I really enjoyed this assignment, I think it’s interesting to be in the position to create a newspaper and be In charge of where things go. Before deciding on the story, I had to choose between the ways in which I would be covering the story. It was not difficult as I love Canva however, I did not know the full ins and outs of the story so I did s little bit of extra work so I would be able to create a coherent story. I then opened a google doc and started to type versions of the story. After that I put the works into Canva and started to rearrange them while adding photos. There were a couple of times where photos I would download would change the entire look of the newspaper but I was able to shift things around and make the paper look the way I wanted.
I was excited for this assignment as propaganda can be fun to create. I think it is able to highlight the effects of society and various social movements are able to progress. When thinking about the specific topic I wanted to tackle, I wanted to do something that was obvious. I think that posters do not have to have extremely layered meaning to be effective. I began to think about my character and what she would be thinking as this is similar to a video topic I did for my last assignment. This is how I ended up with my idea of doing an anti-propaganda poster about the effects of technological advances used against humanity.
I then, started to think about ways I wanted to execute this plan. I first started by choosing the pigeon, I went back and forth between the animals I wanted to use. I first thought about Barry from the bee movie, because there is a quote he uses “dedicating our lives to the white man” which I thought was funny however, it wasn’t really what I wanted. I then started to think about a bugs life and how the ants wanted to create an uprising. This then lead me to thinking about pigeons. This is because humans domesticated pigeons for our own good and then moved on leaving them to suffer. This is how I feel about the rising use of AI and the possible effects of using robots as opposed to humans. This is because large corporations will choose to use a robot as opposed to using people because it is the easier option. Technology evolved and that’s why pigeons got left behind.
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.
For week 7 I was able to once again use my newly learned photo and video editing skills. In my post You Are What You Eat I created a propaganda poster. For video editing I made a digital news article in my post called Breaking News. Lastly, I made a post called Runa Reacts where I have my character comment with her own fake Twitter account on other propaganda posters.
New Experiences and Discoveries
Used Canva for video editing
Learned how to make gifs
Used ArtBreeder
Used a Tweet generator
Daily Creates
This week I created 3 Daily Creates which can be found in my post called Inside My Creative Mind.
For this Daily Create I was supposed to create a gif from a scene from one of my favorite movies. I chose the Disney movie Tangled because it was my favorite to watch as a kid. For creating the gif I used MakeGif and added the captions Here comes the smolder because that is the funniest part from that scene.
My Daily Space
For this Daily Create I was supposed to show the opposite of my usual perspective every day. Normally I am sitting doing schoolwork on my laptop for hours so I took a picture from the backside.
Unexpected Fairy Tale
For this Daily Create I was supposed to write a fairy tale. For mine I chose to do the typical story about a prince rescuing a princess from a dragon in a tower, but I did mine with a twist by writing that the princess was the actual dragon who was just cursed into dragon form and was waiting on a prince to revert her back into human form.
Ever imagined how Runa Starr would react to propaganda posters? Well your dream has just come true! Here is Runa’s reaction if she had a Twitter account.
Since Runa Starr is a young adult I tried to think of what would she most likely use to comment on other people’s propaganda posters. Social media made the most sense so I used TweetGen which is a fake tweet generator that allowed me to write out her reactions as if it was a real account. I made sure to apply her personality to each post with emojis, big reactions, and using all caps to emphasize certain words.
Warning: Due to video size make sure to watch video in full screen mode which you can click at bottom right of the video to view better!
Video Process
I wanted to make a more modern style news article similar to what I would see while scrolling on my phone, so I used Canva to create my news video. The red and white color theme was used to make the announcement look more urgent while the audio soundtrack I added was to help with making it seem more like a realistic news article. The video of the shootout from the Terminator is a gif I found from MakeGif that I edited in. The process was fun and I love how the video easily transitions between each slide as if it was professionally made.
The food you eat are the bricks that build up your body. Everything you consume has an effect whether you notice it now or years later. So every greasy slab of meat, glob of butter, and sugary honeybun leaves your body gross and sluggish. Why do that to yourself when you can choose the healthy bricks like delicious fruit, roasted vegetables, yummy bread, and seasoned nuts that leave your body strong and energized! So choose your next bricks wisely and become vegan.
Poster Design
I chose to make my propaganda poster based on veganism because I tried to think of what type of poster would be seen by my character Runa Starr in her world. She loves snacking and eating fast food so I feel like it would be common in a futuristic city to have vegans protesting and spreading posters to stop eating meat around her favorite fast food restaurants. Runa isn’t vegan so I doubt the poster would have any influence on her especially since she’s a young adult who loves junk food, but I tried to design it to have a visual impact. I used ArtBreeder to make Ai generated photos of a humanoid burger until I got one that looked creepy enough with its gross body and bulging eyes staring at the viewer. I also liked the picture because it helped to push my narrative with the added words You are what you eat. I used Canva to add in the effects of the warning police tape and the captions in the front I included Become Vegan Now before its too late! I also made the font red with the final word “late” in all caps to make it look more urgent.
For the next assignment, I created Femme Fatale Propaganda. This propaganda would come from those that are femme fatale haters and those that support the patriarchal system and feel like FF should be punished for challenging this way of thinking. Although, jokes on them because Sapphria, along with the other FFs, will not change for these systematic patriarchal standards. This was one of my favorite creations yet!
Daily Create Shenanigans are always fun! I made 3 daily creates this week. I have an opposite view post where I posted a pic of myself that my phone would see if I was talking to my besties in a group chat. I also posted a cute little fairy tale story and a favorite movie gif from Miss Congeniality! #Classic!
Let’s Check Out the Classes PSA’s! Sapphria Mae Edition! I checked out the PSAs from the class and I chose a few that Sapphria would like/love and why. Overall, we learned that President Trump would most likely become one of Sapphria’s next victims… and he’ll be losing a lot more than the skin of his ear LOLLL. We also learned this week (Nothing new) that Sapphria like to watch men beat each other up (In sports) and Sapphria agrees that people are on their phones WAY too much. Although, it doesn’t necessarily affect her, so she doesn’t really care.
This week was awesome! I voted and I commented back and forth with my peers. Woohoo!
Max would tear this propaganda off the wall and put it in her room. She would aspire to follow the example set by the poster dreaming or being considered a femme fatale. Her boss would probably rip it off the wall when he came to visit though shuddering in disgust every time Max was practicing winking and blowing kisses. She is at the age where what people call someone a bad example, she finds them inspiring and wants to approach them.
Max wants to be seen as mature and womanly, since she spent her life surrounded by stinky old men there aren’t many role models she can learn from. She is a pale and lanky hacker striving to be a femme fatale despite her baggy pants and complete dislike for people.
