Week 6 is officially in the books. This week was relatively easy which was very much welcomed with midterms coming up. I chose to do the Talk to the Bot assignment so I only did one assignment, while most people I saw chose to do three. I think both options were equally time consuming which is another reason I’m glad that there weren’t many other assignments.

Daily Creates.

This week I did Tuesday and Wednesday’s Daily Creates. For Tuesday, the prompt was deciding what power a light switch had. For this prompt I chose to take it in a literal direction. When the switch was flipped down, the light was on but when the switch flipped up, the light turned off. In case it wasn’t clear, I wanted the switch to dictate the time of day. It was the obvious choice, but no one else had done so I decided to take the chance. I used Canva to make the Daily Create. In hindsight, I wish I had made the background even darker but I was worried that if you couldn’t see the background, people wouldn’t understand what I was trying to convey.

The next daily create was showing off your safe haven. I have a few safe havens and I wanted to show them all off. The first one is Ball Parlor in Ball Hall. My friends and I hangout in there a lot and no matter what kind of mood I’m in, going into that parlor and hanging out with them for even a minute lifts my spirits. The next one is my Grandma’s house in Leechburg, PA. My family on my dad’s side is very close but my siblings and I are the only ones who don’t live in Pennsylvania. Anytime we see them, there’s always a family reunion. I love seeing them, and anytime I’m there, problems in Virginia seem to melt away. After that, I included my couch as a safe haven. I chose my couch to represent my house as a whole. When I’m home, I don’t hang out in my room a lot, I spend time with my sisters, my parents, and my pets in the family room. Whether I’m watching a TV, having a conversation, or chilling with my pets, my couch is where I’m at. On top of that, it is the best place to take naps. Lastly, I included the stage which I’m aware is so cheesy but I don’t care. I did theatre and chorus in high school so I love the stage in that sense, but mainly I’m more in awe of how a good production can make me feel like I’m in that world with them. An example of this is, I hate New York City. Times Square stresses me out like no other, but once I’m in a theatre, I feel like nothing bad can happen to me. So those are my safe havens! Very cheesy explanations to go with all of them, but I’m a cheesy person.

Video Assignment

I chose to do the Talk to the Bot assignment. I used Sims 4 to animate my characters which could have turned out really cool, if I had gotten the lip-sync videos for Dr. Oblivion to work with it. Maybe I’ll try again another day with shorter clips so it doesn’t take so long to load. I ran into a few road blocks with this assignment with the formatting and scripting but I’m proud of myself for persevering. I also want to be clear that this assignment wasn’t all bad, when it was flowing, it was really easy and fun to work through. The roadblocks were a bit frustrating, but nothing impossible. I used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the video and audio together which didn’t take me too long. To substitute the lip-sync video, I downloaded a stock footage video of audio levels.

Comments

This week was easier to find things to comment on than last week. Many people chose to do the three video assignments as well as the goal revision everyone had to do, so people had already posted some stuff by Tuesday afternoon. I commented on Live It Up With Liv’s revisiting goals and I said, “I also appreciate the freedom this class offers. It’s so enjoyable to decide how I want to apply what we’ve learned!” This is true, I’ve been telling my friends that I really enjoy the assignment bank because it allows me to choose how I want to apply the lesson of the week. I think people revisiting their goals started to make people feel sappy because I read a few touching reflections. On Sam’s Club’s goal revisiting, I commented “This in-depth reflection on your goals was a really great timeline to show how your skills have developed. I really like your website; it’s very organized, so all your assignments are easy to find. I think aiming to improve your skills in sound is a great goal to set, and I hope you find success in it!” Sam talked about his goal about web design which is why I included that I liked his website layout. I appreciate anyone with an organized web layout which is something I hope to implement into my website at some point this semester. Flower Bed’s goal revisiting got deep and so I told them, “I appreciate your honest reply. I agree that it can be hard to challenge yourself when life already presents so many challenges. However, I love that your work reflects who you are, and I think that’s what matters most. ❣️” Their reflection was touching and I respected that they were proud of their work at this point in the semester. The Digital Canvas made a video where they talked to their 16 year old self, I said, “This is such a sweet idea. I love the thought of being able to talk to your younger self to reassure them that it gets better. Especially in high school, it truly feels like everything revolves around those moments, and we often lose sight of the fact that we move on and grow. Great job!” I can relate to wishing I could go back and talk to my younger self and fill them in on how life turns out; it’s probably for the best that I can’t because I wouldn’t want to jinx anything. Finally on Noir You Didn’t’s goal revisiting, I commented, “I can’t believe we’re already a third through the semester. That feels unreal! I love how you reflected on your goals but still want to push yourself to improve. Good luck with your goals.” I think it’s important to acknowledge, even if you meet your goals, there is always room to grow. I appreciated that Noir You Didn’t recognized they want to continue to better themselves. Everyone did a good job this week!

Conclusion

I did enjoy this week, but I think I liked last week better. Getting to watch the Tony Zhou videos and a Black Mirror episode was a highlight. This week had more freedom, which was good, but I think because I already had an appreciation for video essays, I had more fun working on that. However, this was still a good week, and I look forward to next!