I am so excited to be bringing my very first live-blogging experience here to Felt & Wire. Today, I will be covering the creation of the fourth edition of #24MAG—a publication that is written, edited and designed in 24 hours. Watch for updates each hour from now until 10 a.m. Saturday morning to watch how a magazine gets produced in a single day.
Feb 1, 11:30 a.m.—The team of 21 contributors has been briefed and is now ready to get to work. What happens next? It’s time for this team to nail down the concepts that they will cover in a variety of forms (articles, haikus, photo essays) and figure out which other contributors they will collaborate with as the day goes on.
Feb 1, 12:30 p.m.—Production has begun! The paper team has started to assemble a paper sculpture, the design team has started choosing color, and photos are being taken. Four pots of coffee have been brewed and consumed, which I can only imagine is telling of the day to come.
Feb 1, 2 p.m.—So I missed a post in the 1 p.m. hour, but I hope you will forgive me. Currently Sara and I are working on interviews with all the individual contributors; Sara with a question for the magazine and me with questions to share with Felt & Wire readers next week. Design decisions are also being made (we can’t wait to share the online version with you!). And lunch is on it’s way. Though we heard there were some smoke alarm issues in the kitchen location, hopefully our lunch will not be burned.
Feb 1, 4 p.m.—Lunch was an incredible success, filled with sesame noodles, chicken, a cavernous salad and potatoes. (And don’t worry, there was not even a hint of burned food!) All contributors are working hard to meet their first round draft deadline of 7:00 p.m. To see what everyone is up to, you can also check out the #24MAG tumblr site here. Right now I am spending some time in the “quiet” zone at #24MAG location #2—the place where our awesome lunch was made, where people who need to some quiet can grab it and where we can grab a few zzz’s if needed.
Feb 1, 5 p.m.—Work continues with 2 hours to go until the fist draft deadline. Here’s a few photos from this afternoon:
Molly (designer), Sara (editor in chief) and Johanna (photography editor) review Issue #3 to remember what happened last time around.
Polaroids documenting the mid-morning donut run and some Lady Gaga-esque shoe modeling.
Illustration in action.
A portion of our delicious lunch.
Feb 1, 6 p.m.— It’s now dark outside the windows, which makes me feel like I’m really in for the long haul. My camera is dead, which means I’m taking a short break from video interviewing to charge up (well, hopefully a short break), but I will be using my trusty iPhone for photo documentation. I will probably be moving back to our main location soon to see what’s been happening over there for the past couple hours. And I need a cup of coffee, stat.
Feb 1, 7:30 p.m.— We are entering hour number 9, with 16 hours to go. There are TWO, count them, TWO pieces of finalized content ready to go. Which from what I hear is quite a record. Kevin, our chef extraordinare, is making polenta dinners in batches as contributors finish submitting to the first round deadline. At location #2, we had some surprise guests arrive for dinner. (See below). That said, things may be starting to get strange. Bring it on.
Feb 1, 8:45 p.m.—It’s getting close to the halfway mark and everyone is studiously working away. If you haven’t been following the Twitter coverage, here are a few of the memorable tweets from our contributors so far:
@MsEnScene: We have now reached the transcription portion of the evening. Let’s hear it for practical skills!#crazyflippingfingers #24MAG
@padnick: I haven’t decided who to troll this issue #24mag
@MsEnScene: Topics of my #24MAG contributions: hockey, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Male Gaze, opera. Sounds about right.
@kevinefclark: I wrote a song about @rosefox saying you don’t have an ending for issue 1 of #24mag. Guess what my first rough draft didn’t have?
Feb 1, 10:00 p.m.—I feel like I blinked and suddenly it was 10:00! Writing seems to have paused for some and construction craziness has begun on both the Mohawk Dimensional paper sculpture and some pretty awesome make up (which I can’t wait to see and share what it’s for!) I just got to have a great conversation with contributors Jack and Leila about how materials matter, the difference between disposal content and content that has a physical and emotional connect. #papernerds
We are officially at the halfway mark – only 12 hours to go!
Jack and Leila talking about materials.
Sara begins the paper sculpture.
Feb 1, 11:30 p.m.— It feels like we are currently in editing mode-files are going back and forth. “Tracking changes” is a phrase I’ve heard more than 5 times in the past 5 minutes and there are (at least) four editors working away. The paper sculpture is in between strange and awesome, just take a look at what’s going on below. The team may be getting a little worn out-there is a singing chorus in the middle of the room and somehow Batman and Bane impersonators have showed up. The first evening coffee pot has officially been brewed.
Feb 2, 12:30 a.m.— I’m excited to announce that we are officially into a new day, and nervous for the contributors. They have only 2 1/2 hours left before all content needs to be finished. At 3AM all content needs to be delivered to the design team for flowing into the actual publication. It is kind of amazing to hear writers and editors finalizing pieces left and right, seeing photographers shooting all over the available space and pieces of art continuing to be created. In a few short hours this team has created half a magazine already, and with a few short hours to go the magazine will be completed. More photos of work in progress:
Feb 2, 1:30 a.m.—We’re getting close to the wee sma’s, and there are 8 1/2 hours left to create this magazine. The quiet lulls of focused, editing energy are starting to happen a bit more frequently. I’m currently sitting in the unheated hallway in order to get a little perk up. The studio is getting just a bit too cozy right about now. Coffee is starting to get consumed (possibly only by me) at a continually faster rate. Group photos were just organized to be used on the cover of Issue #4. The next time I write we may have moved completely from editing to design. Stay tuned!
Feb 2, 2:45 a.m.— There are only 15 minutes left before the final content deadline and from the conversation around the studio they team is very, very close to making it. Surprisingly we have only lost a couple comrades so far. We’ll see how many team members are left when the content is completely handed over to the design team.
Sara and Jack working on content placement.
Lucia had some tremendously funny contributor photo for everyone to see.
Feb 2, 3:30 p.m.—To my own amazement I’m still awake and rarin’ to go. Well, maybe not rarin’ but I’m still awake at the very least. The madness is starting to set in. The elks are continuing to have a prominent presence, the laughter is getting slightly more manic and well, here’s a little snippen from the Twitter feed:
@neuronbomb: HOW DO I WORD. #24MAG
@DianelleSucher: My new hobby: embedding secret love letters in cryptic clues.#24mag
@rachelcromidas: #24MAG I just spent a truly sad amount of time trying to pull a nonexistent contact lens out if my left eye. (I took both out already.)
Feb 2, 4:30 p.m.—This photo pretty much sums up the general desires of the room. Yet we soldier on.
Feb 2, 6:15 a.m.— I started my entry at 5:30 (I promise I didn’t fall asleep!), but a breakthrough on the paper sculpture was ready to be captured. Here are a few photos of what is now being affectionately called the Paper Squid (an actual name pending):
Feb 2, 7:30 a.m.— We are in what will hopefully be that last 2 1/2 hours of producing Issue #4 of #24MAG. The design team is working away and the editing team is back in full force, reviewing all the finished spreads from the designers. There are a few snores to be heard around the studio, but for the most part everyone has stayed fueled with coffee, water, leftover donuts and cookies. Fingers crossed we finish on time!
Feb 2, 8:30 a.m.— There are a couple last minute content pieces getting pulled together, but at this point there is not much left for us to do except wait for the design team to wrap up. While we wait anxiously (more like deliriously sleepy) I thought I’d share some photos of what the studio space now looks like after hosting 20+ contributors for nearly 24 hours.
Feb 2, 9:45 a.m.— Unfortunately we will not be making to 10:00 AM deadline. Such is the way of the #24MAG world. However, it sounds like things will be wrapped up in the next hour or so. My next post will be the announcement of the launch of #24MAG Issue #4! In the meantime, a little taste of the the morning delirium.
Feb 2, 1:00 p.m.—It is time for me to leave what’s left of the #24MAG team here in Brooklyn. The magazine is not quite live yet, BUT the diligent design team is crossing all of their t’s and dotting their i’s. Once the link to view is live we will post it for you here. For now, I am going to catch my train home and take a serious nap. Thank you, team of #24MAG, for including me in this AWESOME experience. We will be posting more photos and contributor Q&A in the coming weeks.
Feb 2, 7:00 p.m.— Issue #4 of #24MAG is now live! (The issue went live around 2:00, but my travels home interfered with a timely post-my apologies!)You can read the online edition here and pre-order a print edition (printed on the lovely Mohawk Superfine) here. Thank you for following!