Q1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF

REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS: COVER

I have taken inspiration from the popular magazine “RollingStone” when it came to creating my magazine especially the masthead. RollingStone traditionally has a Red masthead, placed at the top of the page which over the width of the magazine. I have taken inspiration from the positioning, colour and font style that RollingStone has as I believe that it works smoothly and the outline, colours and shadow compliment eachother and they all make the masthead look 3D. However I thought that the RollingStone masthead looked quite vintage with the white boarder so I chose not to include this as I thought that without it my masthead appeared quite futuristic and diverse.

I included a selling line in my magazine because I thought that it would attract my target audience and a lot of magazines include it as one of their conventions as it appeals to the reader and they are usually quite catchy. And remind the reader of the genre of my magazine “alternative indie rock”. As ‘Divergent’ means to develop in different directions (reference to my genre of alternative indie rock because it means to be out there and unique) I chose for my selling line to say “step into the unknown” as I thought that it flowed with the title and related to the idea of being individual which is what my magazine is about.

When I created my headlines I took inspiration from Q magazine as their headlines are always central, bold and are in fonts that represent their feature of that issue. I took inspiration from the Michael Jackson issue as I found that the font looked professional and bold. Like Q magazine I have used quite old fashioned font with drop shadow that has stop opacity to create a greater impact and a 3D appearance so that it appeared that it was leaping of the page. I have mostly stuck to my colour scheme of red, black and white but used a dark grey for the main features name to make it different from the rest of the cover so in this way I have challenged the conventions of my genre. I have used a strap line and a pull quote on my main feature to draw the reader in and make her more appealing so that they are more interested in the article as they have a taster on the front cover which will encourage the reader to read the entire thing. This breaks the conventions of my genre as they usually just mention the name of the artist/band and sometimes had a subheading but rarely have a pull quote. I done this to make my artist sound more existing as it is quite an extreme thing to say.

I included the date, price and a barcode on the front cover along with the magazines website to make it look more authentic, so by doing this I am following the conventions of a real media product as all of them involve these aspects. However I have developed this convention by adding the email address because this is usually involved on an advertisement inside rather than the front cover; I done this to promote the popularity of the magazine and to encourage the reader to visit the website so that the magazine would be more well known and a lot more people would recognise it due to the amount of people who use technology and the internet. This makes my magazine look more realistic and professional.

I have followed the convention of eye contact for pictures in my magazine because I wanted to create a personal connection between my artists and the audience so that the reader feels involved in the magazine and feels as though the artist is looking directly at them.

Another thing that I done that follows convention is using some splashes so that the headlines weren’t too overpowering in numbers. This made the page look more exciting due to the different sections and added diversity to it so that it wasn’t repetitive and provided the opportunity to present information that was featured in the magazine in a different way meaning that the magazine didn’t look dull. I chose to use a circle because I wanted it to appear like a stick on top of the page which creates dimensions and levels to the cover, I done this by adding effects like a drop shadow to make it look 3D and as though it was peeling off the page. This is a convention that NME use to present information and to add more colour to their page.

I used cover lines to present what was featured in my magazine and to go into detail about the artists/bands on the front cover so that the reader would be informed and more encouraged to buy the magazine as they appeared quirky and intriguing so that they would want to read more.

These follow the conventions of a typical music magazine as they have been placed on the sides of my magazine cover so aren’t in the centre where the artist is; this is so that the text doesn’t take attention away from the main feature of the magazine of that issue.

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS: CONTENTS

I decided to make my contents page a double page spread so that I could involve more in my magazine and provide more information on each section and involve a lot more photos. This goes against the conventions of music magazines as the majority of them only have a single page. I got this idea from Q magazine as I liked how they had more room to involve more things so that the page didn’t appear cluttered and untidy. This allowed me to positioned everything in particular way without worrying about running out of space and it made my contents a lot more informative as it provided a lot more space to allow me to go into detail and involve a wider range of pages. This in a way allowed me to live up to the conventions of a magazine because they usually have around 90 pages so by having a bigger contents page I could exceed this, meaning that my music magazine wouldn’t have too little pages which made my magazine more believable and realistic due to the thickness of it.

I decided that I would include my magazines name next to my contents page so that it was constantly clear to the reader as to what magazine they were reading so that they wouldn’t remember it more. I used similar font to Q magazine because I found that it was clear and consistent and because it was so simple and big you could read it really easily. This is following the conventions of a magazine because the contents needs to be easy to read and a lot of magazines have their name/logo on the contents page for example NME and Q.

My magazine also follows headlines with the title of the contents page because it is at the top left so is the first thing that the reader will see because naturally their eyes will divert to the top left. I have included the date and issue number so that the magazine looks organised and more professional, so in this sense I have followed the conventions of a music magazine because it has made my magazine look a lot more realistic, clear and neat.

My main feature is highlighted on my contents page as her photo is quite big and is surrounded in a polaroid to highlight her even more. I placed my main feature next to the mini picture of my cover to remind the audience that she is the key artist in this issue so that she is easily recognised. So I am following conventions by drawing attention to my main subject as she is most likely to catch the readers attention.I boxed of sections of my magazine with red boxes and white writing, much like the layout of Q magazine because it made the information clearer to see so that the reader could easily see what was involved in each section.

I used large number on the most prominent articles of that issue so that they would gain the most attention. I used an opaque drop shadow on the numbers to ensure that they stood out a lot more as they were placed directly on top of the picture to inform the reader where to find that particular section in the magazine.

I used a twitter reference in magazine to attract my target audience and created the birds on Photoshop. This is because a lot of my audience is interested in social networking and will hopefully follow the magazine on twitter and gain more followers so that it can become popular and possibly verified. This follows the conventions as the majority of music magazines are now on some form of social networking as a form of advertising.

I used a band index column in my magazine so that the reader could easily direct themselves round the magazine by looking up the band that they are interested in. This would make it easier for them as they don’t need to hunt through pages that aren’t relevant to what they’re trying to find. This follows conventions of a magazine as I took inspiration from NME who also have a band index and the colours follow my colour scheme.

I included a “features” column in my contents page so that the audience could easily direct themselves. This is in chronological order so it is made easier for them as they can look at the page numbers and know how far it is in the magazine. This is an important aspect of the contents page as it is a way of informing the audience and lets them know how much is in the magazine and key aspects.

NME’s

I used a conventional font size for my magazine: font size 9 as this would allow me to include more information and go into detail, also this font size is quite small and wouldn’t overpower the titles as it isn’t in bold and there is a noticeable difference between them.

I used a splash on my contents page to provide additional information and as a way of promoting my magazine. From my market research I could easily choose a correct price and layout in order to present this. However this isn’t very conventional for most magazine expect those with quite a niche genre like mine, this is why I chose to include this information because my magazine needs as much subscription as possible as it isn’t a mainstream genre that will generate a lot of money like pop.

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS: ARTICLE

I couldn’t find the font that I wanted to create this quote so I used individual black boxes and placed the letters in them. I used this because I wanted to add mystery to my artist and I thought that this font looked like a ransom note which would help me to achieve my desired effect. I think that this follows the conventions of a music magazine as a magazine tries to makes the layouts of the page personal to the artist so how I presented my artist was crucial. I also presented this quote like this because I thought that it looked quite childish as if they had been stuck down to the page with glue, and I wanted my artist to have an innocent aspect to her at the same time as being considered a diva or a “megalomaniac”. I also followed the conventions of a magazine because the quotes are always intriguing and this is what I tried to achieve, I done this by relating this particular quote to music by referring to the attention given to my artist as a “spotlight”. This makes her appear very confident and will intrigue the reader and they want to find out why her spotlight won’t be dimming and will want to get to know her. I took inspiration from NME magazine because I liked how they presented different artists and the fonts they used proved to be personal and fit in with their colour scheme.

I placed the title of the article on the top right of the page rather than the left. This could be seen as unconventional because the reader expects the title to be in the top left where their eyes go first. I done this so that the title would be on the same page as the text of the article itself so that the reader would be constantly aware of who it was about. I used this bold striking font as it is similar to the one used on Lana Del Rey’s albums and appear quite Hollywood like as if it would be in lights. This was to emphasise how famous she is and how serious she is about her music and to relate to Lana Del Rey as I have taken a lot of inspiration from her for my article and want my article to appear as realistic as possible. This is a conventional take on making the artist as the font represents the artist and their style which is seen in a lot of magazines. The colours that I have chosen for my article are very conventional and fit in with the colour scheme of my magazine, this was because I wanted a consistent theme throughout as this is what the reader will expect to see. I also found that black and white when together were the most striking due to how different they are, this ensured that my title was readable and didn’t blend into the page, this also meant that I didn’t need to add any graphics as the title already stood out enough.

I used one big picture to cover one page of my article, this was very conventional as this occurs in the majority of magazines so that the main focus is on that feature in the magazine as the pictures aren’t small so they cannot be avoided. I used face paint again to create a festival appearance that relates to the alternative indie rock genre. I then created a new layer of the same photo and decreased the opacity to 40% so that it would relate to the quote above about her spot light dimming. The pose chosen was to make my chosen artist appear different and quite innocent as it looks quite child like. The artist is making eye contact which is conventional as it appears that she is looking straight at the reader which is more personal and makes them more interested in the article as they can see her face more clearly.

I then used a picture of a concert that I have been to on the opposite page where the text of the article was. This was to put it into context and give the reader and idea of what is involved which this artist and a feel of the genre. I then added a small detail about who took the photo and where it was taken to make the magazine look a lot more authentic and professional. This is seen a lot in magazines as it gives credit to individual people so their work is more popular and is very conventional especially for my genre because it informs the reader of where the artist tours and an idea of the atmosphere.

DEVELOPMENT: COVER

I decided to keep the photo the same for my cover because I liked the pose and the facial expression used by my artist, also I found that this photo highlighted the face paint used the best in comparison to my other options. I thought that this pose was quite quirky and diverse so would appeal to the target audience who listen to alternative indie rock. However I changed the size of the photo so that the photo didn’t appear squeezed onto the page and so that I could involve more cover lines without overlapping the artists face too much as this would take a lot of attention away from her and would make my magazine look unprofessional as before hand it looked quite rushed and bare and the main features title was covering the bottom half of her face which made the magazine look very amateur. I chose to involve more cover lines so that my magazine didn’t look bare as I wanted to make the overall look of the magazine appear thoughtful and as if there was a lot featured in it so by having cover lines on each side helped me achieved this as it looked a lot more detailed and on task. This is also very conventional of music magazines as they want to attract as many people as possible so by having more articles it will attract a lot more people as there will be more bands mentioned that are relevant to the genre.

DEVELOPMENT: CONTENTS

For my contents I decided to add more photos so that it was more visual and easily showed the other aspects involved in my magazine so that the audience would be interested by a lot more and didn’t have to focus on one thing if they didn’t have to. My photos were taken from gigs and festivals that I have previously been to so that there would be a music feel to the magazine so that it didn’t feel like a pop magazine which concentrates on the celebrities rather than the music.I used a poster filter on Erin so that she would look cartoon like. I done this so that the page would look more fun and their was more depth added to her face so that the audience could see her a lot more clearly. I was inspired by Q magazine for this idea as it made the page look more quirky and down to earth as the character from the Gorillaz appeared hand drawn.As I wanted to add more photos I decided create a double page spread for my contents (a lot like Q magazine) so that the page wouldn’t appear cluttered as there was more space. By doing this I was able to involve more information, artists and could go into depth without making my contents too busy.

I decided to make the subscription section of my contents a lot smaller as it wasn’t that important in comparison to the rest of the content featured on this page. By doing this I was able to fit everything else in and involve more due to the amount of space. This made my magazine look more professional as the subscription advertisement isn’t the main focus.I also added a twitter link so that my magazine would appeal more to the younger generation and would be more popular on social networks as people would be able to interact online and spread the word about my magazine, I used an invitation for the reader to tweet the magazine saying what they want to see in the next issue so that they could interact more with the production of the magazine to achieve what they want to have included and so that the magazine is more personal to them.

DEVELOPMENT: ARTICLE

For my article I change the picture as I thought that the first attempt photo looked very amateur as it was badly photoshopped and looked out of place. I changed this to a different image and made this image the background of one page so that I didn’t have to cut the image out as I found that this made sure that the image was smooth and was easier to edit.I then changed the colours of my articles so that they were more neutral as the image tone of the first attempt was purple and had daisies on it which made the article appear that it was aimed at girls. I tried to use red, black and white a lot throughout my article as this was my colour scheme for my magazine and by doing this I made sure that the magazine flowed nicely and that the colour scheme was consistent.I decided to create 2 double pages for my article as I found that all of my text wouldn’t fit on just one page and a lot of magazine’s articles are more than just one page so this would make my magazine look more professional as it is following the conventions. I applied the text in columns so that it was easier to read and flowed neatly.For the second page of my article I used pictures that I have taken myself above and below the quote as these pictures related to parts of the interview and provided the reader with a visual aspect that they could look at so that they would not get bored.