, Pathos, and Logos can and are used in film soundtracks. A rhetorical analysis of film sound is feasible and in the following paragraphs I'll establish the basis for doing so. In order to find out if sound in film can be used as a rhetorical device by engaging the audience with it, I applied Aristotle's rhetorical triangle to the analysis of film soundtracks. In the following paragraphs, I describe how Aristotle's three modes of persuasion can be used to analyse film soundtracks and how they correlate respectively, but not exclusively to the three main elements of the soundtrack, namely, dialogue, sound effects, and music. I suggest that the three modes of BY JAVIER QUESADA MPSE BY JAVIER QUESADA MPSE n Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film, Seymour Chatman writes; "Rhetoric should not be used as one more synonym for 'communication' in the loose sense but should refer rather specifically to end-oriented discourse, where 'end' is conceived as the suasion of the audience." (Chatman, 1990). Notice how Chatman is using the word "suasion" here, which means basically persuasion. Rhetoric as defined by Aristotle "may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." (Aristotle cited in McKeon, 1941). As Arthur A. Berger says, our focus when applying rhetoric analysis on contemporary media is; "on persuasion in a broader sense, that is, on how creators of all [ PA R T 5 O F A 5 - PA R T S E R I E S ] Film Sound as Rhetorical Device I kinds of texts achieve their ends. That involves topics such as how advertising agencies 'convince' us to buy the products and try the services they advertise, how novelists 'move' us, and how filmmakers and playwrights create characters with whom we empathize." (Berger, 2015). Note that Berger uses the word "texts" here. As Branston and Stafford point out "in the study of media and culture, a text can be anything which is to be investigated—a haircut, hip-hop lyrics, a dance, a film." (Branston and Stafford, 2010). Aristotle distinguished three modes of persuasion: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Persuasion with Ethos is based upon the personal character of the speaker, its credibility. Pathos appeals to the emotions of the listener and Logos persuades the audience based on logic and reason. These three modes of persuasion

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