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Betty Qi, Christopher Heneghan, Patrick Jennings


Professor McLaughlin
WR133001
3 December 2016
Companion Paper
The name of our project is Rec Sports at Notre Dame. And this is a min-documentary
about the recreational sports life of students here at Notre Dame. In this documentary, we
interviewed students who arent scholarship athletes but still actively participate in physical activ
ities, asking them how physical activities have influenced other aspects of their life here at Notre
Dame. Specifically, we focused on three types of physical activities: running, swimming, and
wiffle ball. Through this documentary, we aim to persuade students to increase their involvement
in recreational sports. We also aim to persuade the University to devote more resources to
recreational sports programs for students.
We decided on the eventual idea of doing our mini-documentary with this particular focus
following a group discussion. First, we decided to focus the topic on sports as all three of us
expressed great interest in portraying the positive influence of physical activities on happiness.
We had first learned about this topic from the documentary Happy that we watched earlier this
semester. We were all reminded of the scenes in the film that discuss about how physical activitie
s help release a type of chemical called dopamine whose level is highly related to our happiness
(10:11-10:35). However, we thought that we didnt want to focus on student athletes since they
already received great attention and even in our own writing class many students chose Notre
Dame athletes as the topic of their research papers. Instead, we want to talk about an aspect of
sports activities at Notre Dame that is often overlooked. Therefore, we decided to focus on the

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intramural recreational sports and students other outlets for physical activities on campus. After
we decided our focus, we proceeded to research on the relationship between happiness and
physical activities. We tried to approach this relationship from a psychological and neurological
perspective. Since Patrick wrote his research paper on the topic of physical education programs
in schools, we had a head-start on the research process. We found that many of the resources Patr
ick used in his paper were relevant to our new project. We then began to conduct further research
and brainstorm prospective subjects and storyboarding ideas. to show the mental benefits of phys
ical activity. Indeed, we found out the positive influence of physical activities both on reducing
anxiety and depression, as the effect of aerobic exercise, does not significantly differ from other
forms of treatment [for depression], including various forms of psychotherapy (Martins and
Morgan 99), and patients with anxiety disorders derive significant psychological benefits from
physical activity (Raglin 125). Whats more, we also found out that when the physical activity
involves more than one participant, interactions between team members can lead individuals to
develop a more positive social and self-concept that makes individuals happier and gives them
higher self-esteem (Branscombe and Daniel 115-116). In general, physical activities have
potential to reduce anxiety, depression and enhance the sense of self-worth, and thus boosting the
overall happiness. And as we found out the differences in the ways through which individual phy
sical activities and group physical activities influence our happiness, we decided to spend some ti
me exploring a few illustrative examples of recreational physical activity in the video.
As we constructed our argument, we made the decision to replicate some of the rhetorical
strategies from our inspiration for this project: the movie Happy. Specifically, we drew close
attention to the three specific types of rhetorical strategies that Betty discussed in her rhetorical

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analysis paper, expert testimonials, using different camera work and exploiting background
music.
We decided to use expert testimonials in our project because we knew that these
testimonials are an effective way to build up the ethos of our film. Indeed, we talked about the
importance of this evidence of credibility what Aristotle called the controlling factor in
persuasion (What We Teach) earlier this semester. When we discussed the use of expert
testimonials in our mini-documentary, we thought about two possibilities. The first possibility
that we discussed was to invite real experts (i.e. Notre Dame psychology or neuroscience
professors) to offer their insight. We also considered referencing published materials through
quotes and paraphrasing. We eventually decided that due to time limitations and scheduling
conflicts, it would be in our best interest to focus our original footage on the students themselves
while supporting our argument by referencing published materials. We noted that in our
experience, documentaries that capture the experiences of regular peopleparticularly those
with whom the audience can empathizeare more engaging and convincing. Because of this, we
decided that so long as we can support our argument with facts and quotes that we found in our
research, our documentary would be more effective if it devoted a large portion of its screen-time
to students from our target audience. We anticipate that since these interviewees express their
own real feelings in the interviews, we will be better able to elicit an emotional appeal to our
audience. We will still support our argument with scholarly evidence, but due to our limited
screen-time we decided to prioritize our student interviews. For example, in the scene depicting
players on the tee ball team cooperating with each other in a game, background narration talks
about the research finding of Branscombe and Daniel that team sports can help individuals build
up the sense of self-worth by constructing a more positive social and personal concept.

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Besides the use of expert testimonials and interviews, we also incorporate two camera tec
hniques that we learned about in class and also saw in Happypanning and close-up. As we lear
ned from the Lancioni reading from earlier in the semester, the slow camera movement gives vi
ewers time to contemplate the image and to question its significance (110). Indeed, we expected
that the slowing-panning shot we use in the runnings segments of our documentary will prepare t
he audience to start thinking about the relation between running and the benefits that the runner e
mphasizes in his interview. Besides panning, close-ups are also utilized in the scenes of interview
ing a runner, a swimmer, and tee ball players. We thought close-ups will provide the audience an
opportunity to notice details in the scenes they may otherwise neglect. In particular, we want our
audience to notice the facial expressions of our interviewees when they talk about their experienc
e of involving in physical activities. Therefore, as they interpret facial expressions like smiles as t
he reflection of the positive influence of physical activities on happiness, they will be more convi
nced by our documentary. We also decided to film our interviews in the actual environment that
the students exercise. We knew that it would be difficult to reduce background noise, but we
decided that as long as the interviewee is clearly audible, the background noise in the shot would
give viewers a better sense of the fun atmosphere in these settings. For example in the
background of the wiffle ball interviews one can hear cheers and laughs which will aid our
argument implicitly.
Adding to expert testimonial and camera techniques, we also utilize background music in
our documentary as we identified that Music is also a symbol system that employs notes,
markings, sound, key, harmony and rhythm to communicate meanings, to the audience
(Herrick, 6). Therefore, we use very fast-paced and upbeat background music in the first scene in

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order to build up the happy atmosphere our audience can feel in that scene. We used music
throughout the video to further capture readers focus at key moments in the documentary.
In general, we expect that our audience after watching our documentary will have two
responses. First, we hope that Notre Dame students who view our documentary are drawn to
increase their involvement in physical activity after learning about the various benefits of
physical activity with regards to happiness. Second, we hope that viewers within Notre Dames
administration and faculty will consider increasing the resources it devotes to physical activity
for students. In general, though this documentary we aim to promote and encourage a strong
sports culture at Notre Dame. We feel that our documentary has the potential to make a positive
impact on the overall health of Notre Dame students.

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Works Cited
Branscombe, Nyla R., and Daniel L. Wann. "The positive social and self-concept consequences
of sports team identification." Journal of Sport & Social Issues vol. 15, no. 2, 1991, pp.
115-127.
Happy. Directed by Roko Belic, Wadi Rum, 2011.
Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Beacon, 2001.
Print.
Lancinoi, Judith. The rhetoric of the frame: Revisioning archival photographs in The Civil
War. The Western Journal of Communication, vol. 60, no. 4, 1996, pp. 397-414.
Martinsen Egil W., and William P. Morgan. Antidepressant Effects of Physical Activity.
Physical Activity and Mental Health. Ed. William P. Morgan. Washington, DC: Taylor &
Francis, 1997. Print.
Raglin, John S. "Anxiolytic Effects of Physical Activity." Physical Activity and Mental Health.
Ed. William P. Morgan. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1997. N. pag. Print.
What We Teach. University Writing Program, University of Notre Dame, 2016, www.
uwp.nd.edu/about-the-program/what-we-teach/. Accessed 4 December. 2016.

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