Multi-modal Reflection Paper
While I was creating this project, I had set a goal in mind for this project to accomplish – and that was to educate those who have been misguided by stray facts and have formulated their own positive ideas about apartheid. During my time writing essay 2, I did not go into too much depth on the pros of apartheid, for there aren’t any that doesn’t get shut down in the long run. However, many of my audience that I wish to target believe that there are pros to apartheid and that they outweigh the cons. Many also believe that due to Trump being placed as president, he would provide as a stable outlet into bringing apartheid into the United States.
For this project, I decided to create a comic series. This is primarily because I could not include political satire in my prior essay without it breaking the flow that was already created – it just did not belong there. However, with a comic, I have the freedom to educate my audience in a way that would still deliver the message, and provide them with a bit of entertainment. I had used the idea of Trump acknowledging apartheid as a formidable way to oppress the minority groups in the United States. Since there is so much going on with Trump and his presidency, this was a pristine opportunity to use him to represent the pros side of the argument that my audience wants to see. Trump is usually known for making egotistic remarks on society and the government, and shows a lack of responsibility while doing so. While the comic continues, I introduce Nelson Mandela to mediate Trump into rethinking the decision of implementing apartheid in the United States. Mandela represents the cons side of the argument, in which I used to shut down the pros side which the audience should be so fond of.
While making this comic I made sure to bolden everything I could to show the magnitude of the situation at the time. During the dialog, things may appear to be static, however during times of excitement, I used empowering speech bubbles to show the excitement of the situation. This was critical in making this comic for it provided something for the audience that I could not deliver with just writing and essay. It gave satirical excitement and presence throughout the entire comic – something that could not be given in my essay 2. I also believe using different characters such as Donald Trump and Nelson Mandela gave the audience a good/bad guy perspective. Since I portrayed Trump as a mindless person, one might find that amusing and consider him an egotistical bad guy. Once Mandela steps into the scene, the audience might portray him to be the good guy, trying to stop the bad guy without using violence – only his words.
I had originally wanted to do a podcast, however I realized my strengths lie within Photoshop for I used to do graphic design for different clients in the past. It did not take long for me to start editing my scenes and before I knew it, I was almost complete! While using Photoshop, I noticed that I had a lot of perks that others may not have. For one, if I made a mistake, I had an undo button that would recover what I had lost. Many would have to erase or even start over to fix their mistake. Another benefit of using Photoshop was that I can see the bigger picture before even making the final project. This basically means that I could setup a layout for my project first and then fill in the blanks with whatever media I wished to use. This once again can be a nuisance for those who write or draw out a skit, however must erase or trash it due to it not meeting the proper requirements.
I did not run into many constraints while creating this project. I realized with the time I had, I could not create my own images of Trump or Mandela with my graphics tablet, so I had to opt for a more safer and faster method of extracting images off the internet, tweaking them a little bit and placing them into my comic. When it came to speech bubbles, I had them prior to creating this project since I used them for other projects in the past. One problem that I had with the speech bubbles is that I had to be careful where I placed them for they overlapped with the grid of the comic. However, this was later fixed and that no longer presented itself as an issue.
The peer review sessions that we had in class ended up being a crucial element in the completion of my comic. During the peer review time, my partners had given me a very interesting idea of using Trump to portray what is evil in apartheid. I later used that idea to formulate a scenario and scripts in which was later placed within the comic. Alongside the peer review comments that I had received from my partners, the comments that I had received from Professor Martin were also very helpful in wrapping up the project. She gave me inside on how egotistic Trump should be portrayed, so I added that little touch to fulfill that requirement. She had also given me some feedback on the editing portion of my comic, in which I had also fixed. She had told me that my text was hard to read for it interfered with the comic grids and speech bubbles. Rest assured that is no longer an issue.
I believe that my project is ready for public viewing. My audience should be able to articulate the message portrayed throughout this comic and should easily realize was side this comic is on (con apartheid). With the time restraint that I was given, I could have produced a more solid version of this concept, however I believe that all the key points are there. If I were to have the extra time, I would hand draw every character for I feel I could capture the mood a little better as well as the facial expressions. I would also up the quality of the comic for I had to compress the images for it to fit within the blog. However, overall this piece would be used as a gateway to get my audience seeing the bigger picture and would enable my audience to see that racism and segregation is never the answer.
