Category Archives: Assignments

Propaganda

M. Marshall 2.28

I have to start this by saying that I am a liberal. I hate Donald Trump, I cannot stand the Republican party, and I vote blue in every election. I try not to get overly political in this class because I know it can make people uncomfortable (although, isn’t being uncomfortable how we learn? I digress) and that isn’t the purpose of this class. If you disagree with me, you disagree with me, and that is none of my business. However, propaganda could not be described as anything but political, so that is the direction I am going. After any assassination attempt in any country, there will be a lot of controversy and discussion about political violence. To be clear: I do not believe that attempting to shoot anyone will address the problems going on in a country, but most likely martyrize the individual at the center of the controversy. Also, gun violence is wrong. With those things in mind, since this happened, I have seen the image of Trump, his bloody ear, and his fist pumped into the air more times than I can count, some might call it heroic, some might call it idiotic for remaining in the line of fire, I call it propaganda. He was almost shot for his cause makes Trump supporters dig in their heels further into the dirt. These images enforce the idea that he is patriotic and will fight for his country. The other week, at the mall, I saw a picture of this event put onto a poster, perhaps to serve as a reminder of his strength and commitment to the country. I think it is a perfect example of propaganda, which is why I created this right-wing propaganda.

For the record, no, he won’t. Even if he would, no, I don’t.

Reporting from the scene!

M. Marshall 2.28

For this project I chose the first video, Police Station Shootout from The Terminator (1984). This scene was definitely pretty intense, but a good representation of film noir. I was very lucky this week because I had an important presentation for another class and decided to do a free trial for a month of Canva. This website is great for creating presentations, flyers, papers, anything you might need for free; however, it is really great when you’re paying for it (or on the free trial). Because of that, I was able to create this beautiful newspaper!

I am struggling to upload files onto WordPress, so working on that is definitely a future goal, for now, enjoy my screenshot.

Propaganda

The qoute “Legends rise in the dark ” is sued to emphasize that what is done in our darkest hour and out of sight is what comes to light and shapes us as who we are. This going along with DK’s morality and the questionable things he does as he trying to figure out the line between right and wrong.

Breaking News

I used Canva to craft a newspaper article about the movie The Groundstar Conspiracy, after going through the movie it really was the best scene to make a movie about. The images were never clear, so I decided to make that a factor in it and treat them as if they were secret photos so naturally, they are blurry. Gotta expose the underground secrets~ the reporter definitely vanished after putting this story out though. Lots of clipping to make sure they fit.

The Digital Canvas Times

Hitting 2 birds with 1 stone here. Once I saw the tech noir news and propaganda assignments, I thought it would be a really cool idea to incorporate them into 1 big newspaper cover. I chose The Terminator nightclub scene because I originally watched The Terminator earlier this semester and it was nice to revisit it and focus on one scene in particular. The propaganda I made (seen on the top right side) using Canva was something I thought of to connect my character, Eric Little, using a more dystopian style PSA, highlighting that reason of Eric’s innocence is because his family follows “The Arrow” a mysterious group that creates and enforces structure into all of society, much like in George Orwell’s 1984. I also made and used a wanted poster for Eric as he had been caught up in a previously unstated criminal conspiracy, which has now been revealed to be an underground anarchy against The Arrow. I really like being able to slowly tell the story of my character and progress as the semester goes forward.

Wouldn’t Want to Hear This on the Radio!

For the PSA assignment, I decided to create an audio PSA in the style of the United States’ emergency broadcasts. I found an audio of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) that I liked on YouTube, and used a YouTube-to-mp3 tool to convert it into something I could manipulate. I had some difficulty at first finding a voice-to-text tool that I thought sounded human enough but also mechanical enough to mimic the actual EAS voice, but I settled on a site that uses Microsoft’s talk-to-text tools and allows you to download them from there. I used the “Tony” voice at 1 speed and -15 pitch. My script used similar language to an EAS broadcast, but I discussed an AI takeover rather than a weather event. I then found some soft radio hum on FreeSound, similar to what can be heard in the background of the EAS audio. I compiled everything in Audacity, and included some bumps in the radio hum audio to add to the eerie, unsafe feeling that I wanted this PSA to envoke.

Black Mirror Times – Breaking News

I created a newspaper page on the Black Mirror episode “Hated in the Nation” because it’s my favorite film I’ve watched for this class. It was nice to just change the content on the newspaper to relate to the episode. I used Canva for this assignment using a Newspaper template that they provide. My favorite part is the bottom right article preview because this character actually used the “#deathto” on the criminal who was behind this killing and it wasn’t the best idea because the criminal realized that they were looking for him and he was hesitating in the scene so I thought it would be creative.

Data PSA

This was so much fun to create! I decided to take a rule that Finn Callaway lives by (which you can check out here: https://ds106.rusulabbas.com/blog/uncategorized/tips-for-your-characters/) and turn it into a PSA poster. The image features a hand grabbing data points, with the data points in red to match the “Own It” part of the title, emphasizing what’s being owned.

While the design looks simple, I had a great time putting it together in Canva. I uploaded the hand image, and the data points are a Canva element. I added the text myself. Even though it’s straightforward, I really feel like the message comes across strong and clear.

Tips for your characters