by Epting & Brubaker, from Velvet #13

Sorry, no goofy video this week. 

1/27-2/3
All work is due by midnight on Friday, 2/3

Thanks go out to the Writing Group for their input for this week!

Below is a detailed list of what’s to be completed this week.

1. To get us thinking more about the Secret Agent theme, read through the AV Club’s history of TV Spies & Secret Agents. You can find episodes of many of the shows discussed in the article online, on Youtube or Netflix or elsewhere. Pick one to watch. Also watch any one of the following:
   Spy Kids (Amazon $3.99) (Youtube $2.99)
   The Hunt for Red October (Amazon $3.99) (Youtube $2.99)
   The 39 Steps (free on Youtube)
   Kingsman: The Secret Service (Amazon $3.99) (Youtube $2.99)
   Write a blog post reflecting on these. Considering these and other works in the genre you know of, what themes, patterns and commonalities do you see? What defines a secret agent, or a secret agent story? And…
2. Watch Vonnegut on The Shape of Stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ Apply Vonnegut’s method to one of the stories from this week and write a blog post on it. Tag the post agentstories
3. Write a Character Dossier: Create a character dossier for a secret agent themed character of your own making. Feel free to use the TVTropes site as a resource. You can also look at the Dossier section of the Spy Museum’s Spy for a Day guide for ideas.  You do not have to conform to any traditions, and you are not limited to agents themselves – you could make a character in an ancillary role. In the Bond series, for example, there is a supervisor, an office manager, and the mad scientist who makes all the gadgets. Agents of SHIELD had double agents and Hydra. Archer has an accountant and a HR person. North by Northwest had an ordinary guy who got accidentally pulled into international intrigue. Roles like those are interesting because you can make of them whatever you want.  Also, this is a character you will be working on over the course of the semester, so take some time to think about this.
   Fill out the Dossier form for your character.
   You can also create a dossier cover page.
   Write a narrative post introducing your character. This can include information from the form, but should have more details, like a back story or background intelligence, perhaps. Tag the post: characterdossier
4. Writing Assignments: This week, we will be using Writing Assignments from ds106’s Assignment Bank. Pick one of the following to do:
   Explaining the Spy
   The secret life of a spy
   The Everyday Life of a Spy
   Create your own story line
   Each assignment comes with a “star” or point rating that roughly estimates its difficulty. In addition to the assignment you choose from above, you must complete at least 8 stars of other writing assignments. Connect at least one of the assignments in some way to our theme.
   Note: You started creating assignments last week. You can do this at any time. So if you don’t like the writing assignments as they are, you are welcome to come up with a new one and do it yourself.
5. Daily Creates: Let’s do 3 this week.
6. Commenting: You should all be following each other’s work and offering each other feedback, ideas, support and encouragement. A good habit is to visit the course site every day to see what people have posted. Click through to a few posts and share your thoughts on the work, and ideas that it may inspire. We all appreciate positive feedback, and we can all be inspired by each other. This should take no more than a few minutes a day.
7. Write your Weekly Summary: This is an every week thing. Your summary should link to or embed all your work for the week, and give your thoughts on the week as a whole. Submit the URL for this post to Canvas by the end of the day on Friday.