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

Print Component... Start!

     I think it's about time to start my print component... I'm doing a 2 page magazine spread. As I mentioned before, a big focus of mine is the aesthetic of it since I think it would be more successful in attracting my viewers and catching their little short-attention span eyes. So I'm using Canva obviously, it's the only answer in this situation. 

    I started with a template so I had a guide to start with and Canva has some really pretty templates so it's perfect for the job. I'm focusing on the design first, the layout and spacing, and then the content (writing and pictures). That may be the wrong way to do it, but it's the way that works for me, I'm a visual person so...

    This is what it's looking like so far: 

    This is by no means the final version! I'm still thinking of different colors to use, I want to make the title less boring, and I'm also thinking of adding a heading at the top that would make it like a recurring column of the magazine called "Up-and-coming Film" or something like that. So far I think its a healthy balance of images, which I have to make sure are captivating, and writing. I also love the idea of having a little interview section, perhaps with the director, and making it little bullet points of question and answer to break up the monotony of the blocks of writing. 

I Want a Website

    So.... It may not be necessary, but it is to me, I wanna make a website for my documentary. To justify it, I feel like many other productions make websites, and I would hypothetically plan to sell merch like stickers and maybe a shirt or hoodie with a funny/iconic quote from the docuseries. A website is also good to gain attention and be able to link to other resources so people may familiarize themselves with DECA and maybe want to join the organization. 

    I've built a website before and I used Wix, but I wasn't a big fan of it. So I'm looking for a new free tool I can use to make a great website. I stumbled across some articles and watched some Youtube videos as well. I ended up liking 2 websites, Webador and Webnode. I will try both of them out, look at their templates, and see which one I like better. So far I'm preferring Webador, its simplistic but effective looking. 

These are the articles:

https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/best-drag-drop-website-builders-no-coding-required/?gclid=CjwKCAjwoIqhBhAGEiwArXT7K6KbXf9t-g9Jxk54mS6cgJnOUjpkVQzQqKLn0uLGfYybH4zf2iiyyRoCekkQAvD_BwE

(I especially liked this article because it had a big chart at then end that showed if the tool offered free plans and some of their best features. It also individually states how many templates each tool had. Overall easy to read and very informational.)

https://www.top10.com/website-builders/free-comparison?utm_source=google&kw=website%20free%20online&c=593522594384&t=search&p=&m=e&adpos=&dev=m&devmod=&mobval=1&network=g&campaignid=16949362712&groupid=135121126705&targetid=kwd-23660351868&interest=&physical=9011990&feedid=&a=M220919&ts=&topic=free&utm_campaign=&nodeID=&test=google_us_broad_free_free&clicktype=&gclid=CjwKCAjwoIqhBhAGEiwArXT7K3fjE2LG2EtQappnA7v53fybR0vQY_2iC0plwzJ8Xvqq6k16WKhehRoC9XYQAvD_BwE

This is a useful and short Youtube video I found by TechGumbo:

https://youtu.be/v8hXtgY0KCI

New Editing Tool

    Being like every other teenager my age and really person in my generation, I have Tik Tok. I also have just a very teeny tiny addiction to it. However, despite what some adults think, I think Tik Tok can be useful and teach me a lot, and this is a prime example. I found a new editing tool I'm really excited to play around with!!!

    It's called CapCut and I'm not entirely sure what it is or how it works yet, but I'm sure I can find tutorials. So many people use it to make edits on Tik Tok and people are making some really cool and good-looking stuff on it. So I want to take a stab at it.

    I think it will be especially useful for the teasers I will be posting on my insta since they need to be short and appealing. My main excerpt is still gonna be primarily Premiere Pro (my love I have not abandoned you I promise). It looks super user friendly and I think I can slay.