Capstone Project Proposal – DUI Costs and Effects

My capstone project will address the issues of driving while under the influence. I will achieve this through two different media objects, the first of which will be an infographic. The infographic, rather than focusing on the number of fatalities, or the number of arrests for DUI’s, I will focus on the financial costs that can come from a single DUI. I will break down the cost for each fine someone would face in the DUI legal process, while also comparing it to things of similar expenses, such as cars, electronics, vacations, etc. In the end, I will evaluate the final cost to the cost of a cab, Uber, and Lyft ride home and close out with a call to action to save yourself some money, call a cab. With the infographic, I hope to make it clear that in addition to potential loss of life, other significant impacts can affect one’s life after a DUI.
The second media object will be a video remix. I will take video footage of police talking about the DUI process, from initial arrest to booking and so forth. I will also add in police talking about their thoughts on DUI’s, and experiences that they have had. The video remix should give an inside view on DUI arrests, along with a professional opinion on them.
With the blend of both civilian and monetary costs, and police perspective I will be able to give a balanced and informative view on why one should avoid driving while under the influence.

Capstone Project Proposal – Impact of 9/11 on the United States

Capstone Project- 9/11 & Terrorism
My capstone project will focus on the impact of 9/11 on the United States, as well as how this impact changed over time. Following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon, the United States rapidly implemented several anti-immigration security measures. These actions appeared to have been out of fear, as the country recoiled from the single greatest terrorist attack in human history. The attack, commonly called 9/11, also represented the single greatest loss of life of firefighters and police officers. The two methods of information delivery that will be used for this topic are the infographic and video remix. The infographic’s main purpose will be to deliver the core facts about the subject. How many lives were lost, the laws put in place afterwards, and additional security measures taken at airports and other secure areas to limit any attacks like this in the future. The video remix will analyze not only how the attacks were allowed to happen, but also the motive behind them. The last portion of the video will analyze how the US has developed over 17 years after the disastrous event. This final portion will connect the topic to the real world and critical topics of immigration laws, which are at the moment a major topic in the US. Part of this final analysis will examine current immigration laws, while the other portion will inspect possible laws put into place in the future. A final scene, a common image when depicting 9/11, a set of firemen re-posting the American flag over the rubble of the Twin Towers, will be used as well, tying the topic not to a fight against immigration, but the unity of America against people who would seek to destroy it.

Capstone Project Proposal – Paying Collegiate Basketball Players

For my capstone project I would like to address and give information on why collegiate athletes should be paid passed scholarship. I would be mostly focused on collegiate basketball and the money that these athletes generate for the school and for the NCAA. I will be using a mashup up to help convey my message. I also will be using an animation to give a more entertaining way of showing statistics for this topic.

In my mashup I will have video of my own from interviews with collegiate players as well as video from past interviews. I will highlight the struggle that collegiate athletes can have balancing school, sports, and also trying to have money to live. This will not be a purely one sided viewpoint but rather just opinions and real life observations that athletes and coaches have observed.

In my animation I will be highlighting statistics that show how much money these athletes are missing out on. As well as showing why most athletes are “one and done” meaning they only stay one year in college so that they can start their pro career. Paying these athletes as well as scholarship would give a better opportunity to keep these athletes in the schools. This animation will be completely original. Animated and illustrated completely by me.

These two will support each other by one giving an emotional and perspective view while the other gives stats and facts that support those claims. I hope to be able and help move paying athletes forward.

The Stigma of Mental Health – Capstone Proposal Charley McNealy

This is a look into my capstone project, “Break the Stigma.”

The social topic I plan to explore for my capstone project is the stigma associated with mental illness. This stigma has a deep impact in society and need to come to an end. To do this, I plan on creating an infographic as well as a video remix to present details of this stigma and how to break it. These two forms of media will provide a way to display facts and data in addition to a method to leave people thinking about ways to help. The infographic will consist of base information and facts to on mental health and details of the stigma surrounding it. The video remix will present a deeper more emotional message about the impact of this stigma and how we can fight it.

Mental health has always been a topic that society has considered to be taboo. Mental illness is often frowned upon and dismissed in the public eye. This is due to the lack of knowledge on mental diseases and the how they can affect individuals. Since most mental diseases lack physical symptoms, it is difficult for the public to understand and recognize as a disease. Without any physical signs, mental illnesses often go undetected and without treatment. This can cause individuals to suffer in silence for years before they seek appropriate help. Even when help is found, it is considered shameful and unnatural for the individual by society. This leads people to think that working on mental health is useless or makes one less of a person. This is the wrong kind of thinking in society! This is the stigma surrounding mental health and it must come to an end to help better the world.

Capstone Project Proposal – Police Brutality

Police Brutality

For my capstone project I am going to work with the subject of police brutality and possible solutions to this problem. I will talk about the issues of police brutality and how it affects certain people, and I will talk about some ways to solve the problem, such as body cams,

and protests. I hope to find recent news reports and footage from police brutality situations and from protests regarding police brutality. I am going to do the video remix and the infographic (non animated). My current plans for both the infographic and the remix are similar to what is above, with the information starting by showing or talking about the problem and then moving into possible solutions and giving information on how helpful those solutions have been so far. If I have the time I may also discuss how region, age, and race affect this issue. I plan on making the infographic very straight to the point, and fact based. I will make the video more dramatic and emotional, and the website will be a mix of this, with the navigation being simple and easy, but the look being a bit more dramatic, but still with a very serious tone. The media objects will relate to each other by having similar content, but showing it in a different way, where I want the video to be more emotional and dramatically impactful, and I want the infographic to be more logical and statistic based (logos and pathos).

Here are some facts and statistics about police brutality.

 

Capstone Project Proposal – Water Warriors

My capstone project will address the health of our waterways and cover things we can do to help our aquatic environment. All our waterways are in crisis—our creeks, streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans—all around the globe. This is an anthropogenic problem and requires an anthropogenic solution. There are things that each one of us can do to mitigate the damage and hopefully reverse it. We can all become Water Warriors. Indeed, for the health of humanity, we all need to become Water Warriors.

Highlighting water has been a goal of mine throughout the semester. My first attempt at an infographic covered salmon as a keystone species—the canary in the coal mine for our waterways. My artist statement will naturally touch on that when I encapsulate the health of our water ecosystems, and how dependent we are on them. I will also introduce the two topics I have chosen to highlight for this assignment. Water ecosystem restoration and ghost fishing. Ghost Fishing will be addressed in a remixed video. Water ecosystem restoration will be covered in an infographic file.

I believe these two elements will complement each other well. At first, I wanted to do an animation, however, an infographic and remixed video will allow me to share more information—and there is a lot of information I must share. That will be my challenge—to condense my research into the most concise and effective bits of information possible within the constraints that I have. I will need to take all my research, sort and prioritize it, with the goal to win over more Water Warriors.

Capstone Project Proposal – Save the Sharks

This has something to do about my capstone project,
Capstone Project Proposal
After reading through the Capstone Project, I have settled on the idea that my subject matter will be based around the ocean. I have not yet decided whether I will focus specifically on cleaning up the ocean or if my focus will shift to saving shark species. I really like the shark idea, specifically because I am deathly afraid of sharks so I have a good amount of knowledge about them. I also notice that there are a lot of misconceptions about sharks and they are being overly hunted. In the end, this decision will more than likely be guided by what videos and images I am able to find and use appropriately. The video remix that I create will more than likely use text to get the message out. There will also be music in the background. Probably some type of hip-hop instrumental. For the other half of this project, I’ve decided to create an image using either Photoshop or Illustrator. My plan for the image is to turn it into an info-graphic with around two to four facts, three pictures, and an ocean blue kind of theme. I am not sure if I am going to go with a cartoon vibe with the shark pictures or if I will use the pen tool to trace more realistic pictures of sharks. I can draw a little bit and the cartoon version of the sharks could make it pop a little better and be maybe more interesting with kids which would widen the audience.

Capstone Project Proposal – Introversion

Quiet Strength – The Power of Introverts

For my capstone project, I would like to create an infographic and a remixed video informing people of the strength of introverts. In the Ted Talk, “The Power of Introverts”, Susan Cain states that introverts take up anywhere between a third to a half of the population, but American society is geared towards extroverts. If you choose not to go to a party with your co-workers, individuals think that you are antisocial. Schools require most students to work in groups and do not provide introverted students with another option. Cain continues by saying that many people see introversion as being shy or under socialized, but introversion is about how one responds to stimulation. Introverts feel the most productive when they are in quiet and thoughtful environments. Cain believes that to help introverts in an extrovert dominated world, we need to accept that they need to work in environments with small amounts of stimulation.

To illustrate the quiet power of introverts, I would like to highlight facts that people might not know about introverts in my infographic. For example, introverts are good listeners. According to Dr. Laurie Helgoe in the Times article, “The Surprising Benefits of Being an Introvert,” extroverts are more likely to interact in a conversation before they fully comprehend what you are saying. Conversely, Dr. Helgoe says, introverts process information internally and that skill allows them to fully comprehend before they speak. For my remixed video, I would like to mix Ted Talks, interviews, advertisements, and other imagery to inform introverts and extroverts alike, about the beauty of quietly listening in a world that will not stop talking.