The first week of working on the radio show has been successful. The audio assignments were my favorite unit so I’ve been having fun returning to it. I started the week on Monday with a zoom call with the rest of my group so we could delegate tasks and brainstorm ideas. Our idea for the show is a lifestyle podcast where people can call in and ask for advice. I suggested adding a comedic cyberpunk twist to the show to make it relate more to our course.
I was assigned to make an advertisement so I decided to make an ad for a product called SupremeSkillShare which is supposed to be a twist on the learning platform SkillShare. The product allows anyone to gain a skill by taking a vitamin. I was inspired by ‘Harrison Bergeron’ by Kurt Vonnegut which tells a story about a government who enforces equality by handicapping people with special abilities. This assignment was easy except for a self-inflicted challenge that I kept running into, you can read more about it in my blog post.
The next assignment I did was the Podcast Intro. At first, I struggled to figure out where to start on this assignment so to inspire myself, I looked at other podcast’s intros. The intro starts with someone calling into our show and then an instrumental of ‘Feminomenon’ by Chappell Roan, I also included lines from TechNoir female characters. All these elements are meant to reflect vibes of our show; the phone call is because people call into our show and ‘Feminomemon’ coupled with TechNoir female characters because our show is run by strong female characters. This assignment was more of a struggle because the ending I wanted sounded cut off as opposed to a natural ending. You can read more about my process here.
The last assignment I did was the design project, this was the easiest of the three. I combined elements of femininity and cyberpunk to curate a good bumper sticker that fit our show. Another thing I was thinking about when I was designing the sticker was “what do other bumper stickers look like?” This sticker is silly and is shows the personality of the driver, so I had to also picture what our listeners’ personalities would be. I wanted to make a bumper sticker because it acts as merch for fans and as an advertisement for the podcast. You can read more about the sticker in my blog post.
I really enjoyed working on these assignments. I loved crafting an image for the show and using it to inspire different assignments. The only thing I’m struggling with is how time consuming these assignments are. I can’t tell if I’m being a perfectionist or if these assignments just take a long time. Again, I’m having fun with the tasks so I don’t mind spending time on them but I don’t know if it’s sustainable. I’m looking forward to the show coming together so I can hear everyone’s work put together.
I was assigned to make a commercial for the group project. When I was deciding what to make, I knew I wanted to take a product that I hear a lot on podcasts and put a technoir twist on it. Other products I thought of were HelloFresh and Tinder. Ultimately I landed on SkillShare because I struggled to incorporate tech into the other options. To make the advertisement, a lot of planning went into the fictional product. I needed to determine the name, the function, and a tagline to make a script for the ad. Once I had finished writing the adread, I recorded the audio using my phone and edited it on Adobe Audition. I also uploaded some music to play in the beginning and end of the ad. One challenge I kept running into was I kept forgetting the name of our podcast. Our group met for Zoom to come up with ideas, and on the Zoom we established the name but I had forgotten it the next day. No problem! I checked our meeting notes and saw it was Fearless Femmes. However, the way it was spelled made me think it was pronounced “Fem-Mees.” I played it for feedback and was told it’s just “Fems.” Again, No problem! I had to go to class so I didn’t get to rerecord it until later, but by the time I did it again, I had mistaken our name for Fatal Femmes instead of Fearless Femmes, so I had to re-rerecord it. Other than that, it was an easy assignment and I like how it came out. The idea of a product that allows you to master any skill by taking a vitamin reminds me of ‘Harrison Bergeron’ by Kurt Vonnegut; a story about a government that enforces equality by giving handicaps to those with superior abilities. I loved Harrison Bergeron when I was in middle school so of course it inspired me for this project.
For my design project, I wanted to make a bumper sticker because I appreciate its versatility. The sticker can function as merchandise for fans, they can put it on their car to show that they are a Femme and find like minded people, even if it’s just from a car honk. Another function of the sticker is that it can be used as advertising; if anyone wants to learn more about fearless femmes, they can follow the link on the sticker to learn more and a fan could be gained from this interaction. As a marketing major, I wanted to come up with a creative idea that would help promote the show without sacrificing the consumers wants. To make the sticker, I combined two templates from Canva. I liked the pink femininity of the right side, but the core of our show is TechNoir and I don’t want that to be lost in the girliness. I added the left side to contrast the pink which makes it feel just a touch more punk. To get the steering wheel to be pink and black, I used two pictures of the same steering wheel, one I kept black and the other I turned pink by turning the temperature, tint, saturation, and vibrance to one hundred. Additionally, I lowered and heightened other parts of the picture like brightness and shadows to get rid of any remaining black. Overall, I’m happy with how the sticker turned out, it looks like something I could see on my car and someone else’s. I also think it’s a great way to raise money by selling the sticker to dedicated listeners and bringing in new ones.
I decided to make the intro for our podcast because I was inspired by the other powerful women in tech noir. I think TechNoir’s genre was most popular in the 1980s-1990s therefore I feel that although the women characters are strong, they are overlooked. To make the intro, I used free sounds from Freesounds and BBC’s audio library. I also used Feminomenon by Chappell Roan and lines from iconic female TechNoir characters such as Jessica Rabbit, from Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, Rachael from Blade Runner, and Quorra from Tron: Legacy. I wanted to include sound effects where it sounded like a phone was being dialed, rung, and picked up, because we are a lifestyle podcast where listeners can call in and ask for advice. I also included the line from Feminomenon where Chappell says, “It’s a Fem” because our podcast is called Fatal Fems. Making the intro was relatively easy but it ended up taking me a long time to finish because it didn’t sound “right” to me. I used Adobe Audition to compile the sounds and I mixed and matched to figure out what sounds best where. The ending didn’t sound right to me at first, because it comes at a part in the song where the music is building up, so it sounded weird as an ending. I think what ended up helping the most for me, was that I tweaked the timing to slow it down. I’m not sure on why that ended up fixing it, but I did. Other things I did was deleting instrumentals and fading in/out of the music to transition clips.
Synopsis: In a world where coroporations run the world, Sapphira Mae, a fatcat corporate executive, hires Veronica, a sassy detective, to track down an ex-hacker turned rogue corporate executive, Lady Bird. Lady Bird had disappeared and word on the street is that she’s working from the inside to dismantle the system that rewards greed. Veronica sets out on her mission to hunt down Lady Bird, and her search leads her to a ghost town, literally. Here she meets Krysta Ghosting, a woman who has seen the world evolve into chaos all the way back from 1940. Krysta has seen everything, and she knows where Lady Bird but she won’t give up her information for nothing. She asks Veronica to help her meet Sapphira Mae because Krysta belives that Sapphira will help her pass on. Veronica agrees and they swap information. Meanwhile, Krissy Ryan, a farm girl from the outskirts of town, arrives in the city looking for her ex-boyfriend, a rebel like Lady Bird. Instead, she gets tangled in the chaos, mistaken for a courier carrying classified data. Now a target, she is forced to ally with her polar opposite, Veronica. As the hunt escalates, betrayals and shifting alliances force Veronica to question who the real enemy is. Is Lady Bird truly a terrorist, or does she hold the key to breaking the corporate stranglehold on the city? Can Sappira be swayed, or is she too deep in the game? It’s up to Veronica to answer these questions and make the world right again.
Digital Media:
News Broadcasts: Have news reports of the situationas well as other current events such as traffic and weather.
Lifestyle Radio: The news reports could be broken up with some lifestyle segments. Listeners could call in to ask for advice or request a song for someone.
This week I was tasked with three daily creates, and I am ashamed to say, I dropped the ball. I started off strong with Tuesday’s prompt which was to use his RepeatAfterMe project. I used the lyric “I love people I don’t like” from Olivia Rodrigo’s Brutal because it was short and concise, but it’s also a lyric I relate a lot to. I thought it came out nice, and the scattered letters relates to how the song sounds. I also thought it was interesting to see other people’s take on this assignment. I felt that no matter what, the project came out good.
The next prompt I did was Friday’s which was to celebrate pi day. I used a picture last year from when the CRUC was serving apple pie. It was my reward because right before I got lunch, I had gotten vaccinated and I hate needles. The pie was kind of cold, but still good.
This week, I did my math wrong. I had thought I done three, but it wasn’t until Friday that I realized I had only done two. To remedy this, I went back to Monday’s prompt which was “Make a Song Data Graphics.” I used Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up because of the repetitive chorus and to symbolize the repetitiveness, I used a Venn diagram.
Comments
I found it hard to find things to comment on this week. As I mentioned earlier, I thought the responses for the RepeatAfterMe prompt were cool. I responded to Todd Conway’s post, and I commented “I like how this turned out. The black background with the gray falling text makes it look like a word storm. Ironic, because the lyric describes a sunny day.” The picture gave a good visual representation of the lyrics. I also commented on Ryee’s post, I said “This came out so good! It’s interesting because the words on the screen convey calmness (or at least the effort to remain calm) while the art in the back feels like chaos. It looks like the two parts of one mind during an anxiety attack or something of that nature.” The visual conveying the opposite of what the lyric were saying gave the post such a cool look! I wrapped up the week by commenting on Liv’s pie/pi post, I said “My grandma’s apple pie is also my favorite!” Which is true, my grandma makes apple pie for me and my dad every time we go to her house for Thanksgiving. I also replied to Cinder’s post; they said “It’s not pi day without having some pi” so I commented “This is the best way to celebrate!”
Final Thoughts
This week was a great way to get back into the swing of school. I’m excited to work with my group to create a radio show.
This week was fun! I really liked getting to look at everyones propaganda, PSAs, and newspapers. I think everyone did a good job with their assignments and you can tell they put a lot of effort into their projects. I had fun with the projects this week too and I think they were some of the stronger projects I’ve done this semester.
Daily Creates
For this week’s Daily Creates, I did Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, and Thursday’s. Tuesday’s Daily create was taking a picture from the opposite perspective. I chose to take a picture of my laptop, which normally isn’t perched on an Adirondack chair outside, but the weather was really nice on Tuesday so I did my work outide that day.
Wednesday’s Daily Create was to make your own Fairytale. At first, I was really struggling to come up with a story, so I decided to look at writing prompts on Pinterest, which is a common fix for me to get out of a writers block. I landed on writing a short story about Hansel and Gretel where the witch is their savior instead of the villain. Writing the short story was hard given the character limit on Mastodon, so it took me a few tries to write it out and edit it down. Eventually, I was able to cut the story down without losing any major parts.
The last Daily Create was on Thursday and the prompt was to showcase your kaleidoscope. My initial idea for the prompt was to take the Kaleidoscope camera from Apple Photobooth, point it at the sky, and call it a day. However, I decided that that choice wasn’t personal enough. I ended up deciding to make an acrostic to better depict what my kaleidoscope would show. I incorporated colors, shapes, objects, and description words into the poem to give readers the best depiction possible.
The Daily Creates were fun this week. I wanted to do Monday but the day slipped away from me before I got the chance. Maybe I’ll try to do some DCs over Spring Break. Maybe.
Assignments
I loved the assignments this week. I found them so enjoyable to craft. The Character Commenting assignment was interesting but also a tad challenging. The hardest part was finding assignments to write about and then coming up with reasons why my character liked those assignments. As the assignment went on, it became easier and easier to get in the headspace of my character but writing the first paragraph was tough. Still, it came out fine. You can view Krissy’s Comments here.
I liked the newspaper assignment, it was fun to portray a fictional movie like a serious event. This assignment also made watching the Terminator scenes different because I was forced to look through a lens of realism. Normally in shoot out movie scenes the audience isn’t supposed to dwell on the lives being taken in the background. However, because I was focused on the events happening in the scene, I was forced to consider everyone who had died. The police shooting scene had so many deaths, I’m not sure anyone was left alive. It was interesting to consider the lives of the people in the background. To make the assignment I used Canva. I included a few easter eggs in the report and on the side, that I’m curious to see if anyone picked up on. I explained one of them in my blog, which you can view here.
The propaganda assignment was my favorite. I think it’s one of the best assignments I’ve done in this class so far. I chose to make my propaganda about egg prices because they are so, dramatically high right now which is really frustrating. One of my favorite parts about my poster is that the coloring I used is reminiscent of pro-America propaganda. I decided to use that coloring in an ironic way because many Americans are suffering while our leaders are worried about other issues. Also, not to toot my own horn, but I thought my slogan, “Crack and egg, Make it rain” was funny and I know it made me giggle. You can view more of the thought process behind the poster here
Comments
People made commenting easy this week. There were so many good posts! Sam’s Club did a great job on his newspaper and we both used Canva to do the assignment. I told them, “This looks great! I love Canva, I use it for almost all of the assignments in this class and outside of class too!” It’s fun getting to bond over having a commonality in your process, it helps create connections in an asynchronous class. I was really impressed with Live it Up With Liv’s Propaganda. I said, “This is so good! “The system protects the powerful. Who protects you?” and “Justice isn’t blind, it’s bought” are amazing lines that unfortunately mimic current events. As always, you did a fantastic job on this assignment!” The wording Liv used to make her propaganda hit so close to home, I was taken aback by how meaningful it was. Flower Bed also did a good job on their propaganda. I commented, “This is so interesting. I think you did a great job relating to technoir themes because this gives me black mirror vibes. Great job!” I can tell that they have a good understanding of TechNoir themes because they were able to effectively capture Black Mirror vibes in their propaganda. Next, I commented on Rylie’s Riveting Region, I told them “This looks so good! I’m really impressed, and I’ll be using this as inspiration for my project. Amazing job!” This comment was in response to the newspaper that Rylie did. It was the first one I had seen that week, and I thought it looked great. Lastly, I commented on You Weekly Adrenaline Rush, asking, “Your photos of Sapphira Mae are all so beautiful and consistent. Do you draw them yourself or get them from a specific place? I’d love to know!” Their character is always consistently drawn and I am curious how they are able to do that. I have a hard time finding a character design for Krissy, so I’m interested to see the process of how they came up with one for Sapphira Mae.
Final Thoughts
Heading into Spring Break, I am definetly ready for a break. I’m looking forward to coming back rested and recharged to finish the semester strong, especially in this class. To say goodbye, I’ll leave you with one more pun to hold you over until I’m back for the Week 8 Summary.
It was interesting to look at these posts through the eyes of Krissy. It took me a minute to gather the posts that I wanted Krissy to react to, but eventually I was able to put together a few that Krissy would have a lot to say about.
I think Krissy would like this post because Sapphira is an empowering femme fatale. I think Krissy would look up to her in a lot of ways, especially as she progresses into her mission. A lot of people view powerful women as rule breakers and society is made to believe they are villains. However, Krissy would know better than this and even relate to it as she views herself as powerfull. Although Krissy’s archetype is not Femme Fatale, like Sapphira, they are both independent women and I think they would be friends.
I think Krissy would be horrified and appalled by this newspaper. She would understand being frusterated with people online but to actively wish death on people is terrible. Additionally, she’d be even more terrified of the twist that the people who used the #deathto hashtag would die. Krissy would be terrified of this concept and it would remind her of how scary and powerful technology has become. She would use this as a reminder while she goes off to fight her mission.
Krissy would be terrified if she heard this on her radio. She doesn’t own any smart home devices because her family thinks they make you lazy. However, just because she doesn’t have these devices, doesn’t mean she doesn’t empathize with the people who do. Krissy would also be terrified for what this means for the future of technology, will people find a fix for this problem or will they just become more sneaky to avoid getting caught. Maybe this is what ultimately leads to the demise of the future.
I was excited to start this assignment because I think studying propaganda is very interesting. I struggled to come up with an theme at first, I was overwhelmed with ideas, it felt like there were too many options. I eventually settled on the price of eggs, because it’s a point of frustration for me and a lot of Americans. On February 13th, apnews.com published an article “US egg prices hit a record high of $4.95 and are likely to keep climbing” These are crazy prices when eggs are a necessity for most people, and it seems like some politicians aren’t willing to do anything about it.
To make this poster, I used Canva. A big thing I wanted to incorporate into this piece were elements such as colors, shapes, and general themes you would normally see in American propaganda. A lot of American propaganda that I saw when I was looking for examples was very patriotic, but I think this is a low point for America’s economy, so I wanted to use the patriotism in an ironic way. The pan and dollars falling were already on Canva so I added them to the poster. To get the egg, I googled an image of an egg being cracked, uploaded it to Canva and erased all the parts so only the egg shell was left. I then put all the pieces together and I think it came out nicely. For the text, I wanted to have something short and catchy to act as a slogan of sorts.
I’m really happy with how this poster came out, I think the ironic patriotism perfectly compliments the distaste many Americans have for the high egg prices. To make you giggle, here is the tweet that inspired me to make my poster about egg prices.
For the Newspaper assignment I chose to do the TechNoir shooting scene, and I included some other easter eggs for Terminator fans.
For this project I chose to use the Bar shooting scene because it had a more diverse group of people to talk about, so I thought it would give me more interesting perspectives. When I started the assignment, I thought I wouldn’t have much to write about but as I was doing it, I had to keep resizing the newspaper because I was running out of space. There was so much more to talk about than I expected, I wanted to include a brief overview of the event, an eye witness report, a statement from the owner of the club, commentary, and more. There was simply not enough room. I used a Newspaper template on Canva to evenly space everything out, I also googled the pictures that I used for each story. The articles on the side are supposed to be Easter Eggs to the movie. For example, I put up a missing poster for Sarah Connor and I made the phone number as close to T-800 as I could so the joke is that he submitted the missing persons report. There’s more easter eggs in this newspaper, Terminator related and not, but I don’t want to give them all away. Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment. It was a good way to get creative and it didn’t take too long to complete.
