Fashion Magazine Project Plan

Project Title: Mackenzie Gross

Teacher: Mr. Gallagher

Grade: 11th

Subject: Music Technology

Summarize the theme for this project. Why do this project?

The theme for this project is Fashion. I am doing this project so I can create a magazine and use media in a different way, from how I used it making music.

Identify the content standard that students will learn in this project.

Students would learn about Twitter, Weebly, and various media sources to be inspired by. For the magazine portion different layouts will have to be looked out.

Identify key skills students will learn in this project. List only those skills you plan to asses.

Skills needed will be working on layout design, photography, researching, writing, and reading. Also, analyzing other magazine works to figure out what is popular and what appeals to the reader.

Identify the habits used

-Reading

-Writing

-Photography

-Journalism

-Layout

State the essential question or problem statement for the project.

What appeals most to young readers, who actually want to buy the various fashions?

Plan Overview

Early in the project	Figure out layout- Such as pages, picture location, columns, articles and more.
During Project	Write articles and take pictures, then transfer hard copy to being online.
End of Project	Have a magazine draft that I could share with the class and receive feedback before publishing
Product	Fashion Magazine

Timeline

Week one - March - Friday 14th -  Study various fashion magazine layouts

Week two - March - Friday 21st – Complete a layout design

Week three - April - Friday - 4th – Figure out article topics

Week four - April - Friday 11th – Figure out logistics of articles such as how much space, and how long will they take to write.

Week five - April - Friday 25th – Figure out photos that would make sense for the magazine (Ask journalism class if they have an interest in writing an article, see if anyone else would be interested)

Week six - May – Friday 2nd – Write two articles and practice taking artistic photos

Week seven - May – Friday 9th – Write two articles

Week eight - May – Friday 16th – Write two articles

Week nine - May – Friday 23rd – Take pictures that relate to article topics

Week ten - May – Friday 30th – Write two articles

Week eleven - June – Friday 6th – Have a rough draft ready to present

Week twelve - June – Friday 13th -  Present rough draft and then upload online

Project Rubric

	Project Earns a One	Project Earns a Two	Project Earns a Three	Project Earns a Four
Weekly Progress	No progress has been shown to complete the timeline schedule.	Little progress has been done but the quality of the work appears rushed or not well thought out.	Most of the time line requirements have been completed but there is room for improvements.	Completes the timeline requirements and shows well throughout work and progress from the previous week.
Layout Design	Illogical layout that is not readable or logical.	Attempt at a layout but does not fully  understand the layout process yet.	The layout has been thoroughly attempted but there is still room for improvement.	Layout is well throughout and is understandable.
Photography Skills	No pictures are provided.	Blurry, red eye, or pictures unrelated to the magazine were taken.	Pictures have been taken but they have not been taken from an artistic angle nor have a distinctive meaning.	Quality pictures are evident that speak for themselves.
Quality of Articles	Little to nothing written.	Article has been written but grammar, punctuation, and spelling are atrocious.	A throughout article has been written but there is nothing that makes it special or personable (just the facts).	Article reflects personality and full understanding of the topic.

Steal It!!

                I am doing a fashion magazine and all fashion is basically stolen. Let’s be honest there is only so many ways threads can be cut. Therefore, even the runway fashions are stolen from previous trends. That is of course one of the biggest draw backs of fashion because it is so hard to come up with a piece that is unique and does not mimic a previous trend. But then again this can be very helpful for designers because there is so much to be inspired by when creating their own line.

            Therefore, I decided to focus on the Autumn/Winter Runway in Milan last fall. All the designers had incredible designs but the designer I decided to focus on is Elie Sabb. Her pieces, mainly dresses and pantsuits were all red, white, or black. In order to really steal these trends I decided to sketch my own outfits based on her line. I am changing the cut of the fabric but I am stealing the fabric designs. This line had incredible fabrics and every single fabric had some kind of sparkle which I absolutely love! Something about glitter goes hand and hand with glamour; which really made this line stand out to me. Of course I could not redesign all of the outfits (for there are 48 of them). Therefore, I choose to take the fabric from five and redesign the outfit.

You can check out her line at - http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/autumn-winter-2013/couture/elie-saab
The five I decided to steal are below, except I changed the design but kept the fabrics the same  (some fabric colors may differ from the actual ones on vogue but that is because I did not have those colors).

Figuring Out The Website

Square Space - The templates are beautiful, but they cost money.
Wiki Sites - Is really plain but is free. 
Word Press - There are a lot of different templates to choose from but you have to download the templates you want them.
Wix - There are really nice templates here that are easy to use.
Google Sites - Is very basic and user friendly. The templates are bland and there are not a lot of options.
Weebly - I like weebly I just think it is more blog oriented.

- The ones I liked the best are Square space and Word Press but unfortunately those two cost money and since I do not know how long I will need the website I am not going to pay. But the next best website is Wix which has tones of templates, one that caught my eye was the fashion template which I will use for a domain for a fashion magazine. I have started working with this domain and it is really great, all I have to do is double click on something to edit it. My site address is as follows...
http://megross97.wix.com/the-encour

Right now you are not going to be able to see my website because it is not published yet, and I do not want to publish it until it is finished. But below is a paragraph I have taken from my website to let you know what it is about. Right now I am not definat on my name The Encore but for now that is what I am sticking with. Encore is defined as a repeated or additional performance of an item at the end of a concert, as called for by an audience. Personally, I think that is what fashion is like, trends go in and out but they usually always get called back for an encore sometime or another. Also, I like the associations the word has to music too. I have linked facebook to my Wix as well, but have not been able to link Blogger.

The Encore Envision 

 Tired of looking at magazines where everything is a bizzion dollars? Look no more this magazine will show you fashionable items and trends at a price that does not want to make you scream.

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This magazine is geared toward tweens and teens to show them you do not have to be decked out in designers to be fashionable. This magazine will feature various brands suitable for teenagers. The brands featured will not all be the run of the mill designers such as American Eagle and Hollister this magazine will promote various upcoming designers and or brands.
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Although, fashion is oh so important it is not the only aspect on a teenage mind so are celebrities, movies, and music. All of these categories will also be featured in the magazine too.

Popplet Plan

My essential question is how long will each step to my Popplet plan take? This time around for my project plan I will not be setting a time limit on each, because last time I could not follow the times. Also, another question I have is how long will it take to make a good music video. Check out my plan at ------My Popplet Plan

Semester 3

Three Twitter accounts I am following are The New York Times, Vogue Magazine, and Billboard Magazine. The biggest problem I have with Twitter is that you can se a whole bunch of random comments, whereas I like to see articles.

In Feddly I have added similar feed such as MTV News, New York Times Fashion and Style, and Rolling Stone. I really liked Feedly but I don't like that you can't post, like you can on Twitter. But I LOVE the fact that you can see articles.

On Delicious I added articles that I found interesting. 

• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/fashion/Shopping-Fashion-Super-Bowl-New-York-City.html?rref=fashion&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Fashion%20%26%20Style&pgtype=article - This is all about how to dress for the superbowl, I thought this was so funny because who would have thought there is clothing especially designed for the Superbowl.
• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/fashion/and-the-grammy-goers-go-to-parties.html?rref=fashion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Fashion%20%26%20Style&pgtype=article - This was interesting because the Grammy's is just the begging of the night for most the artists.
• http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/rutgers-university-offers-beyonce-class-20140129 - This is soo cool that they offered her a job, this alone could increase their application rates, which would be great for the college. 

Reflection

Originally I said I would have six songs recorded and up onto YouTube. In reality I decided not to use YouTube because it was alot of extra work that I did not realize. For instance, I would first have to record all of the instruments and then rerecord using YouTube. Instead I decided to upload all the songs I did onto Soundcloud, this way I only would have to record once using Logic Pro X. This gave me more time to experiment with Logic. 
Another thing I learned about my project was my original timeline was WAY off. At the beginning of my project I predicted I would do six songs! When in reality I only did two. But granted I had to work quite a bit on the KickStarter Project, which took away time from the project. Also, when I created my timeline I created it so I had no extra time which was not very smart because if I needed more time I would run into the next project. Therefore, I think in order to have enough time it is better to give more time than less. If i were to do this project again I would give 3 weeks per song just because it really is a lot of work.
Not only was my timeline too constricting I also ran into quite a few other unforeseen problems. For instance, when I did a cover of A Life That's Good I had to take multiple recordings of the guitar because in order for me to sing it needed to be realitilvly similar to the original version. For instance, the first time Aric recorded the guitar part it was not matched up with the metronome and was not in the right key. Therefore, when I went to sing it was too low and I could not use the metronome because it would not match up. Then when we recorded the second time he still didn't use the metronome but, he was in the right key so I was able to sing it. If it was lined up with the metronome the song would have been better,just because it all would have matched up and been clean cut.
Furthermore, another problem I had was with my original song, Darkness which for whatever reason I could not sing in the right key. Therefore, Mr. Gallagher had to add a melody part to help me stay on key which took me a while to get used to. This was very frustrating because it was my song I could not remember. Honestly if I still had a recording from last year I would have taken that voice recording and droped it into Logic because it would have been better.
I actually tried to do a third song but I could not finish it for the project. I thought I would be able to but, I ran into another unforeseen problem. The song I was working on was Follow Your Arrow and I asked our chorus teacher to play the piano for me and she did. But I believe using the metronome messed her up because she is not used to playing with one and it is hard to get used to. Therefore, sometimes the music was matched with the metronome and other times it wasn't. Another aspect of the song I did not realize was that it did not have a melody, therefore I really had to know the song. But when I went to record it there were errors that prevented me from being able to sing it all the way through. Therefore, I would have needed another recording and I did not have time to get one and record my voice. 
The biggest problem I faced was having to rely on other people to play all the instruments I did not know. I am greatly appreciative to all those who helped me out but it is difficult to be reliant on someone else, because that means you have to find time to meet, and give them a while to learn the song, and originally I did not anticipate that into my timeline.
Although I had a lot of problems with my project plan, I did learn a lot. For instance, I learned how to navigate Logic Pro X which took me a while. But I now know how to create various tracks and hookup the mo2 and microphones to Logic. Also, I learned how to quantize which became very helpful, I worked a little with layering, and learned how to edit the work I did. There are amazing tools Logic allows users to use which makes recording a lot easier. My favorite tool on Logic was being able to loop and cut out parts I did not need, these tools were VERY helpful and I could not have recorded without them. A really big thing I learned,as I said before is giving yourself enough time to record, because it really is quality over quantity, which took me a while to realize. At first when I did this project I wanted to do a whole bunch of songs but ending the project, I wish I could have finished one more song, other than that though I feel good about this project.
Overall, I think this class was more productive than last years songwriting class, but one of the drawbacks was the class size. Last year we got a lot more individual attention and since we have more classmates we got less (which is to be expected). Also, only having one room to record in was difficult because you had to sign it out in advance and it was usually taken, therefore a lot of us had to come in at other times. We probably could use a few more computers just so everyone can use one, but other than that this semester went pretty well. It was interesting seeing all the different projects that people made.
Lastly, you can check out my recordings below! 

Updated Timeline/Project Plan

Project Title: Mackenzie Gross

Teacher: Mr. Gallagher

Grade: 11th

Subject: Music Technology

Summarize the theme for this project. Why do this project?

The original theme for this project is to get my voice out there, on the web. I originally said I would post videos on YouTube but instead I used soundcloud.

Identify the content standard that students will learn in this project.

I originally said I would use YouTube and Logic Pro , but I ended up only using Logic Pro because due to lack of time it was too difficult to upload the videos. Also, I figured out the quality of recording straight into YouTube is not as good as Logic, because with Logic you can touch up the sound quality and in YouTube you cannot.

Identify key skills students will learn in this project. List only those skills you plan to asses.

I thought I would learn and tamper around with other instruments. But instead I ended up just having other people play for me because quite frankly it was easier. Also, I did not have the time to learn an instrument and learn how to compose on it, I am pretty sure that would take years.

Identify the habbits used

-Logic Pro X

-Soundcloud

-iMac Navigation

State the essential question or problem statement for the project.

The original statement: The goal of this project is to make an account on Youtube and do covers and original songs on one account so I can always have them. I also like the concept of having music out there anyone can click on.

Revised Statement: My goal is to have my music accessible for download via soundcloud. I originally thought I would use Youtube to broadcast I figured out it was a lot of work that I did not have time to do. Hopefully, there will come a time where I do broadcast on Youtube because it really is a great tool.

	Originally Thought	What I Actually Did
Early in the project	Create Youtube Account Figure out songs	I did create a YouTube account and I created a soundcloud account. I came up with some songs I would like to do in the beginning. But later on in the project I changed them.
During Project	Record using iMacs and Logic	I recorded using both the iMacs and Logic.
End of Project	have four full videos on Youtube	I have recordings but did not put them on Youtube instead I am putting them on sound cloud
Product #1	Record: A Life That’s Good Criteria: Record vocals and get Aric to play guitar	I did this!
Product #2	Record: Bones Criteria: Record vocals and figure out who can play the instruments.	I am recording a different song known as Follow Your Arrow.
Product #3	Record: Flicker Criteria: Re-record vocals and have Mr. Gallagher play the piano.	I did this!
Product #4	Record: New Material Criteria: Record vocals get Mr. Gallagher to play the piano, Peter to play the bass, and Kate to play the drums.Then record all onto Logic Pro X.	I am doing another song but it is not original it is a cover.
	Knowledge and Skills Needed: Vocals - Learn Material Logic Pro X - Learn to manuver YouTube - Make account and record music Piano - Learn more than I did before.	I learned the vocals, and I learned to maneuver Logic Pro X better. I did not use YouTube but I know how to upload videos. Honestly I did not learn anything about piano.

Timeline

Original Timeline	Actual Timeline
Tuesday 5th - Have A Life That’s Good up on YouTube. This includes learning the song and having Aric learn how to play it too this will take three days. I will record it using YouTube in two days.	November 22 Had finished recording a Life That’s Good. Aric and I recorded using Logic Pro X.
Friday 15th - Have Bones uploaded on YouTube. This includes figuring out the instruments I will need layed and finding players this will take at least four days. Also, I will have to leant the song and record on Logic Pro X this will take 5 days.	December 18 Had a recording of original Song Flicker recorded using Logic.
Friday 22nd - Have Flicker posted, This includes having Mr. Gallagher remember and play the piano and record the vocals via YouTube. This will take a few days and putting it on soundcloud will take one.	January 6th I started working on Follow Your Arrow
December 6th - Jave new material on YouTube . I need to finish wirting the song and work with Mr. Gallagher to write the piano portion. Writing the song will take a week and then writing the piano portion will take four days. Then it will be recorded in one day on YouTube. Also, I would like to put it in Sound Cloud, which will take one day.	By January 17th I hope to have another song recorded and posted to soundcloud.
January 20th - Have Can’t Help Falling in Love online. Have Anna play the song on the piano and I sing along and record on youtube. I know the song therefore, Anna will need to learn it and that will probably take her a week. Then it will take a few days to record it.
January 26th - Have love love love online. Have Aric learn to play the song on guitar. It will take a week for us to do this and then upload it.