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Trevor Yu Kat Gonso College Writing January 20, 2014 Rhetorical Analysis of: Tomorrowland 2012: Official Aftermovie

The aftermovie for Tomorrowland 2012 uses a combination of stunning visuals and satire on traditional fairytales to create an illusion of a musical fantasy. Following the most anticipated music event of the year, the author uses the current viral video sharing website, YouTube, to publish his multimedia video. Tomorrowland juxtaposes a false reality, introducing the audience to a fairytale world with a real world social gathering to create a unique, almost unrealistic experience for the audience to engage and relate with. The writer introduces the opening scene identical to a stereotypical fairytale, the pages of the, Book of Wisdom, revealing the words, people of Tomorrowland and acknowledging the music festival. The writer uses this form of allusion to draw the audiences attention to reminisce of a fairytale and bring that environment to the context of the video. The writers primary intention of the use of allusion is to capture the audience and to reveal a larger picture after the introduction. For example at 1:22, the writer shows the audience a young woman leaving a kiss mark on a

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mirror with the words, mirror mirror on the wall. This is a direct reference to Brothers Grimm work, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and the magic mirror. Including this reference in the introduction of Tomorrowland 2012 effectively calls to mind the fairytale aspect the writer tries to convey. Minutes following, at 6:25, the author present the nighttime stage of the music festival; once again, on the main screen of the stage, the pages of the book are turning, emphasizing the unrealistic nature of the music event. Lastly, at 18:17, the writer shows us the final pages of the book of wisdom. The statement, The Fairytale continues, follows, with the book closing and fading out. This final scene suggests that this annual festival truly is a fairytale event; the story is written in history and will never be forgotten. Moreover, the writer refers to 2012 year as a chapter in a book, insinuating the fairytale has not concluded, that 2013 will mark the beginning of a new chapter. The writer excellently brings the illusion of a fairytale world to the mind of the audience through the visual artwork and underlying symbolism of the objects emphasized. On the surface, the call to write of the author can be broadened to the purpose of raising awareness and/or recapping the highlights of the event, similar to ESPNs post-game highlights of a sports game. By raising global awareness, the primary objective of Tomorrowland is to expand its fan base and draw in a bigger crowd for future festivals. However after further analysis of the purpose to creating an aftermovie, the motive can be narrowed to business. Simultaneously, the writer is effectively creating a

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demand in the music entertainment industry while selling possible advertising opportunities to larger corporations. Tomorrowland primarily targets the young adult age group, identifying with the house/electric music lovers as well as those who love the party scene. The atmosphere of a music festival is engineered to attracting the younger population, because young adults do not utilize their logic as much (Find statistic and place here). Tomorrowland uses pathos to target this audience group, utilizing music to create a massive social gathering and interest amongst young adults. The secondary, or unintended audience, are music critics and future investors/advertisement. The author may not have included these genres of the audience he/she was trying to reach out to. Due to Tomorrowland being a music festival, and one of the biggest, music critics are bound to be keeping an eye out for the selection of songs performed and/or mixed and mashed. As I have previously stated, one of the purposes the writer may have written this text out of a business prospect. Investors and advertisement are all incentives for this specific audience to engage with this text. As Tomorrowland is increasing in popularity and demand among the music industry, businesses will be looking to take advantage and possibly be looking to sponsor/invest towards this annual festival. As detailed in the following table, during the past eight years Tomorrowland has been held, attendance has increased by approximately 1800%. This statistic is overwhelming (find source).

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An overview of the text, one sees a simple recap of a large annual event. However when one begins to analyze the finer details, the tools and tricks the author employs to very subtlety capture the audience and influence their emotions becomes clear. The writer effectively utilizes these writing tools to persuade the audience to become more engaged, as well as being informative of an annual music event.