For my final project, I wanted to stick with some of the themes that were implemented by my group projects – the audio and visual projects – and frame my narrative through the lens of my character’s point of view. The largest part of my final project was a VCSO (photo sharing) account that is …

Continue reading "Final Weekly Summary: it really is The End."

At the beginning, nothing really seemed out of the ordinary. In The Digital Age, people all over the world were constantly receiving exposure to breaking news updates and viral media content on a vast range of topics every day. We had all heard of the “Apocalyptic Fiction Genre” that seemed to be only beholden to …

Continue reading "The End is upon us"

Week 12 On assignment notes: For my 12 stars of media assignments, I chose to re-do my original cover – a GIF of a the last man on earth, Lionel, walking on the beach, which I did before I even got to the ending and found out the closing image is when he swims to …

Continue reading "take one down, pass it around, 12 gallons of water on the bunker wall"

Emerging Evidence: Today I found the following flyer stapled to every tree/pole in my neighborhood. It was also trending on social media and on every office building I drove past. It’s everywhere – it seems like it’s from some kind of intel seeking/leaking organization… I don’t know what to think, but I’m nervous. Are they …

Continue reading "Emerging Evidence"

For one of my media assignments, I went a different direction. I made a Pinterest boat for the The Countess of Windsor, who for reference is described by Wikipedia as, “Mother of Adrian and Idris, an Austrian princess and former Queen of England. She is haughty and ambitious, scheming to restore the monarchy through her …

Continue reading "Re-Wardrobing The Last Man"

After having read the novel, I realized that my first book cover was pretty much flawless. It fit the ending – the most significant part of the narrative – perfectly. So I decided to take it in a new, more satirical direction. This GIF focuses more on the internal emotions of Lionel as I would …

Continue reading "Re-Designing The Last Man"

Alternate Ending: The novel ends with Lionel swimming to shore and coming to the realization that he is the last man on earth. I kind of hated that, so I changed it. I mean it was a great book – but I like my apocalyptic fiction to be more inspiring or thought-provoking than saddening or …

Continue reading "Rescripting The Last Man:"

Week 11 Reflection: On luck: In 3rd grade, I wrote my first academic essay; it was a research paper on grizzly bears. In 4th grade, I wrote my second one on Harriet Tubman. From that point on, research papers were my thing, and still are. I still think bears are awesome, and Tubman is my …

Continue reading "11:11 And Other Lucky Things"

What are current structures/concepts/rituals/themes/traditions/aspects/cultural qualities/etc. in modern society that we should fight to maintain in a post-apocalyptic world? Create a collage that illustrates facets of our society that we should work to keep and build upon despite the circumstances of our planet and species after The End. If everything on earth was destroyed beyond repair …

Continue reading "Daily Create Ideas"

Week 10 Summary This week, I do not have much to report. Really. I feel like I said everything there is to say about my week in terms of this class in my assignments – specifically the blog posts for Path Two and the video assignment(s) blog post. So I’m just going to get straight …

Continue reading "10 of Spades; as in, they flocked to video week in spades"

Last semester I took an “Intro to Cinema” class where I learned stuff I thought I would never, ever, under any circumstances associated with my normal life at any point in time need to use. However, the Week 10 video assignments from have proved me wrong. After watching four of the provided clips (“Top 20 …

Continue reading "Editing schmediting – putting the (s)in in cinematography"

Okie dokie – here is the finished video! Closing comments: On Lorraine Baxter I would like to believe that this project – even in sticking to the main concept we devised as a group – ties into my character’s interests and post-apocalyptic skillset as a reporter/communications savant and documentary journalist. As a shepherd, a project …

Continue reading "Project: Fini (w/ the little french accent thingy on top because that’s how famous, pretentious directors speak)"

So at this point, I have assembled footage of my dogs (which came out PERFECTLY if I do say so myself – Simon was an excellent actor, standing at attention by the front door; he’s such a good boy), and also some places on campus and around my house. I will be hitting the grocery …

Continue reading "Project: Pulling It Together"

After the first week, nobody has assembled any footage to my knowledge. But we still have time and we only need to come up with like under two minutes of raw footage, so it’s pretty low stress. We are, at this point, discussing more in-depth what kinds of settings we want to include in our …

Continue reading "Project: Developments"

When we first formed our group, David, Rachel and I agreed that we wanted to do a video that was structured in a way that enabled individual contributions that could easily augment each other in a more fluid, collaborative way. We decided that our video would be a montage of sorts – one that layered …

Continue reading "Project: Conception"

Yeah so this is for my assignment revision. I chose to modify my character’s outfit design – First, I actually used the avatar/character I created earlier in the semester and then did my darnedest to dress her in the original outfit, and for all the same reasons. However, this submission included a layout of all …

Continue reading "Makeover gfran – u work that deadly strut"

This week, as we wrapped up the radio show projects and took the time to tune into each other’s broadcasts, deliberately seek out other students’ work to submit personal commentary to, and revisiting old assignments, I found that this week served as a temporary break between the more demanding and experimental content production strategies that …

Continue reading "Week 9…Cloud 9… Tomayto ToMAHto"

At the conclusion of our project, we were able to accomplish all of the goals we had set and our final project honored our initial vision. Though much of the process happened in spite of challenging communications strategies, collaboration over digital media rather than in-person meetings, and lengthy discussions over the details, overall message/concept, and …

Continue reading "The Eagle Report: The Final Broadcast"

Yes. That was the best title I could think of for this week’s reflection post (7 and 8). The real apocalypse starts with us returning to creating emoji sentiments out of existing punctuation indicators and speaking like height-of-his-career-collaborates-with-Justin-Bieber-phase Sean Kingston. Soon, we’ll be wearing gaucho pants… or long, poorly-color-coordinated plaid Bermuda shorts and Hollister graphic …

Continue reading "Audio: aw, you doeeee

So our group project progressed the way Ansel Elgort’s character in The Fault in Our Stars fell in love – slow at first, and then all at once. Our group was comprised of individuals who struggled to secure groups using the social media techniques that were available, and had to be connected through the intervention …

Continue reading "Making Progress – On Group Projects Initiated By Online Interactions"

Week 6: I plan to revisit week six specifically later this week because the assignments associated with Design are the most intriguing to me, personally, out of all of the major themes we have addressed this semester up to week 10. I completed the six stars of design assignments, character design, and alternate book cover …

Continue reading "Small Group Democracy – A Success Story"

SO this week I learned that it is illegal to download audio from YouTube… And that any “helpful” programs that are meant to execute such downloads for you are pretty much always scams that introduce all kinds of malware and viruses to your laptop. Even if the guy at the Apple store assured you that …

Continue reading "Why Week 5 Crashed My Computer Not Once, Not Twice, But Three Times"