The Dropbox Documentary Analysis

Blackfish shows all of rhetorical situations throughout the documentary. The rhetor in Blackfish is Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director. The audience is Sea World customers or potential customers. The purpose of the documentary Blackfish is to inform people on how damaging mentally and physically it is to keep an orca whales captive. The exigence in this documentary is that holding killer whale’s captive and it is very dangerous mentally and physically to the whale, but also can be dangerous for the workers. The constraints in Blackfish is that the film may appear to be slightly biased against SeaWorld, making the audience see only one side of the issue. The affordances are you get to see live footage from the harmful attacks and listen to real life stories that people that witnessed it. Cowperthwaite goes on and appealeed to Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to create awareness on the harm of keeping killer whale’s captive.

Wherever we go, whether it be the grocery store, the mall, or even the couch, people are constantly bombarded by the elements of persuasion. For example, when buying a carton of milk, the advertisers will entice buyers with statistics and a list of healthy ingredients. Or while flipping through a magazine at the dentist's office, marketers draw the eyes in with bright colors and bold text. These elements of persuasion, rooted both in visual and logical appeals, can also be woven together to create an argumentative documentary. These documentaries, especially when considering controversial issues, have the power to broadcast important social messages to the world. This ability, however, can only be unlocked when the right rhetorical means are used to further their argument. The 13th, a documentary directed by Ava DuVernay, is a prime example of this. Released in October of 2016, this oscar-nominated film made an immediate impact due to its provoking message on the mass criminalization of African Americans in the United States, skilfully exploring the disproportionate amount of African Americans in prison. The success of this documentary can be attributed to its persuasive visual and audio tracks and its well timed arrival, ultimately influencing the viewer's passion to create a change in the world.

A documentary is an expository text that informs its audience about an issue person or event using visual and auditory conventions to convey a message. Documentaries are often used to reveal an unusual, interesting or unknown angle. Topics are limited only by one's imagination. The documentary Blackfish is the story of Tilikum, a captive killer whale that has taken the lives of several people, it underscores problems within the sea-park industry, man's relationship to nature, and how little has been learned about these highly intelligent mammals. This documentary was directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The ideas that orcas are wild and unpredictable, Seaworld’s treatment of orcas are inhumane and Seaworld’s was negligent in their training of their trainers. These ideas are shown throughout the documentary as visual techniques of Celebrity figure, expert opinion, audio codes, the documentary technique of interviews, archival footage and written codes. I think these ideas in the documentary are quite true and are well proven throughout the documentary.

In 2013 Gabriela Cowperthwaite produced and directed the documentary “Blackfish”. This documentary mainly focused on the issues behind killer whales being held in captivity such as at the famous amusement park Sea World, instead of the open ocean. Some negative outcomes of these animals being confined to such small spaces is, many accounts have been documented of the whales being agitated and having an aggressive tone with other whales and the trainers as well that work with them. A handful of these are human deaths caused by the orca whales. Throughout the documentary the director uses the Rhetorical strategies ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade the audience and try to convince them that her argument has a valid point and can be

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in the documentary, Blackfish (2013), argues that captivity triggers aggression in killer whales. Cowperthwaite supports her argument by demonstrating shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these animals in captivity and for human entertainment. The author’s purpose is to show the problems that are caused by captivity in order to aware the audience that keeping killer whales in captivity affects their behavior mentally and physically. The author writes in resentful tone to Sea World, the people who visited Sea World, and those who were present during the killer whale incident. Gabriela Cowperthwaite argues that keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld affects their mentality due to how they are being treated. She makes this argument by applying pathos, ethos, and logos.

Black; a colour closely associated with dread, a cascade of bubbles emerging, and a voice filled with sorrow reveals the events that lead to the death of a human being are present when suddenly a killer whale and person come into shot. This is what the audience first sees with the documentary Blackfish, what they do not see, however, is all of the manipulative fallacies. At first glance Blackfish looks like a strong and valid argument, however, under further examination it becomes evident that Blackfish’s argument is not as strong as it first appears to be. While Blackfish has some solid evidence, the use of fallacies in the argument makes it manipulative, and therefore invalid.

In the documentary “Blackfish”, directed by Gabriela Cowperthawaite in 2013, is asking the audience to take up a position on the inhumane treatment of whales in captivity. In particular, she invites us to feel sympathy for the whales and anger toward SeaWorld cruelty and denial of culpability. Cowperthawaite makes choices of visual image, language, sound and structure achieve her outstanding outcomes.

The claim further argues that said stress can be directly blamed for the violent outbursts of the orcas against the training staff. When whales are taken away from their families in the wild waters, they grieve the pain and suffering that is associated with that parting, thus making the whales an emotional time bomb. The documentary provides grounds to argue that orcas suffer the emotional repercussions of separation, much like humans do by with the fact that scientists have proven them to be conscious of human-like relationships and feelings via MRI’s. Moreover, included in this documentary was a commercial of a killer whale giving birth to baby Kalina. Much like our society, killer whales value their relationships with their offspring. Once Kalina was taken from her mother, Katina, is shown being immobile in the corner of the tank, audibly screeching and crying. Being able to see and hear the tragic response of the mother makes the audience empathize with the orca and want to cry for her. Incorporating this event shows how holding orcas in captivity can negatively affect them psychologically. This vivid scene gives the audience the ability to sympathize on a personal level with a mammal other than

Documentarians often want to get as close to their subject matter as possible. Some documentarians have an insider perspective which ignites a spark to create a piece that illuminates a specific topic or area of study. There are also documentarians that have no affiliation with said subject matter, but want to explore the topic in question. Finally, there are documentarians that have a foot in both worlds. Insider/outsider is a theory in which a documentarian can be close to a subject, but also possess characteristics or traits that make them distant from the topic in question (Coles, 1998). Such is the case with the directors of both Stranger with a Camera and The House I Live In. Due to their own location, both Eugene Jarecki and Elizabeth Barret exhibit characteristics that make them fall into the insider/outsider roles as directors. Robert Coles defines location by stating, “We notice what we notice because of who we are” (Coles, 1998, p. 7). Included in this is, a person’s education, race, class, and gender. Both directors realize they are outsiders and utilize a lens into a world in which they are not otherwise a part of. Jarecki’s lens comes in the form of Nanny Jeter, his family’s nanny from when he was a child. Barret’s lens for her documentary is the community that she shared with Ison. The two directors enter into a world that they are not a part of because of their location, but forge a connection to the subject matter through means of a lens.

Cowperthwaite wastes no time in establishing an emotional connection between viewers and the subject matter. Cowperthwaite uses pathos in the form of an actual 911 emergency phone call related to SeaWorld incidents, interviews given by former SeaWorld trainers, and video clips of killer whales behaving in nature and in captivity. Within the first few seconds of the documentary, viewers are exposed to not one but two horrifying 911 emergency phone calls. In one of these phone calls, a man calls and communicates to the

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary Blackfish explores the harm captivity causes to whales and their trainers. Throughout the film the orca whales undergo a transformation from defenseless creatures into molded killers. The orcas in the film are portrayed as intelligent and caring creatures who are capable of grief. Through this character the development the documentary has affected how these animals are treated, as well as the public’s opinion on the issue.

The rhetorical situation of the documentary is presented by director and writer Gabriela Cowperthwaite when she brings to light the history of Seaworld and it’s famous orca, Tilikum by recruiting former trainers and whale experts. The context of the film is explained when it dives into the orca attacks, the most recent victim being Dawn Brancheau who was killed by Tilikum in 2010. The principle aim to this documentary is that orcas should not be held in captivity because it is detrimental to their mind citing past incidents throughout Tilikum’s life. I found this “text” to be effective because it highlights the developed brain of an orca, former incidents with Tilikum, and consistent concealment of blame from

SeaWorld has shone on the radar of public peruse and activist criticism since experiencing its first animal-motivated death on July 6th, 1999. The victim, 27-year-old Daniel P. Dukes, had ambiguously evaded park night-security and entered the Orca tank under the cover of darkness. He was found dead the next day, drowned; but although declaring Dukes’ primary cause-of-death as pulmonary edema, Orlando’s District Nine Medical Examination Office also detailed vivid lacerations and avulsions - specifically of the genitalia. The severity of Dukes’ mutilation beaconed the public to his attacker: Tilikum, the largest Orca ever to be held in captivity - and not one new to, or finished with, killing. In response to Tilikum’s violent and arguably tragic history, film director Gabriela Cowperthwaite organized an ambitious, journalistic undertaking to expose SeaWorld’s inhumanity to the public; this undertaking would eventually translate into the 2013 documentary, Blackfish. Blackfish is, at its core, a project of entertainment, so the 1 hour and 30 minute film extensively fuses artistic expression with factual evidence to persuade its audience into condemning SeaWorld and its conglomerates, as well as to stand with Blackfish in its battle against the organization for its abusive conduct.

The death of Dawn Brancheau made national news back in 2010. Dawn was working as an orca trainer at the SeaWorld of Orlando when the tragic accident occurred. While doing a relationship session with Tilikum, the largest orca in captivity, Dawn was pulled into the water and drowned. It was a story that not only shocked the nation but left people wondering how something so horrible could happen. Gabriela Cowperthwaite‘s use of the accounts of retired SeaWorld trainers exposed the harsh reality of captured animals in her documentary Blackfish. In creating a piece focused on the life of one orca, Cowperthwaite has allowed viewers to look into the lives of captured animals and has shown the greater social issue of animal rights, the treatment

Dropbox is a downloadable application that allows users to securely sync, share and store multiple files such as photos, videos, documents and etc. from personal computers (PC) over the internet, as the article mentions. The Dropbox business was founded in April 2007 and it was in September of 2008 when it was launched to the public. Drew Houston is the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. An interesting fact about Houston is that he was five years old when he was first presented to computer programming and startups. At this age, he was already writing software as well as testing an online game when he was 14 years old. He also started a lucrative online SAT prep business in college. Houston discovered the need for creating Dropbox in December 2006 while he waited for a bus at Boston’s South Station. Houston had planned to work on a programming job for Bit9 while on his way to Manhattan, but before proceeding to do so he realized that he left his USB flash drive in his apartment. As frustrated as he was he began to plot a solution to this pain of his. He designed a service to securely sync and share files between personal computers and smartphones which resulted in the establishment of the Dropbox.