video satire report

Connors, Do, Fernandez, Nazario 1

Tristan Connors, Quang Do, Eric Fernandez, Jorge Nazario

Dr. McLaughlin

Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric

31 October, 2015

Starbucks: The New Medellin Cartel

Coffee is America’s highest consumed drug with over 180 million people drinking it

every day. The culture of drinking coffee specially to study has gotten very popular among

college students. It has gotten to the point where most students drink coffee every day; even

multiple times per day. It seems to us that coffee can act like addictive drugs such as nicotine:

people depend on it to study and work, and others are addicted to its effects, unique flavor and

peculiar aromas. This video was made with the purpose of critiquing not only the excessive

consumption of coffee among college students, but also the overlooked addiction and

dependency it creates.

Even though coffee does maintain help students be more productive by supplying them

with energy, it is not healthy at all to drink multiple coffees every day. Some negative side

effects of coffee include weakened stomach lining, heartburns, increased gastric emptying, and

difficulty absorbing enough minerals from the foods we eat. Not only that, but even though it is

yet debatable as to whether coffee is truly addictive or not, caffeine “was able to induce a clinical

dependence similar to that induced by other psychoactive drugs in some people.” In other words,

many people create a dependency on coffee because without it they are unable to function well.

Most people are estranged from these facts and do not know coffee does have negative side

effects and some history of dependency. Because of this we decided to show the world, through

an exaggerated satiric video, that coffee can create a dependency and addiction.


We decided to portray Starbucks as the biggest coffee supplier and “dealer” in the Notre

Dame campus and to satirize the excessive consumption of coffee among college students. The

main idea of the video is that the narrator is the voice of Starbucks itself, and is trying to sell the

coffee to college students in particular, just like any regular TV commercial would do. However,

the narrator is trying to sell the coffee by portraying the advantages of coffee drinking, but

omitting the cons. To top it all off, we portray the negative outcomes and side effects of drinking

and depending on coffee through the use of exaggerated scenes such as: regular students going

crazy for not having their Starbucks coffee, another student eating and showering in coffee,

another student inhaling coffee as if it were cocaine, and another student lying awake at night

without being able to fall asleep. In all of these scenes we show the people the downside to

coffee and aspire to alert the audience about only a few of its cons. All of these scenes were

devised taking into consideration Herrick’s Overview of Rhetoric and its tips to make a

successful rhetorical discourse. According to Herrick, the most important aspect about a

rhetorical discourse is to plan the discourse beforehand, taking into consideration its audience,

and to inspire, persuade, and influence the intended audience (Herrick 7). We especially made

sure that the video was directed to a college audience

Initially, our group struggled to find an adequate theme for the storyboard. In the

beginning, our main focus was to satirize coffee, however afterwards we decided to critique

students’ study habits because we felt that a broader subject would benefit us in the long run.

After presenting you our storyboard, we followed your advice and returned to our original coffee

topic, and decided to portray Starbucks as a drug lord who supplies the students with its

products. We asked ourselves: “How will we present the problem we are satirizing?” And after

brainstorming, we agreed that we would present the video as a “Starbucks ad,” where the


narrator would sell you the idea that Starbucks is quintessential to studying and college life in

general. It was here that we decided to do the satire with a counter argument; the scenes

contradict the narrator showing the viewers the side that Starbucks doesn’t want them to see.

Afterwards, we began to brainstorm on how we would open this video. We decided to hook the

audience by showing a shady package delivery (apparently, a drug exchange). And when the

student opens the package, the package concealed a Starbucks whole-bean bag. So we started to

think of possible comical scenes that kept focus. So we picked off some notable Notre Dame and

college “musts”, such as Feve, Netflix, and Super Smash Brothers (video game). We decided to

portray coffee as the product one had to drink to be able to do all of these fun activities and still

have the energy to study and do well in school. Then we decided to end the video with the

narrator informing about how coffee helped some historical, brilliant, and famous figures do

their best works, to “convince” the audience to buy Starbucks’ coffee. Ultimately, the narrator

would close the video with the Starbucks slogan.

This wasn’t the end though. We asked ourselves, “What can we add to make it better?”

And so we purposely placed a Starbucks prop in virtually every scene, because that is usually the

way in which ads are placed to influence the mind of the audience. And also, we decided that we

could add a personal touch, something that screams “Coffee.” So we added a song in the

background called Coffee Cantata, an actual song written by Bach, which was obviously inspired

by coffee. And if you hear, we play it throughout the whole video, only to reveal its true purpose

at the end, another technique used by many companies. After adding all of these different

components together, we had ourselves the final and revised storyboard, ready to be passed from

paper to screen.


After we had gone through the filming process, it was time to take from our set of videos

and the internet to create a finalized video. To do that, we started off by inserting the best takes

from our time in the One Button Studio. After doing that, we inserted more clips involving some

satire by means of exaggeration. We ordered them in such a way that would get our message

across to the viewer as clearly as possible. And considering our intended audience consisting of

college students, we decided to make some abrupt switches during the video, like from the

narrator to a comedic scene involving satirical exaggeration. We also included a clip from the

movie White Girls as an example of a person who has too much energy due to coffee

consumption. This helps to get the attention of our intended audience because the movie is

widely known in the age group. In another part of the video, we depict a person who the

audience thinks is going to drink a normal cup of coffee, but it turns out that it is a cup filled with

coffee beans. It also functions as one of Monro’s classifications of humor, as it is “a breach in

the usual order of events” since normally a person does not eat a mouthful of coffee beans, but

instead drinks it as coffee (40). This exaggeration helps to clearly portray the dependence of

college students on coffee as a serious problem.

Another part of the editing involved placing certain videos over others. When we had

already decided on the order of the videos, we just needed to correctly input the audio and the

green screen effects. To get our point across, we wanted to incorporate a juxtaposition between

the audio and the visual scenes. To do this, we inserted the “Coffee Contata” behind each scene.

Doing this provided a relevant background (because the piece was about an addiction to coffee),

while also creating this juxtaposition that we desired because this music was present behind the

ridiculous, humorous scenes about students acting berzerk about coffee. We felt it created an


atmosphere within the video that would resonate with the college audience we are catering to as

well as provide a humorous way of presenting our implied arguments.

Works Cited

Lancioni, Judith A. "Rhetoric of the Frame." Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Documentary: A

Case Study of The Civil War. Philadelphia, Pa.: [publisher Not Identified], 1994. Print.


Monro, D. H. "Types of Humour." Argument of Laughter. 1st ed. U of Notre Dame, 1963. 40-52.

Print

"7 Terrible Things Coffee Does To Your Body." Health Ambition 7 Negative Effects of Coffee

Comments. 4 May 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.

Conrad, Melissa. "Caffeine Addiction: Can You Quit? by MedicineNet.com." MedicineNet. Ed.

William Shiel. 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.


Describe the context motivating your project, your intended audience the overall concept of your

piece, and the response you hope to garner from viewers. You should integrate at least

two scholarly sources in this discussion:

Storyboard and thought process:

Coffee is America’s highest consumed drug with over 180 million people drinking it every day.

The culture of drinking coffee specially to study has gotten very popular among college

students. It has gotten to the point where most students drink coffee every day; even

multiple times per day. It seems to us that coffee can act like addictive drugs such as

nicotine: people depend on it to study and work, and others are addicted to its effects,

unique flavor and peculiar aromas. This video was made with the purpose of critiquing

not only the excessive consumption of coffee among college students, but also the

overlooked addiction and dependency it creates.

Even though coffee does maintain help students be more productive by supplying them with

energy, it is not healthy at all to drink multiple coffees every day. Some negative side

effects of coffee include weakened stomach lining, heartburns, increased gastric

emptying, and difficulty absorbing enough minerals from the foods we eat. Not only that,

but even though it is yet debatable as to whether coffee is truly addictive or not, caffeine

“was able to induce a clinical dependence similar to that induced by other psychoactive

drugs in some people.” In other words, many people create a dependency on coffee

because without it they are unable to function well. Most people are estranged from these

facts and do not know coffee does have negative side effects and some history of


dependency. Because of this we decided to show the world, through an exaggerated

satiric video, that coffee can create a dependency and addiction.

We decided to portray Starbucks as the biggest coffee supplier and “dealer” in the Notre Dame

campus and to satirize the excessive consumption of coffee among college students. The

main idea of the video is that the narrator is the voice of Starbucks itself, and is trying to

sell the coffee to college students in particular, just like any regular TV commercial

would do. However, the narrator is trying to sell the coffee by portraying the advantages

of coffee drinking, but omitting the cons. To top it all off, we portray the negative

outcomes and side effects of drinking and depending on coffee through the use of

exaggerated scenes such as: regular students going crazy for not having their Starbucks

coffee, another student eating and showering in coffee, and another student lying awake

at night without being able to fall asleep. In all of these scenes we show the people the

downside to coffee and aspire to alert the audience about only a few of its cons.

Initially, our group struggled to find an adequate theme for the storyboard. In the beginning, our

main focus was to satirize coffee, however afterwards we decided to critique students’

study habits because we felt that a broader subject would benefit us in the long run. After

presenting you our storyboard, we followed your advice and returned to our original

coffee theme, and decided to portray Starbucks as a drug lord who hooks students. We

asked ourselves: “How will we present the problem we are satirizing?” And after

brainstorming, we agreed that we would present the video as a “Starbucks ad,” where the

narrator will sell you the idea that Starbucks is quintessential to studying and college life

in general. However, the narrator’s dialogue has a counter argument; the scenes


contradict the narrator, showing us the side that Starbucks doesn’t want us to see. After,

we began to brainstorm on how we would open this video. We decided to hook the

audience by showing a shady package delivery (apparently, a drug exchange). And when

the student opens the package, the package concealed a Starbucks whole bean bag. So we

started to think of possible comical scenes that kept focus. So we picked off some notable

Notre Dame and college “musts”, such as Feve, Netflix, and Super Smash Brothers

(video game). And how you can do all of these if you drink coffee, because it’ll make

you “efficient”. And we ended by showing the narrator again, and showing some

historical figures that drank coffee to “convince” the audience, and ultimately, with the

Starbucks slogan. This wasn’t the end though. We asked ourselves, “What can we add to

make it better?” And so we purposely placed a Starbucks prop in virtually every scene,

because that is usually the way in which ads are placed to influence the mind of the

audience. And also, we decided that we could add a personal touch, something that

screams “Coffee”. So we added Coffee Cantata, an actual song written by Mozart on

coffee. And if you hear, we play it throughout the whole video, only to reveal its true

purpose at the end, another technique used by many companies. And after adding all of

these together, we had ourselves a complete story board which was ready to be passed

from paper to screen.

Video Splicing and Editing

After we had gone through the filming process, it was time to take from our set of videos

and the internet to create a finalized video. To do that, we started off by inserting the best

takes of from our time in the One Button Studio. After doing that, we inserted more clips

involving some satire by means of exaggeration. We placed them in order so that we


could get a maximized effect from the viewing of the video. The toughest part was

probably dealing with the “Coffee Contata” video. This was because it wouldn’t convert

to an MP3 format without some of the video becoming

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=43492

video satire report

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