Print Component:

Video Component: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yKRhSnFbbEDFED3PYF-pXjN4UtL-xPDJ?usp=sharing

Digital Component: 

https://www.instagram.com/top7doc/

Interview ft. Me

    Last part of my print component is the interview section with the directo, i.e me jeje. I'm doing three questions and answers, this wouldn't have been the whole interview realistically, but they were the most important and interesting part included. 

    Q1: What inspired you to film a docuseries on the Cypress Bay DECA Top 7?

    A: Well, I was an executive officer myself, and I witnessed first-hand all the effort that the team, especially the top officers put into making sure the chapter succeeded. I thought that work deserved more recognition, so that's how the idea was born. 

    Q2: Guide us through your creative process. 

    A: When it comes to filming documentaries, I believe in letting passion take the wheel, always. Allowing the subjects stories guide the plot and really engaging with them. I hate stiff and forced interviews, so I try to make them more conversational, coming up with questions on the spot based on the interviewees answers and letting them guide the conversational floor and open up. 

    Q3: Who was your favorite subject, or subjects, to work with. 

    A: I can't possibly pick just one, they were all lovely to work with and incredible people. I would say that my favorite episode to film was Valen's (Valentina Lorenzo) because she's super funny and real, I couldn't stop laughing during the interview. 

    Now my print component is done! It's likely that I may change some things here and there since I can never truly be satisfied, but here it is: 

CR - Critical Reflection

    Our teacher provided us with a sample of a past CCR with annotations showing where in the essay the student was answering the four different questions the we must discuss in our essay. 

So I thought it'd be a good idea to kinda do an outline of the points I wish to hit in my essay/ how I plan to answer the questions.

How do your products represent social groups or issues? 

- Represent the ants/ the background workers in a club who do a lot and gain very little back

- It's a small, highly specific group of people, but they can apply to many others experiences 

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?

- Same official DECA font all throughout 

- Blue color 

- Logo (diamonds)

How do your products engage with the audience?

- Instagram is popular with young target audience, but has large reach to other audiences as well

- Picked Insta for use of still images and videos (reels)

- Magazine spread being bright with many images and "less" writing, eye catching and less boring to read 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

-  Mostly follow conventions, the people's stories/experiences and the meaning is what I want to really stick out 

- Voice Over, intro sequence, interviews with b-roll, background music 

Magazine Write-Up

This is the writing I will have in my magazine spread: 

DECA is an international organization that teaches business, finance, marketing and hospitality to high school and college students around the globe. These students can compete at the national and international level during annual conferences (CDC and ICDC). Cypress Bay High School in particular boasts the largest DECA chapter in the entire world, with over 1,000 members. 

Within the Cypress Bay DECA chapter there exists an executive council, or ExCo for short. This is the student-lead team in charge of planning the clubs events, fundraisers, workshops, etc. The team consists of various executive officers and 7 supervisors, aka Top 7. There are 2 co-presidents, 4 Vice Presidents, including vp of finance, competition, communication, and DLC (DECA Leadership Council), plus a Manager of Chapter Assets. 

This docu series seeks to shed light on these often overlooked and underappreciated student who work extremely hard to make their DECA chapter the best it can be. They pour their heart and Somali into a job that gives very little in return, without pay and little gratitude. 

One big concern of Top 7 is the future of the chapter, always. Since most of them are seniors who will need to leave the chapter in someone else hands, most of them take on an assistant that they wish to train to take over their position. The image above shows Dani Mandelbaum the vp of finance (left) working alongside her assistant Manuela (right), who will be taking over the position next year. 

That process of taking underclassmen under their wings and teaching them is one of the core practice of DECA. It not only happens within the officer team, but within competition as well. It is a collective experience of people who really truly care about this chapter and wish to continue the legacy and see the chapter flourish even after they graduate. This docuseries wishes to pay it forward as well by showing this side of DECA.

Print Component Final Design

    This is the final design/layout for my print component, the 2 page magazine spread. Now I just have to do the actual writing that will be on it and it'll be done. 

Here are some cool/important features that I included:

- Page numbers 19 and 20

- A header saying "Up-and-Coming in Film," which is meant to be like a recurring column in the magazine that shows new film projects that are quickly gaining popularity

- A Q&A section with the director of the docu series (me) to break up the rest of the blocks of text 

- Various pictures of Top 7 in action and the Cypress Bay DECA chapter in general

- The font I used for the titles is pretty boring by itself (I chose it because it is the official DECA font - Gotham) so I made different words blue as an accent color that sticks out but matches the rest of the spread 

- Very clearly blue themed which is the main color that represents DECA as an organization

Top 7 Website

    I decided on using Webador for my official website. This is what it's looking like so far... Once published, I will be linking it on the Top 7 Instagram. I have it so that multiple pictures are shown right at the beginning, I think adding that visual interest and intractability is a nice touch. I want to add the official logo somewhere, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. 

    So far, Webador has been very user friendly however. It's pretty simple and easy to use. 

The Sound

    So I'm in the process of figuring out the background music to put in my documentary excerpt. I learned from the documentary project we did in class, that some soft, royalty free, non-diegetic, background music really makes the difference in a documentary that would otherwise feel kinda empty without it. 

    I know I want to make it upbeat, but still soft so that its not too distracting. So I hit Youtube. And I found this video by the account Music & Gene that has many different option for great upbeat music right in the same video. This poses a bit of a problem because I am incredibly indecisive but it really does have some very good options. 

    I think so far my favorite is the one called "Happy," i think it's the most perfect mix of soft and still energized that I'm looking for but we'll see. Considering my excerpt has three different sections I may end up using more than one of the soundtracks. 

    Here is the link to the full video: 

https://youtu.be/DC7Y6sC7Ae4