John Andrade 11/21/11 WR 13300 Visual Essay Exploratory Draft In this visual essay I plan to explore the various

controversies that have existed in the background during the various Olympic Games. I plan on poising the question of whether or not it is worth it to promote this time of peace when there is so much fighting, both verbal and physical, surrounding the Games. This topic is interesting to me because ever since I was a small child I have loved watching the Olympics, and as I have gotten older I have become more aware that not all of it is fame and glory for athletes, but rather there is some international conflict still occurring. I think it is important that other people know about this topic because the surrounding controversy and conflict of the Games is often overlooked, not noticing or caring about the still ever-present political and social angst countries still have for one another during this supposed time of peace. My intended audience would be the general public. It would be the average person because even he or she would have a stake in this topic; millions of Americans watch the Games every two years when they come on television, and unfortunately a substantial portion of that group are not aware of anything more than the competition itself. Thus, it is important that that portion see what goes into these Games so that they can have a more enlightened perspective. Therefore, the general public needs to be concerned about the controversies behind the Games and it is as well in a position to be persuaded. I will appeal to this audience by using video to my advantage. People are much more likely to watch a video about something than read a lengthy article about the same topic, so I plan on using a good amount of media. I plan on using mostly video, with some static images in between. I am not completely sure as to where I will obtain these media, but they will most likely end up coming from YouTube or news websites where the topic was covered at the time of the particular controversy. Because on the time period they come from, there will be quite a few black and white images. For the more modern conflicts, I have not decided whether to put those in black and white to maintain consistency or to keep these images in color to address how conflict behind the Games still exists in todays world. As for the overall aesthetic flavor, I want the project to appear very contrasted between the glory and wonder of the Olympic Games versus the very dark side behind them to go for dramatic effect and to make it easier for me to prove my point. Aside from video and pictures, I will definitely include some form of background music to simply keep the viewers interest and to add to the effect. Alphabetical text will play a somewhat significant role in my project. I will most likely use it sparingly so that the viewer will not seem interrupted when viewing the various clips, and thus only brief, important information will be presented textually. Depending on where in the text would appear in the clip, it would either be on the bottom of the screen during a clip or big in the center during a static photograph. It will enhance the credibility of the essay because it will bring physical words to static images and sum up the video, thus making the argument much more legitimate. I have a couple of concerns regarding this assignment. First, I was curious as to how I would find video sources specifically in the library. Would I use the same online catalog that I used for the research essay? Also, I was having issues developing a really strong thesis. I feel as though my argument is somewhat weak, and that I should come up with something more concrete.