Representation

 The Good Place is a funny and thoughtful show about the afterlife, where the characters learn about ethics and what it means to be good. Two of the main characters, Eleanor Shellstrop and Chidi Anagonye, help show how people are represented in the show, especially when it comes to their race, gender, and how they behave. While the show breaks some stereotypes, it still uses certain ideas that affect how we see the characters.

Eleanor, a white woman from Arizona, starts off as a stereotype of a selfish, rude, and shallow person. Her character shows what happens when someone cares only about themselves, like the idea of "bad" people in society. But the show challenges this by focusing on Eleanor's growth, showing that people aren’t just good or bad—they can change. This makes us think more about the idea that everyone has good and bad sides, breaking the stereotype.

Chidi, a Black man from Senegal, is very smart but can't make decisions. His character shows a different stereotype often used for Black men, where he's not aggressive or physical but instead a thinker. However, Chidi’s knowledge comes mostly from European philosophy, which makes it seem like his intelligence is tied to Western ideas, even though he's from Africa. This kind of representation can make it feel like his culture isn't as important, which is a subtle way of othering him—making him seem different from the norm.

Other characters in the show, like Tahani Al-Jamil and Jason Mendoza, are also shown through certain stereotypes. Tahani, a British-Pakistani woman, is seen as rich and stuck-up, while Jason, a Filipino-American from Florida, is portrayed as the "dumb guy." Even though they both grow as characters, the show still relies on these exaggerated ideas to introduce them.

Overall, The Good Place does a great job of making us think about morals and character growth, but it also uses some stereotypes and patterns that shape how we see the characters. It encourages us to question not only the choices the characters make but also how they are shown in the show.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4SjP8UmjpA

Sound Project

     For this project, we were assigned to make a 1-2 minute-long soundscape encapturing the sounds of a scenario of our choice. The soundscape had to have no video and we were asked to make 4 sounds using Foley and add those sounds to our project. We had to utilize the sound techniques learned during previous lessons and find sounds using websites that provide sounds for free.

    While brainstorming me and my partner had to think of a scenario that could happen within a minute or two and still be interesting. We decided to make a soundscape of a girl getting out of her car and entering a club. This soundscape had many audio factors including the chatter of people talking, the music from the club, the footsteps of the girl walking and so much more. We made an outline to help us specify which sounds would go where and when. This helped us separate each of the parts and sounds and helped us be organized with each and every sound going into this. To make the soundscape we utilized Adobe Premiere Pro, which I had used before but never for sound. It was fun and interesting to see how versatile Premiere Pro is and learn about how to use it more.

    I honestly think we did really good for this project and utilized many different sound techniques, but the one thing I wish we did differently was actually utilize more sounds and add more depth to the background of the soundscape. I think we managed to add a decent amount of sounds but we didn't make the most interesting soundscape in terms of background noises and action. Overall I think we did very good with this project and I really enjoyed the process of making this soundscape.

https://youtu.be/DMW70D4hu9o