The topic I have chosen to write about is the controversy involving companies that test their cosmetics and human hygiene products on animals. I love animals and feel that this is a prominent issue that needs to be brought to light. Every year, more than 100 million animals become injured in some way, such as being poisoned, crippled, or burned in American labs every year.

I’ll be making a web page to better inform people of how wrong it is to test on animals. Companies like Oxi Clean, Nair, Trojan Condoms, Aim Toothpaste, and Arm & Hammer all test on animals. This is wrong considering the fact that many of these products are loaded with chemicals.

The two types of media I hope to use are a video collage and a collection of photos. In the video collage, I hope to use statistics and information to inform the viewer of the harmful effects of testing on animals. I hope to use a tone that grabs the reader’s attention and persuades with relevant and vital information.

I feel that this is a subject that can be communicated with a lot of emotion, and I hope I’m able to draw the audience in with this somber subject.

The photos I hope add to this emotional persuasion as well. I’m thinking I want a slide show of animals and brands that are using animals to test their products.

Some of these products are ones that I feel shouldn’t necessarily be used on animals because of the fact that they are indeed harmful. US laboratories knowingly burn these animals just because they need to test their products. It’s wrong!

My project will be all about health and fitness and the social ties connected to it. It will be about the different aspects of “living healthy” and the different things that can be done to live healthy. It will captivate the benefits to health and fitness and also the most common ways to currently stay healthy. I will also incorporate alternative ways people are body shaping but not actually staying active and taking care of their bodies. I will use image files and video clips on the side of my HTML pages to convey these messages and information.

The topic for my DTC capstone project that I have chosen to work with is video games or video games and society, if necessary more specifically in terms of popular culture. I wish to explain the history of gaming and the gaming culture it has created. I would also like to talk about how gaming has changed society and, and the differing view points within society on how to treat video games, either as an evil child corrupting force or as many in the gaming culture would consider it, a form of art work in its own right.

For media objects pertaining to the project I have several options. For my newly generated object I could take a digital photograph of myself or someone else and enhance it and digitally alter it in an artistic way, which either conveys my and other people’s feelings toward gaming or something that just looks cool. For my second object I would put together a video that shows a timeline of games and gaming culture, using clips from games and lets plays, videos and images of events like Comic-Con and Pax, and music files to create a gaming trailer like timeline. I could also put together an informational video including stats about gaming and opposition to it, which includes supposed health concerns. If I didn’t do that in a video I would include that information, in the text of my site.

The power of language and social media impacts more peoples lives then it did twenty years ago. The idea that a person can post something on a social networking site and not have to worry about it again is a thing of the past. Currently, anything a person sends out to the world from their account leaves them at the mercy of society. Therefore, any racially charged, sexist, or other inappropriate post has the potential to lead to ramifications at home or in the work place. This Capstone project will focus on Twitter and how American’s lives are affected due to an inappropriate tweets and whether the ramification of their tweets are justifiable.
In order to convey as much information as possible, I plan on using a mash-up video of improper tweets, punishments that have occurred, and ways to avoid receiving a societal smack down. I will use Premiere, Photoshop, and probably audacity to achieve this. I will also make a poster, using Photoshop, of the do’s and don’t of Tweeting. The video and poster will be placed on a HTML site for viewing and commenting purposes.

The topic I will be further elaborating on for my DTC capstone project will have to do with the controversial topic of animals being held in captivity such as zoos and aquariums, specifically focusing on whales and dolphins. Whales and dolphins are highly intelligent animals who want and need to live in complex social groups. In captivity they will usually have been separated from their families, often in cruel hunts and some when they are very young. Wild whales and dolphins can swim up to 100 miles a day, hunting and playing. In captivity they have very little space and cannot behave naturally. A concrete tank can never replace their immensely large ocean home. There have been many incidents involving trainers and other humans who have been interacting with these wild animals and tragically died horrifying and gruesome deaths, not because these animals are evil or intentionally trying to kill them, but because they are driven into a depression state or because they are acting as if they would in the wild.

In regards to the content that my capstone project will be made up of, I will be using a video to show most of the issues because I think it’ll be able to show what it most important about the topic, also I believe that creating videos using premiere was one my stronger areas that we worked on. I will also be creating images on photoshop and/or illustrator to make “poster” like images that portray the importance of the cause.

For my project I will be working on self-sustaining farming. Not everyone can have a full-fledged farm but with a minimum of space you can still support a large portion of your needs using just a few hundred square feet of space. I will make a video showing the average amount of care you need to do for keeping chickens and rabbits. I will be also making a poster/desktop image style printable in various sizes available for download. The downloadable will be an encouraging “you can do it” style with a play-off of the old World War 2 style patriotic signs calling for the same. The ease of raising specifically chickens and rabbits make it relatively easy to get your eggs, whole chicken meats, and rabbit meat for less than you pay now for standard groceries. In addition you get to know for a fact that all your food is free of chemicals, hormones, over-processing, and maltreatment. All it takes is a bit of sweat equity (and not a whole heck of a lot really). Don’t get me wrong, beef is one of my favorites, but cows take too much space, and their meat is fattier and less healthy, rabbit and chicken meats products are the way to go. Lean, clean, and with a million and one ways to season, it’s the best way to go. I really just like the feeling of knowing my food had a good life before me, and will continue to give me good energy in return.

The issue I will be addressing in my capstone project will be the same one I used for my After Effects video. The social movement to minimize the import age for foreign cars from 25 to 15 years old. This is a topic I strongly support, and I am also extremely knowledgeable upon. With this I feel as if it will be much easier to be creative with my content. As far as the project’s content is considered I will most likely be going down the route of a video clip and a image or sound clip. I feel as if this combination will allow me to address the issues I want to discuss and share to others.
As far as how my content will be created, I will design an image from scratch as a “movement poster” to be the main thing I want people to think of when my topic is brought up. This image will most likely be created in both photoshop and illustrator. My second bit of media will be a video created with a collection of clips that I will find using creative commons based sources. These clips will be edited together with a mixture of text, creative commons images, and creative commons sound files. I feel as video editing is one of my strengths and something I really enjoy so the video portion of my will be the strongest part of my final project.

I am going to do my Capstone project on Palm Oil and how it is affecting the environment, animals, and even people. The biggest thing with harvesting palm oil is the deforestation that is decreasing the population of many different species (i.e. Orangutans and Elephants). By using sustainable palm oil plantations we can help save these species from becoming endangered and even extinct. Due to the burning of the forests, we are increasing global warming and are producing one of the largest sources of  green house gases.

In this project I hope to use image files, sound files, and potentially even video files to help portray how manufactures and companies who include palm oil in their products are damaging the world around us. These will help me portray my message and hopefully help people understand what is happening around us

I also want to include that manufactures and companies are now looking into sustainable sources of palm oil so that we are not negatively affecting our environment or anything around us. Companies just need to be aware of what is happening and how it can be prevented.

My project will be focused on the turmoil that is taking place in Ukraine. For my website, I will focus my efforts on using a video mashup along with a sound file. The conflict involves anti-government protesters standing-off against authorities, with violence rising to the point where policemen were being shot. These things arose after President Yanukovych’s government rejected an accord with the European Union in favor of stronger ties with Russia. This was an outrage since it was a long term aspiration for integration with Europe, and had been rejected overnight.
To convey these images I think using a sound file will work well with the mashup to incorporate the events that are taking place to this day. In the mashup I will incorporate certain events such as riots and political speeches on the issue. In my efforts, I will try to summarize key events in order to raise awareness of the needs of people in the war zones. With people lacking electricity and water, the church I attend is reaching out by sending food, water, clothing, and everyday essentials to those who are in need. I’m sure that most people are unaware of everything that is going on and I hope this project will shed some light on the things that are happening. With two of my cousins being victims of the crimes occurring during all this mess, this issue is rather important to me. I know that many other people have incurred troubles during these times, and this would be a good way to express what is going on.

For my capstone project I want to dig into culture in regards to trends, fashion (hair, makeup, etc.) and look at the differences in those trends for different areas. I am a Cosmetology student getting prepared to graduate within a couple months and something I’m passionate about is hair color and different hair color applications and formulations, etc. Hair is a trend that is consistently changing and is a form of expression. Balayage is a recent color application trend that I have been working with and really enjoy. I figured making a webpage about color would be easy for me as I’m in love with the career and certainly wouldn’t get bored of the topic. In regards to my media objects, I plan on recording and editing a video of myself working on a client and utilizing my knowledge of the current trends by applying color (and cutting and styling) with a balayage technique possibly paired with the color melting technique as well. My other form of media could include some of my before and after photos, a compilation of several of them, or a second video of an additional technique. I’d like to talk about why hair is important in culture, particularly American culture, and how it allows people to express themselves as well as the other social aspects about hair and hair color. I feel I could talk about the stereotypes of different fashions and trends and how it can and does affect a person’s life.