#CCR

#FinalDraft

Well this is it! I'm finally down with my magazine project! I hope you guys enjoyed my experience! I loved blogging this journey with you guys so much I've decided to make my own personal blog! Look out for it! Anyways, thank you so much for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy DownStage magazine!!!😘💜

#PaneraDatePart2

Hello to the people of the Internet! I hope you guys are as great as I am today!

Yesterday, my friend Hannah and I met at Panera Bread for the second time. This time to work on our CCR scripts. Right when school ended (at 2:45 PM) my mom drove us to Panera and we stayed until 6 PM. I feel last time, we worked a little harder, but that was also because we were determined to finish our magazines that time. This time we relaxed a little more, but we still worked diligently. We took time to take a breather, talk to each other about what we are thinking, and even taking a break to eat.

I did get a nice portion my script done, but when I timed myself saying it, it only turned out to be 3 minutes and 12 seconds long! My new plan was to write as much as I could, record myself, then (if necessary) cut down on the necessary blabber in my script. Currently, I have 1,636 words in my script which is almost triple of my original script! That means that right now I have around 9 minutes of my CCR. That is just the amount I need, probably a little more, so I'll probably end up cutting some unnecessary fluff. I can't wait until I share the magazine and CCR with you! Check back tomorrow and it will be here!🎊

#CoverPageTakesTheSpotlight

I'm back and better than ever before!!!

Last night, I asked my sister (who took this class by the way) what her thoughts on my magazine were. She suggested that I change my cover page. I was kind of relieved because my cover page had the least amount of work put in to it. "Least" being a relative term because compared to my other pages, which I spent hours on, I probably spent about 30 minutes total on my cover page. Anyways, this was what I had originally:

My sister suggested I center the title and make it bigger. I took those suggestions into consideration and changed it. Today, however, I asked my teacher what she thought of the changes and showed her the before (seen above) and after shot. My teacher said she agreed with my sister but gave me a whole lot more to do with it and ways to make it even better and here is what I did to it:

I did SO MUCH to it! I moved the sell line, added cover lines, centered the text more, and put Idy in the left third making the picture look more aesthetic. I also made the picture a closeup instead of a mid-shot. This was suggested by my teacher because it allows the audience to connect with the subject more by being able to see more facial expressions. Side note: this was not intended, but my cover line involving makeup rhymes! I was so surprised I did that with out intending to!

And with that, I finished the final draft of my magazine! Now all that's left is to have someone proofread it (I don't want ANY mistakes!) and to record my CCR! I've answered all the questions provided to us by my teacher and I'm on my way to developing a script, but I plan to be recording on Friday! Which means I'll have this project a WHOLE DAY EARLY!!! I'm so proud of all I've done with this project! Even my teacher said at the beginning of this year I wasn't the best, but now I "flying around [the] screen!"

And with that happy note, I'm signing off for now! Bye!💫

#AdvertiSING!!!!

HOWDY EVERYBODY!!!!

I am ECSTATIC today because I finished my advertisement that goes next to my table of contents!!! And with that, I'VE FINISHED MY MAGAZINE!!!! I could literally sing in the middle of class right now!!!

Now you're probably wondering what my ad turned out to be, so here you go:

Before

After

I asked my teacher if I could make up the company of the show and she said that I could. That news relieved me more than it should've because I was scared I'd have to get copyright stuff, and that would have been a struggle and a half! She said I should make it look more like and advertisement by adding a section designated for the text. So I added a black box and put a description of the shoes. Obviously, I also made the company bolder and bigger and added a star logo behind it.

I asked some of my classmates what they thought, because it didn't work well before. I had a vibrant gold star and the text was a dark shade of purple. They told me to make the text brighter and make the company bigger. From that critique, I decided if I brighten the text, I should make the star's color brighter, but not more vibrant. That's how I got the light yellow color.

When I started, I also went to my FAVORITE SITE EVER 1001fonts.com!!! This site has been my #1 throughout this whole project so shoutout to 1001 fonts!!!

So that's it folks! I have the entire magazine done! Now, all I have to do is tweak some things and do my CCR by Saturday! Future posts will be coming!🌠

#PaneraDate

Hey guys! So today one of my best friends, Hannah, and I decided to meet at Panera Bread to finish up our magazines and start our CCRs together! And this was a FANTASTIC idea!!!

We worked for over 3 hours, throwing ideas off each other, helping out spacing issues, and giving our incite on the CCR questions. I also finished my magazine!!! The only thing I have to ask my teacher about is my advertisement that goes next to my table of contents, because I had a few questions about the rules for products. But here's what I have:
It's a simple picture, designed to show the shoes in action with a simple motto and the company.











I also finished the continuation of my double page spread:

It stems from the old question "What are some useful tips you have for aspiring dancers?" I asked Idy in the first interview. But, after some spacing errors, I interviewed Idy again and asked her to go more in depth on this question. That resulted in what you see before you now! I also took that picture in the second photoshoot I did after dance class last Thursday, with some touchups to make the lighting nicer and the overall photo look more professional!


That's all for now! Next time I check in, you'll see my 100% completed magazine!!! Can't wait!!🎉

#GroupSessionPart2

Last Thursday, my class did our final group session, where we gave our final critiques and thoughts on other people's projects. Needless to say, the first group session went 1000x better than this one.

1.) I felt that some people in my group were not/did not give that great of critiques.
2.) Sometimes, I did NOT know how to critique, because for the people that filmed, I felt I couldn't ask them to change a scene because it was getting really close to the deadline of the project. I didn't want them to be stressed out about reshooting, getting the cast together again, and furthermore, editing the film again. I felt bad asking to put them through that trouble again.
3.) We couldn't even critique one kid because they BARELY started their magazine!!! All they had was their cover image...THAT'S IT! No featured article, no table of contents, no double page spread, no pictures, no NOTHING!!!
4.) This is irrelevant but, one kid in my group had the WORST BREATH!!! I feel bad for saying it, but I could not concentrate at ALL!!!

A little rant just happened. I didn't even know I had that in me!

But anyways, I got some decent critiques myself. One HUGE thing one girl in my group told me was that I was able to change the lighting on my photos! I did not know that! I made a whole bunch of my pictures brighter and got rid of the yucky lighting in my dance studio. But, that's the biggest part of my group critiques, just to reshoot and get better pictures. From that, I'm going to assume they loved my magazine!😂

#UpdatedTableOfContents

Quick update everyone! I took the picture involving the stage makeup for my table of contents tonight! I threw that picture into the mix along with my original cover page image and now my table of contents is COMPLETE........almost. I still have to do the ad, but for now here it is:

As you can see, I added the red shadow to the top of the page (requested by my mother, the graphic design major) and changed the line under "Table of Contents" to red instead of black. I also put a faint red border around the pictures to support the red shadow above and give a more soothing image to the eye. I also dded what's called a "drop shadow" to the pictures, which make it seem like there is a spotlight shining on the page. And one last small detail, I put the page number in the bottom left corner. Now, time for the ad!

That's all for now! See ya!🎬

#CritiquingChaos!!!

Hello all! Checking back in with an update on my double page spread!

I, again, FaceTimed my friend Hannah to work on our projects together and give each other critiques on each other's work. I also really enjoyed these FaceTime sessions because even though she is not verbally motivating me, I know that if we weren't talking, and things with my project got difficult, I would just huff and puff and just give up. But, because she was just there, I was able to power-through and get things done! With both my double page spread AND my table of contents!!!

This is what I have so far for my spread:

I'm having trouble with the last question in the first column. I HATE how there is only one line of her answer before it continues to the next column, but I don't know how to fix it!!! I've cut out as much unnecessary information as I can (with the help of Hannah), and I feel like I'm not staying true to Idy's responses if I cut any more! By the way: the empty space on the first page is going to be a picture of Idy, which I am taking this Thursday at dance class.

Update: Today my teacher helped me out A LOT with the problems I've been having! She suggested that I add another page to my double page spread to fix the the column trouble I was having and place the final Q/A on another page. But, instead of a Q/A format, I put it as a list, so I can take up more room with less information. Another thing she said was to edit my cover page. She said the picture had "yucky" lighting and felt disconnected because everyone person featured had their back towards the reader. To fix this I have to reshoot this Thursday at dance class, soI'll have an update on that soon. Another thing she said was that my masthead needed to be bigger. So...I made it bigger! But she also told me it seemed to empty and to add a sell line (which is basically the magazine's motto) beneath it. Here's how that turned out:

I chose this motto because I feel it describes what the title implies; moving downstage means closer to the audience and I'm bringing the news theatre to the audience (the front row)! I also added the red shadow effect to each part of the mast head because I felt that it was too boring without it. Plus, that could a recurring motif in the future editions of my magazine! I also chose to take the old cover image (seen above) and use it as a picture for my table of contents!

My teacher also recommended that I should add an advertisement to go next to my table of contents. I thought that I was only supposed to create a single page one, but turns out it is highly recommended to do a two page spread. My plan is to do an ad for dance shoes or for a type of pain medication such as BioFreeze or something. So, yea, I have that to look forward to!

Summary of today: Realized I need to reshoot for my cover page and double page spread, changed the masthead of the cover page and added the red shadow to everything, obtained one picture for the table of contents, realized I need to add another page to my double page spread's article to fit the point that ties the article together, and need to create an advertisement to go next to the table of contents. Overall feeling: Pressured. This project is due in less than two weeks. TWO!!! Not to mention my CCR needs to be done soon! Wish me luck everyone and thanks for sticking with me and this HUGE blog post!!!😰