EXTRA WORK: WORK I HAVE CREATED IN MY SPARE TIME

NEWTON AYCLIFFE RUFC END OF SEASON MAGAZINE 'AYXFILES'

Front Cover (page 1)

Double Page Spread (pages 2 and 3)

Double Page Spread (pages 4 and 5)

Double Page Spread (pages 8 and 9)

Double Page Spread (pages 20 and 21)

Double Page Spread (pages 23 and 24)

Back Cover (page 24)

During the easter holidays (14th April-21st April 2014) i designed a produced a 24 page magazine for a local rugby, Newton Aycliffe RUFC. The magazine was created to commend the clubs 2013/2014 season. The club previously used to produced an annual magazine called the 'Ayxfiles' but stopped several years back because their equiptment was dated and the magazines they were producing were not very good. However this year the approached me to re-start the annual magazine, making it look much more modern and proffesional. 

Following, the club gave me a ruff idea of what content the wanted in it and all photographs feauting the club were provided by the clubs proffesional photographer. However i had to create adverts for their sponsors and come up with interesting content/ articles to fill blank pages which the club did not provide any contact for. To keep the magazine looking professional i ensured that all adverts for sponsors were positioned on the left of all double page spreads. 

To keep my article looking proffessional and to dreate consitency throughout the magazine i used margins and guides, this allowed me to also ensure that all features lined up accordingly. The magazine was to be printed by a local proffesional printing company called the 'Newton Press'. Therefore i had to ensure that all magazine front cover, back cover and all the douple page spreads had a 1cm bleed on them incase any of the companys printers were a couple of milimetres out. 

Composition Photographs

Tilt Up                                                  Medium Long Shot                              Tilt Down

Extreme Long Shot                                                 Long Shot

Extreme Close-Up                                                  Close-Up

Composition Photographs:

I recently went out with a Cannon 350d and took the following composition photographs.

AS Media Production: Final Skill Audit Print Production

AS Media Production: Final Skills Audit Print Production

Name: Jason Ross McLean       Tutor group: 1.02                Date: 22/04/2014

Photographic Skills

Which of the following photographic features/equipment have you used on a camera before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Manual Focus features	YES		I have used manual focus when taking composition photos for my Media Production coursework. I have also used manual focus in Graphic Communication when taking various shots of musical instruments and other objects to produce artwork from.
Shutter Speed	YES		In media Production I have experimented with shutter speed in order to take various kinds of images. To freeze movement in an image I used a very fast shutter speed, Likewise to take an image that shows movement through blur, I used a much slower shutter speed.
Aperture control		NO	I have not used this Photographic feature/ equipment before.
ISO Control	YES		When taking shutter speed pictures for my Media Production Coursework, I used ISO Control to alter the brightness of my images taken.
A tripod		NO	I have not used this Photographic feature/ equipment before.
External flash		NO	I have not used this Photographic feature/ equipment before.
Self timer facility	YES		I have used the self-timer facility before when taking family and group photographs that I want to be a part of.
Light meter	YES		I used a light meter as part of my setup when I conducted my photo-shoot for my final product of my media production coursework. Using a light meter enabled me to have the right setting to take high quality photographs for my final product.
Composition grids	YES		I have used composition grids when taking photos for my Graphics Communication coursework portfolio.

Photoshop Skills

Which of the following features of Photoshop have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Text control	YES		I have used text control before in media when producing my magazine front cover and my double page spread. I have also used text control on many occasions at college in Graphics Communication when I have designed products such as posters, business cards and cd covers. As well as this I have also used text control when producing typography in Graphics.
Filters	YES		In order to produce artwork and graphic designs in Graphics Communication I have used a wide range of filters, such as ‘Noise, Pixelate and Distort’.
Brushes	YES		I have downloaded and used a variety of different brushes when producing various pieces of work for my media coursework. Following on, I have used snowflake brushes when producing a Christmas hard. In addition to this I used different scar brushes when editing a woman’s face to make her look like a vampire.
Layers	YES		Layers are a feature that I work with regularly on a daily basis. Moreover, I use layers in media when producing magazine front cover and double page spreads. I also use layers in Graphics Communication when producing artwork, posters, and cd covers etc. Using layers allows me to edit different features such as images and text without making any changes to other features. Layers also allows me to create a field of depth within my products by overlapping layers.
Opacity control	YES		I have used opacity control, in both media production and graphic Communication. I find opacity control a useful feature when overlaying images and shapes with text. For example in media, on my magazine front cover I have used opacity control to decrease the opacity of a front page splash (button)  and a baseline in order to overlay them with text that is readable. Similar I have used opacity control to decrease the opacity of poster backgrounds in order to make sure that the text overlapping the background image is clear and visible to the reader.
Shape creation	YES		When designing various products on Photoshop for my media and graphics coursework as well as products I have created in my own spare time, I have used the shape creation tool to create standard shapes such as rectangles, circles and squares. I have also used the shape creation tool to create more abstract non-standard shapes such as arrows, stars and speech/thinking bubbles.
Brightness and contrast control	YES		When editing and enhancing images that I have taken, I often control the brightness and contrast of an image to improve the quality of images taken.
Gradients	YES		When creating typography and producing cell drawings in graphic communication I have used the gradient tool to give the a 3d effect.
Load selection features		NO	I have not used this Photoshop feature before.
Feathering		NO	I have not used this Photoshop feature before.
Colour curves adjustment	YES		I have used the colour curves adjustment tool when editing photographs for my coursework in both Media Production and Graphic Communication. I use the colour curves adjustment tool alter image contrast and to colour correct some of my images.
Resolution setting control	YES		When setting up new Photoshop documents and when dealing with images I always ensure that they are set to 300 pixels per inch. This ensures that any images do not loose quality and look pixilated when they are expanded or printed.
Magnetic lasso, polygon lasso tool	YES		I have used both the magnetic lasso tool and the polygon lasso tool when editing photographs and artwork in Media Production and in Graphic Communication
Cropping tool	YES		When dealing with images in both Media and Graphics I often use to crop tool to simply get rid of any unwanted image.
Clone tool		NO	I have not used this Photoshop feature before.
Retouch tool	YES		I have used retouch tools such as; the healing brush tool, the spot healing touch tool and the red eye tool, when enhancing peoples appearance in pictures. For example, In order to create a flawless front cover image for my magazine in media production, I used several retouch tools to enhance my models skin and remove any of my models imperfections such as spots and blemishes.
Other skills WARP TOOL FREE TRAMSFORM DROP SHADOWS MARGINS & GUIDES	YES YES YES YES		When editing a woman’s face to make her look like a vampire in Media Production, I used the warp tool to change the shape of her teeth. I have also used the warp tool in Graphics Communication when creating typography. On Photoshop I have used free-transform for re-sizing, rotating, reshaping and moving images. In the past, when I have wanted to give texts and images a 3d effect, I have used the drop shadow tool on Photoshop. In order to ensure that everything lined up accordingly when created magazine front covers in Photoshop I have used both Margins and Guides.

In Design Skills

Which of the following features of In Design have you used before:

Feature	Yes	No	Comments if yes – where have you completed this skills and to what level
Have you ever used In design ever before?	YES		I have used InDesign to create a magazine double page spread for my media production coursework. I have also used an InDesign when creating a 24 page magazine to celebrate the 2013/2014 season of a local rugby club.
Margin and column guide creation	YES		When creating a magazine double page spread for my media course work, I set up guideless to ensure that all my images, texts, and columns lined up accordingly. As well as this I also set up margin guidelines to ensure that all my margins were the correct size and width.
Inserting an image ID	YES		When designing and creating magazine double page spreads for media production and for a local rugby club, I had to insert a number of selected photographs in to InDesign.
Resizing images in ID	YES		When I have created magazine double page spreads on InDesign, I have had to resize images to ensure that they fit accordingly in their designated places.
Text manipulation – resizing, rotation	YES		I have not used this InDesign feature before.
Text manipulation – controlling kerning and leading		NO	I have not used this InDesign feature before.
Text flow creation	YES		When producing double page spreads for magazines that I have created both in media production and in my spare time, I have used to flow creation to fluently link my article between various text boxes.
Using transparent imagery in ID		NO	I have not used this InDesign feature before.
Shape/line creation In design	YES		I have used both shape and line creation in InDesign when creating magazine double page spreads. Moreover, I used shape and line creation as a way of covering white space and breaking up large chunks of text in order to make my double page spreads more interesting and visually pleasing.
Exporting to PDF from In-design	YES		To enable me to upload my magazine front page and double page spread that I created in media to the internet I had to export my InDesign document to PDF. In addition, In my spare time I produced a magazine on InDesign for a local rugby club, and in order to get the magazine printed by a local professional printing company (The Newton Press) I had to export my InDesign document to PDF format so that the company could run it through their systems.
Text Wrap	YES		I have used text wrapping in InDesign In Media Production. Furthermore, when designing magazine double page spreads, I used text wrapping to wrap text around images and quote inserts.
Other Skills DROP CAP	YES		Other tools I used include the Drop Cap. When producing magazine double page spreads, I use large drop caps at the beginning of every article, to signify the start of the article and to add style and give my articles an artistic look.

Number of new skills achieved:

Since my Initial Skills Audit I have gained 20 new skills.

UNIT 3: PROGRESSION WEEK 3 (24th-31st March 2014)

Front Cover

Lastweek i noticed that my magazine front cover was almost complete however, my only concerns where that my front cover was looking to flat as it did not have enough field of depth and that there was large gap on the right hand side of the cover which i belived needed filling with a sell line. As a result, i ended up making the final following changes to my magazine front cover;

• I added a black baseline to my front cover which overlayed my front cover image. To create a field of depth i turned down the opacity of the baseline so you can see that main image through it. Also decreasing the opacity of the base line also allowed me to overlay my baseline with text 'The Uk's No.1 Mens Lifestyle Magazine'. The use of a baseline is also a recognisable feature to my target audience and adds to proffesionalism of my product.
• In addtion to this i as i needed to fill in a space on the right hand side of the page and create field of depth i decided to combine the both and at a button with a sell line inside of it 'Triple Crown Triumph'. The button features overlays the main image creating a field of depth and also adds to the business of the cover. To show the image through the button i turned decreased the buttons opacity, this also allowed me to overlay the button with a sell line. A button makes my product my relatable to my target audience as it is a feature that they have seen before and are familier with.

Double Page Spread
After analysing last weeks amendments to my double page spread, i came to the conclusion that there was still far too much white space. As a result i decided to make the final following changes to my dps;

• Instead of having the one culmn on the second page of my double page spread i decided to have two columns and text wrap the first column around my dps image. In order ro ensure that my article fit across the extra column i had to slightly increase the size of my article font. By doing this i did not just only fill up a considerable amount of existing white space but i also made my article slightly more readable for my target audience.
• In adittion to this i also added a large quote insert to the top left-hand side of the second page of my dps. This quote insert is quote which i thought would be powerful enough to shock and alarm the reader. The quote also makes my dps look alot more busy/interesting and covered up a fairly large amount of blank space.
• As well as this i also decided to move the quote insert that was above the article on the right hand page in to the article itself. I did this for two reasons, firstly i felt that the quote insert would be more effective where i moved it and it also looks alot more proffesional and improves the overall look of my dps. 
• Another feature i moved was the editors name 'Jason Mclean' and the models name 'Ryan Mercer'. I moved the names from under the header on the first page to an area of white space on the second page of the dps. By doing this i managed to make the second page of my dps look more busy/interesting and moving the names also allowed me to slightly increase the size of the article header and kicker. 
• To add to the content of my dps i added a black lines both above and below the kicker and a large/bold black line at the bottom of my dps which covers the whole width of my dps. The two black lines around my kicker seperate my kicker from both the header of the article and the article itself. By breaking up the texts i managed to make my article look slighlty less text heavy and more proffesional. The large black line which i added at the bottom of my dps runs underneath my main dps image which creates a field of depth. 
• Additionaly i changed the colours of some texts in order to make them stand out more. For example i change the 'From' and 'To' in the article header 'From Macho To Mascara' to the colour black instead of red. This put more emphasis on the more importants words such as 'Macho' and 'Mascara' which remained the colour red.