McLaughlin / WR 13300 / Fall 2016

John McCarthy
NOTE-TAKING/DISCUSSION WORKSHEET: HAPPY
(10 points; due in class Tuesday, 9/27)
Part I: As you watch and reflect on Happy, take detailed notes on the topics below
(and any other important threads you notice). As you take notes, try to identify
specific claims made by the film about these topics. Is the claim explicitly stated, or
implied? What are viewers supposed to think, feel, or do differently as a result of
these claims? How can you tell?
ASSUMPTIONS
We will see what they are showing as desirable
Formal claim (narrator), support with credible person, example with normal people
Urban- rural relationship implied
DEFINING HAPPINESS
American dream
nature
family/community
MEASURING HAPPINESS
Comparison (USA to India)
What are the building blocks
genes
Japan least happy (working too hard- western dream)
Denmark (free stuff, co-housing, multiple families
INCREASING HAPPINESS
Being happy helps other parts of your life
Mix it up
Physical activity
Recover from adversity
WORK
Positive phycology
Fisherman (work so you can live)
Japanese (sleeping on a train; then the dad died)
FAMILY/COMMUNITY
Son waiting for dad
Togetherness/friends
POVERTY
India
GENDER
Men to women comparisons
HARDSHIP/CRISIS

McLaughlin / WR 13300 / Fall 2016

Mom ran over; brings back memories; healing helped her accept all of her life; you
need pain to have pleasure (Melissa Moody)
(Lancione Practices of looking)
Part II: As you watch and reflect on the film, pay attention to the deliberate choices
of the filmmakers and the impact of those choices on viewers. It may be helpful to
organize your thinking around four key elements of film, listed below.
CINEMATOGRAPHY (Camera Angle, Camera Distance, Camera Movement, etchow
are we placed into the scene as viewers? How is the camera controlling what we
see?)
Start on mom and zoom out (shows the bad part of her face second
Then one nasty picture
Shows ocean waves a lot
Japanese bus video
Other languages and lots of cultures to show happiness as more universal
EDITING (linking/cutting together of different shots, added effects, arrangement)
Mixes examples with numbers/professors
Lots of time to the Denmark example
The scenes are subtle ideas of community
Example, then thesis, then immediate support
SOUND (emerging from within the scene AND sound that was added later, like
musical score)
Music fits the location of the example
Music to create suspense (Melissa Moody)
MISE-EN-SCENE (means literally put into the scene and can include: props, staged
body language, lightingany deliberate element that makes the scene)
Quote at the beginning
One image of blood during Melissa Moody example and it seems to be a random
picture
So many people sleeping (Japanese)

Part III. Analyze the rhetorical situation and intended purpose of the film. You may
wish to refer back to readings as you reflect on the films context and purpose.
EXIGENCE (To what extent can this film be read as a response to a problem? What
context(s) seem to be inviting the film into existence? You may wish to do some
outside research here):

McLaughlin / WR 13300 / Fall 2016

The idea that western culture (Japanese) is causing a loss of a happiness and a
degradation of society. This creates urgency and a need to fix the problem.
People seem to want happiness but they are supposedly finding it in the wrong way.
Societal expectations for happiness are not working. It wants to get rid of the social
myths

AUDIENCE (who is the intended audience of the film? How can you tell? What moves
does the film make that signal awareness of that audience, their values, their
anxieties, their desires, etc?):
Middle class Americans are the audience because it implicitly discussed the urban
vs. rural life and how it pertains to happiness. Working class and shows that you
dont have to have a lot of money to be happy
CONSTRAINTS (what constraints shape the message? Remember that these can be
constraints imposed by the medium or genre, as well as ideological or social
constraints)
It is limited to the scenes they show
People are not going to change their entire way of life because of a movie
People are assumed to want happiness and that is their soul goal
INTENDED PURPOSE/SOCIAL FUNCTION (be specific hereif, for example, you feel
the film tests ideas as Herrick describes, then what ideas are being tested within
the film, and why? You may discuss more than one intended purpose/function)
It wants to get rid of the social myths about happiness. The specific myths include
the idea of fame, wealth, and power as a means to happiness.
This is challenged in many different ways (Japan, Moody, Indian man)
APPEALS (what kind of appeals do you notice in the film? Where and how does the
film appeal to viewers reasoning sensibilities? Where does the film attempt to
establish credibility and trust with viewers? Where and how are emotional appeals
important to the films message?)
It uses nature as a way to appeal the viewers. More often than not, when the
situation in the example is resolved. It shows hard situations like being beautiful and
then not being beautiful as situations that can be overcome through time. It also
shows that being poor is not a deal breaker for happiness. Shows at least one way a
person can be happy in a way that doesnt require wealth, fame, or power.

DAY 2
Flow

McLaughlin / WR 13300 / Fall 2016

Plays music from that region

Social interaction
Compassion
Care about stuff bigger than you
As a skill
Okinawa--- long life
Starts with ocean
Sleep a lot
Worked hard
Work brings them closer together
Traditions
Like the band
Brings people together from different villages and different generations
Shows tragedy of war and that is where they get the idea of not hurting
others
History creates tradition
Social interaction- PHD dude
Like drugs that make you happy
Inspirational speaker--- middle school students
Makes them all know that they all are bullied
Brings up examples from the crowd
Wants kids to learn love
modern culture pictures--- fast
Namibia- live closest to our ancestors
shows importance of being a community
work together to hunt, play, and cure sick
Dali Lama talking about mother/child bond and showing pictures of the tribe
Compassion- A different PHD dude
Science looking on compassion meditation
Thorough intention a person can change their brain
Acts of kindness
Calcutta India- mother Teresa
Guy helping out at home for the dying
Show that they are loved
Then ocean with sun rays
Worry about the world
Care about stuff bigger than you
Re run examples
People
New experiences
Nature
The more you have the more everyone has

McLaughlin / WR 13300 / Fall 2016

Sonja-the graph lady

Peaceful ending
Camera and guy dancing at the end
What is this responding to
Getting rid of social myths
Universals of happiness
Community--- to be happy with--- lots of different ways to find it
Family
Giving back from what you do have
Life is like a loan and we need to pay it back with interest
Nature is family and family is what makes you happy
Madonna
Assumptions- mother and parenthood is the ultimate representation of love
and connection
Intrinsic vs. extrinsicDefies societies
Personal grown, community building, and
Money, image, status
Being greatful makes you more happy
Implied claims
Urban life is unhappy--- they only choose
More important to build a community--- this doesnt happen in urban
environments
Effectiveness come from emphasizing difference
We are supposed to identify with urban environment---wanting to buy stuffmaterialist
Then provides scenes from around the world to give us situations that are
different that what we are used to
Assume that we dont want to be in some of these situations
Seeing is believing to some extent
AudienceUrban people
Convince us that the things we think are important to happiness are not as
important as we think
Opening with poor Indian guy
People have steaks in the movie
Melissa Moody

McLaughlin / WR 13300 / Fall 2016

Does it imply that the worst thing for a woman is to be beautiful and then not
being beautiful?
Uncover something that is not obvious
pattern