Rachel Zofcin - Senior Project

First Entry: Beginning Process.

Project Proposal:

     The goals for this week and the next are to get into contact with the school and find out what they need sent over for them and the students. I need to decide if I"m going to do a benefit including a silent auction of art work from students at Ross, students from the circus school, artists around Long Island and anyone else who wishes to donate there art to the benefit. 

    I need to begin some detailed research about the circus school, in the process finding out if it is a non-profit organization. I'm going to find out who funds this school and  the situation of the families around the school.      

     My main problem is not having a "tangible" goal, which I will be working on this week to discover.Another goal I will be researching will be the possibility of bring a student or more over from the school over to Ross for a learning exchange program. It would be a dream of the project if to in the spring have these children here and perform something along the lines of a choreographed dance, combining Moroccan and American dance. This would be a tangible goal that the money raised through the fundraiser could be used for. 

    I plan to contact Mark Frankel, the Development office, and any other parts of the Ross Community which could give me some insight as to the legal measures and any other measures which would be needed to bring these children over. I have come up with several ideas on how to raise the money such as cd's of there songs, paintings, photos, food benefit, DVD of the trip and others. I hope that once I get into contact with the school they can tell me what they need sent over and I can begin talking to the students and parents in the Ross School and collecting and shipping them over these items. 

......to be updated.

    

final blog entry of senior project

Only two weeks left until our senior project are due and I still have a lot left to finish before I have a completed book. I need to obtain quotes from several students which will be displayed in my book as well as re-write the introduction to my book. I need to string the stories together with the photos and really show the reader the purpose for why I created this book and what it's true meaning is and how it all works together. I want the reader to understand the images in relation to the text and to get a real sense as to why this was such a fantastic and exciting experience for myself, the students and teachers who traveled with me and the students and members of the Amisep Circus School. I am confident that I will be able to complete everything on time and have a fantastic piece of reading material which will help to spread the news of this school to people whom have not yet heard about it. I plan to order a copy at the latest by the 24th of this month and then I plan to over that copy of my book with Humiston and perhaps Mark Frankel when we return  from school so as to make sure that everything is correct and that I don't have anything that I need to change.

one week left for me

I have from this Friday until next Friday to have my book finished and sent to Blurb and on it's way to be published and back to me. This week was slightly uneventful since I was sick with the flu, but thankfully I was able to get my Dummy Book from blurb on Tuesday and go over it today with Kerry. We looked over the pictures and decided not to use a specific color profile for the images in my final book. I need to work on finding a font and color for the font that works for me. Also this weekend I need to finish my layout and have it all ready to go to show to Kerry on Monday. I need to go over the front and back cover and have that all figured out. I need to talk to the rest of the students and have them approve that I can use there images in my book. I need to finalize the copyright of the books and make sure that I include everyone in it properly. I also need to make sure that the sizes and colors of my images are correct since when I got my book back one of the images was messed up and cropped wrong. 

I need to finish working on the story and need to make a point to go bother Humiston and have him help me with the grammatical aspect of the book. Thankfully I have a lot of photography books which I can use as inspiration for my book. I am almost finished with the stories and just need to get into it a little more and make it my own with my own personal touch to it. It's a little difficult since I've been sick, but I'm so excited to see my final book. Having gotten one made me feel wonderful and that was only a dummy copy. This weekend I will be diligently working hard to finish everything that I need to and plan to have it all done as I said the latest by Monday when I meet with Kerry. I'm so close I can feel it, and so excited to see what it will turn out to  look like!! :D

December blog # 1

This week was interesting to say the least. I am currently sick with the flu and unable to be in school. I don't believe it is serious and plan to be back on my feet next week, hopefully. My book order for the dummy book was supposed to be December 2, two days ago. But of course they send me an e-mail telling me my order has been delayed for 1-2 business days, which I have no idea what that means, that could mean till monday or that could mean till today. Hopefully I doesn't come in on Monday. I met with Kerry this week on thursday and we discussed the game plan. I planned to get a lot done today, but due to the high temperature my body is experiencing, this is the most I am capable of doing. 

 I need to work diligently this weekend and get a lot done. It is a little difficult with my college applications, class work and the normal others things a teenager has to do, but I am very confident that I will succeed. I have choose Alexis Martino to be my second grader on my final project and hope to have my books premiere in either the gallery or the senior building top floor. I hope to report back next week with some more exciting news.

Dummy Book Sending Out Soon!

This week was a busy week, I accomplished a lot. I worked on photoshop and booksmart and bridge to edit and re-format my images. Kerry and I worked on the colors and resized the images to fit into the format of the outline for my book. I have over 25 images and hope to gain more from either Kerry or Alexis Martino. I am sending out to receive my dummy book which comprises 20 pages and about 17 or more images. The book should take only about 2 or so weeks to publish and receive and I will then be able to decide which color format works best. I used HP 500 on one image and then on the other side I used SRGB. Each section of two pages has two of the same image but with the two different profiles.

I am excited to receive my book. Now I need to work on the writing part of my book and meet with Hummiston to go over the stories. I plan to finish the writing part over thanksgiving break.

Progress Going Well 11/ 12

This week has been wonderful. I have been able to collect all the images which I will be using in my final book along with some extra ones that I am still debating on using. I met with Kerry this week and was able to have a photoshop workshop with her about how to edit images and resize them for my book since blurb only excepts a certain size. I have continuously been updating my process book and print out everything that I do and fully document my actions. 

The introduction is taking a bit more time to formulate but now that I have the outline of my book put together on blurb, I am able to put together what I have been writing and complete my stories. Today I am meeting with Kerry again and having another workshop where we are going to change my images into JPEG's so that they can go into my book. I plan to get approval to present and meet with Hummiston hopefully either tomorrow after school 10th period or on Monday 10th period.

Successful week of work :)

Book progress 11/6

This week has been a successful week for me. I wrote the introduction and the first chapter of my book as well as began organizing my photos on Booksmart and figuring out how the final book is going to look. I still need to collect a few images from various who had images on live books and sent out my budget request form today for the four copies of book which I will be printing.

Kerry and I are planning a image formating workshop sometime next which will help me to re format the color and the size  of the images so that they can fit into my book. I have updated my process book and have continued contact with my outside consultant. I plan to meet with Hummiston as soon as I have another chapter finished which will be next week. 

Senior Project Updates 10/21

This week has been slow but eventful. I have collected many of the images for my book, but have had some difficulty finding the exact ones I want in RAW format. I am sure that with time this week I will be able to find the rest of the images and begin formating them to fit my book. On Friday I met with Kimble Humiston, one of my outside consultants and reviewed my project rubric, which helped a lot for me to set my goals and see what I really need to do to make a strong final image.

I have continued contact with Souad- Rhalla, my other outside consultant and the English teacher from the Moroccan school. Sadly she does not have good news to share with me but continues to show her interest in assisting me with my book and the collect of stories for it. I have begun to fill out my budget request slip (due November 6th) and will be going over this with Kerry before the week is over.

Booksmart, although extremely helpful is at times frustrating to use. I have an idea of exactly how I want my book to look, but at times feel discouraged that it will not appear the way I image it. Never the less, that is not the important part about the book, the content is what I am currently focusing on and have been writing draft after draft of in my process book. Thanks to Humiston's creative side, I have an idea of how to make my book flow using journalism as well as creative writing to excite the audience as well as spread knowledge. 

Goal's for next week are to have all my images collected, my budget request form sent to Devon, to scan my images from my process book and to have the introduction and "chapter 1" of my book done and put onto Booksmart. 

Project Coming Along

My project, is coming along well. This week I am collecting the images and have downloaded the book smart application to create my book with. The journalism part of my book is tricky and I feel that with some time and help from Humiston and Kerry I will be able to compile my words into a book which not only touches the reader but gets them thinking about these children and about the school. It is hard to know exactly what to say about this school for my experience is hard to put into words. 

My goals for this following week are to have the words finished and have collected all the images which I will be using and being to put them together into Book Smart and create my dummy book. Also, for this week I need to fill out the budget form and have it sent to Devon Parkes long before the deadline of November 6th. I am going to take the cost of the dummy book and the cost of the final book into consideration, discuss it with my mentor and have it completed and sent to Devon by next weekend. 

Senior Project Changed!

So last week I decided to change my project from a fundraiser to a a photo journalism book. I begin researching books and attended the book workshop on Monday which helps to teach you how to make and print your own book. The workshop helped me to decided along with my own personal research on books, the layout and the style of my book.I have found an outside consultant, the teacher from the Moroccan circus school and plan to acquire a second one to help me with the English part of my project. 

3rd posting

This week was a challenge so to say. There where to many loose ends with my project so today and from now on I will be changing my project. Instead of the fundraiser I am going to attempt to create a photo journalism sort of book. I will be contacting the Veolia foundation in North America and asking them what I can do to help with the school in Morocco. This weekend I plan to continue my research on the school, the foundation, the and collect photos which will be going towards the production of my book. I am going to use photographs which the students in the circus school took and photographs which I took. 

I feel that although late, I am off to a good, fresh start.