{"id":23026,"date":"2025-06-29T12:57:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/?p=23026"},"modified":"2025-06-29T12:57:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T16:57:05","slug":"task-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/task-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Task 9: Break a story cliche with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 .5em 1em; width: 50%;\" src=\"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/dog_fire_this_is_great_alternative_meme-1024x599.png\" alt=\"Alternative universe version of the dog in a room on fire meme\" \/>As with <a href=\"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/task-8\">Task 8<\/a>, you will imagine a scene or plot that breaks a storytelling clich\u00e9, then make a storyboard that illustrates it. Like the other AI tasks you&#8217;ll use AI to get some input or content, but you&#8217;ll also be graded on how you analyze and critique the output of the AI.<\/p>\n<h3>Background<\/h3>\n<p>In programming Task 7, you spent time incrementally prodding the AI to get to a desired game avatar. It can be hard to see the results of incremental prompting as clearly when asking for a storyboard, but this assignments asks to prompt AI repeatedly to improve your storyboard idea, text, and images. You&#8217;ll also need to use both text and image generators.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83e\udd16\u2705 You must use AI for this assignment.<\/p>\n<h3>Process<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Choose a clich\u00e9 from a list of <a href=\"https:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/NarrativeTropes\">Narrative Tropes<\/a> and pair it with a game, movie, book, or other story that leans on it. Remember, not all tropes are clich\u00e9s, only those that are boring or overused.<\/li>\n<li>At the class website, start a new post and entitle it something like<em> Task 9:Mary Gonzalez Pat Smith Sandy Park<\/em>.\u00a0 \u26a0\ufe0f Please add the names <em>before<\/em> clicking the Save Draft or Publish button so they will show up in the post stub.<\/li>\n<li>At the top of the post, type the heading &#8220;Featured clich\u00e9:&#8221; and add the name of the clich\u00e9 you chose and a description pasted from <a href=\"https:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/NarrativeTropes\">Narrative Tropes<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Under this, add a new heading called &#8220;Breaking the clich\u00e9&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Drawing on the reading for this week, write a logline for a story of your own design.<\/li>\n<li>After the logline, write one or more paragraphs to serve as the profile for one or more characters of your story.<\/li>\n<li>After the character profile\/s, add a sentence or two explaining how your story would surprise the reader by departing from the conventional trope (clich\u00e9).Now use the class AI text generator in some way, eg to critique your own ideas, brainstorm new ideas, or push even further beyond a cliche. (See the FAQ for more on what is and isn&#8217;t allowed.)<\/li>\n<li>Add a heading for &#8220;Storyboard&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>In a separate text-to-image generator such as <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leonardo.ai\/image-generation\">Leonardo.ai<\/a>, create at least three images to represent different characters or moments of the story (see the FAQ for a sample prompt). \u26a0\ufe0f Even using the techniques shown in class, you may find it difficult to achieve consistent character design. Do your best to generate a lot of images until you get at least three you can sequence into a coherent storyboard.<\/li>\n<li>Click on Add Media and upload these to the website. (Do not insert them into the post yet.)<\/li>\n<li>Back in your post, choose the Text tab and paste the following HTML template at the bottom (continue the pattern to add more than three images):<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div style=\"background-color: paleturquoise; font-family: courier; border-radius: .5em; padding: 1em;\">\n<pre>&lt;table&gt;\r\n\t&lt;tbody&gt;\r\n\t\t&lt;tr&gt;\r\n\t\t\t&lt;td&gt;Description&lt;\/td&gt;\r\n\t\t\t&lt;td&gt;[image]&lt;\/td&gt;\r\n\t\t&lt;\/tr&gt;\r\n\t\t&lt;tr&gt;\r\n\t\t\t&lt;td&gt;Description&lt;\/td&gt;\r\n\t\t\t&lt;td&gt;[image]&lt;\/td&gt;\r\n\t\t&lt;\/tr&gt;\r\n\t\t&lt;tr&gt;\r\n\t\t\t&lt;td&gt;Description&lt;\/td&gt;\r\n\t\t\t&lt;td&gt;[image]&lt;\/td&gt;\r\n\t\t&lt;\/tr&gt;\r\n\t&lt;\/tbody&gt;\r\n&lt;\/table&gt;<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<ol start=\"12\">\n<li>Back in the Visual tab, select the word &#8220;image&#8221; only (not the brackets) and click Add Media.<\/li>\n<li>After choosing an image, make sure Align Left and Medium or Large are selected, then Insert into Post.<\/li>\n<li>Replace each of the descriptions with actual text that explains in detail what happens at each moment.<\/li>\n<li>Select and delete the brackets <tt>[]<\/tt> afterward. \u26a0\ufe0f Be careful not to delete the image by accident. You may want to find and delete the brackets in the Text tab.<\/li>\n<li>Add a &#8220;AI Dialogue&#8221; heading and underneath give examples of how you repeatedly prompted the chatbot and image generator to get better results.<\/li>\n<li>Add a new heading called &#8220;Credits&#8221; and underneath explain the role each teammate played in producing the storyboard, from brainstorming to writing to creating images.<\/li>\n<li>Select the category &#8220;Task 9&#8221; and publish your post to WordPress.<\/li>\n<li>Complete the <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/yqwKXPBW5kxxFcR57\">feedback survey<\/a> to get credit for this assignment.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\ud83d\udc68\u200d\ud83d\udc69\u200d\ud83d\udc67\u200d\ud83d\udc66 Your team can add a single Post for this task, as long as you add everyone&#8217;s name to the title, eg &#8220;Task 10: Mary Gonzalez Pat Chen Sandy Berkowitz&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h3>FAQ<\/h3>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">What&#8217;s the grading rubric?<\/summary>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You explained the original cliche: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You wrote a logline: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You wrote one or more character profiles: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You explained how your story deviates from the cliche: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You created at least three images that fit your storyboard: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You explained your back-and-forth process with the text and\/or image generators: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You used the HTML template to create a two-column layout: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You cited the responsibilities each teammate had: from 0 to +1 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You were especially creative or thoughtful: from 0 to +3 points<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">You were late: from 0 to -3 points, with one point off per week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your grade is the total of all points times 10, for a possible maximum of 100%.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">Do I have to work in the same team as last time?<\/summary>\n<p>Yes, because it will help you compare the non-AI and AI versions of this task. If you have a logistic or personal problem with that, check with one of your instructors.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">Do I have to use the same cliche as last time?<\/summary>\n<p>No, but it will make a more interesting comparison if you do. Who was more successful at writing a compelling story that broke the cliche: your team alone, or your team with AI?<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">Can I use a cliche that isn&#8217;t on the Narrative Tropes list?<\/summary>\n<p>Sure! Just remember that your cliche should be a narrative pattern that is overused in stories or games. Your job in this assignment will be to explain the cliche clearly and break this expectation in your story.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">I&#8217;m confused about what I&#8217;m allowed to write with AI versus what I&#8217;m not.<\/summary>\n<p><strong>Allowed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2705 Paste in some of the components of your story (like protagonist and goal) and ask AI to generate 5 possible loglines.<br \/>\n\u2705 Paste in your paragraph from step TK above and ask for a critique.<br \/>\n\u2705 Paste in the logline for an existing story that fits your chosen cliche, and ask AI to produce a logline that breaks that cliche.<br \/>\n\u2705 Draft your own storyboard and ask for a critique.<br \/>\n\u2705 Push the AI to generate a plot whose premise or twists goes well beyond the norm.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Not allowed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u274c Ask the AI to write the entire storyboard in one (zero-shot) prompt.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, you could use AI to brainstorm ideas, critique your own work, or critique its own ideas. But you&#8217;re not allowed to take ideas given by the AI at face value as the sole contributor. If you feel like there was an AI output that you were unable to find fault or areas to improve, mention as much when showing your critiques.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">What&#8217;s a sample prompt I could use to improve the text?<\/summary>\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve decided the kind of feedback you want, you can type something like this:<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; background-color: darkslategray; font-family: courier; font-size: .8em; color: white; margin-left: 2em; padding: .5em 1em; border-radius: .5em; border: aquamarine solid 1px; line-height: 1.4em;\">\ud83d\udccc <span style=\"background-color: maroon;\">Acting as a seasoned scriptwriter who has written numerous award-winning stories,<\/span> <span style=\"background-color: orangered;\">brainstorm ideas for ________ \/ write a character profile for ________ \/ write a scene list for _________ \/ write a critique of _________<\/span>. The eventual goal is to pitch a cliche-breaking storyboard to <span style=\"background-color: goldenrod;\">Hollywood\/Game Company X<\/span> hoping for a <span style=\"background-color: seagreen;\">career as a professional photographer.<\/span> Evaluate the writing according to the level of creativity required to be nominated for a <span style=\"background-color: royalblue;\">Oscar\/IGF<\/span> award. Please cite <span style=\"background-color: darkorchid;\">aspects that are working as well as aspects that could be improved.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">Can I start from my own story rather than modify an existing one?<\/summary>\n<p>As with the previous task, you are welcome to prompt AI to generate a non-stereotypical story based on your own . Just remember that you still need to cite the cliche you are breaking.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">What&#8217;s a sample prompt I could use to generate images?<\/summary>\n<p>Once you&#8217;ve decided the kind of imagery you want, you can type something like this:<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; background-color: darkslategray; font-family: courier; font-size: .8em; color: white; margin-left: 2em; padding: .5em 1em; border-radius: .5em; border: aquamarine solid 1px; line-height: 1.4em;\">\ud83d\udccc A <span style=\"background-color: maroon;\">film still\/cartoon panel\/line drawing<\/span> of <span style=\"background-color: orangered;\">[insert character profile or scene description]<\/span>. <span style=\"background-color: goldenrod;\">The character\/scene should include [insert desired details]<\/span> and be in the style of <span style=\"background-color: seagreen;\">film grain\/anime\/children&#8217;s book illustration<\/span>. The character\/scene should be captured in <span style=\"background-color: royalblue;\">[insert photographic keywords]<\/span>.<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">Can I start from my own image rather than generate one with a prompt?<\/summary>\n<p>Advanced users can upload an existing image to an AI site use as a stylistic or compositional reference, but you must still generate new images with AI.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">What are some photographic keywords I can use to specify the shot I want?<\/summary>\n<p>You&#8217;ll find these in the Vocabulary tab of our Class Sheet (and the last quiz). Here&#8217;s a useful summary of shot types from the Futurepedia viewing for this week:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28535\" src=\"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ai_shot_types_futurepedia-1024x672.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ai_shot_types_futurepedia-1024x672.png 1024w, https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ai_shot_types_futurepedia-300x197.png 300w, https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ai_shot_types_futurepedia-768x504.png 768w, https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ai_shot_types_futurepedia-1536x1009.png 1536w, https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/ai_shot_types_futurepedia-2048x1345.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">I can&#8217;t get the HTML template to work.<\/summary>\n<p>You probably just copied something in the wrong place. If you can&#8217;t find the bug in the Text tab, publish your Task and post the URL to <em>#troubleshooting<\/em>, and your instructor will try to debug the code for you. (You can click <strong>Update<\/strong> once you&#8217;ve corrected the problem.)<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">One of my teammates did nothing!<\/summary>\n<p>Then just give credit for those teammates that did substantial work on the Task.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<details style=\"border: silver dotted 1px; margin: 0 0 1em 0; padding: 0 1em 0 1em; border-radius: 1em;\">\n<summary style=\"font-size: 1.25rem; color: #0c598e; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.7;\">Can I see a model answer?<\/summary>\n<p>Here is a sample A+ assignment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/task-9-exemplar-deceased-parents\/\">Harry Potter but his parents are alive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your story, images, and use of AI may be quite different and still get a good grade if you follow the rubric.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As with Task 8, you will imagine a scene or plot that breaks a storytelling clich\u00e9, then make a storyboard that illustrates it. Like the other AI tasks you&#8217;ll use AI to get some input or content, but you&#8217;ll also be graded on how you analyze and critique the output of the AI. Background In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,42,32],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-23026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-54","category-task-9","category-tasks","tag-tasks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23026"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28536,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23026\/revisions\/28536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umainenewmedia.net\/nmd100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}