Question 1; In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Front Cover

My media magazine project follows most of the real magazine conventions. This is because it has been based on other Rock music magazines; this means that my magazine does not challenge any of the conventions of the Music magazine market. However my magazine does make them a little more interesting, especially the mast head. The font that I have used is ‘Parchment’ this is quite a classic historical font which suggests an element of old school rock and roll instead of the modern rock that we see in most of the other music magazines, however the idea of putting a female on the front cover takes it from being classic rock and gives it a twenty first century twist because this is traditionally a male dominated music genera and it is rare to see any solo female rock artists on the front cover without any male presence. I chose this font and the image because it reflects the content of my magazine with mixing old school rock legends like ‘Slash’ and ‘Bryan May’ with modern acts such as ‘Drowning pool’. It is also quite striking and eye catching because it is not the type of font that any one besides my target audience would expect to find on a modern music magazine. The title of my magazine is ‘Rock Sounds’ and I have chosen to put it in white which makes it stand out from the rest of the house style and the colour scheme of black, grey and red. The cover of my magazine contains the use of bold title and mast heads in a different font and colour, this is because I am making a statement that these people are featured in the article and by changing the font to a ‘copperplate gothic light’ it keeps the rock image and gives it on edgy look that I am going for. The colours go with the colour scheme of the models corset which makes the whole cover work, I have developed a house style with the unique mast head and the black and red featured all over my colour scheme is also something that makes my magazine stand out. I have used bold titles and mastheads on the front cover and within the magazine its self. Therefore the reader of the magazine can clearly see all of the text within the magazine as the content is legible to read and the important parts of the magazine content and information on the front cover are bold and in different colours to make them stand out.


The image that I have used on my front cover challenges the conventions of a rock music magazine because of the fact that she has had her back to the camera and is in the process of turning while looking over her shoulder. This isn’t a traditional image of a woman, normally they are head on and look very posed and professional, were as this isn’t. This image is also showing a lot of flesh because of the nature of the outfit, the mise en scene in the image is something that I took a lot of time over. I tried to create this artist that would appeal to my target audience because she looks like someone who would be fun on a night out as well as someone that girls can want to look like and someone that males find attractive. I know that to challenge the way woman are seen in this genera of music the image has to be different and that is what I had to show and why I chose to challenge the conventions in this way.

My magazine uses the presence of cover lines to advertise of information/stories available within the magazine. I have used a bold title with a unique font and a bright bold colour which helps to create the house style and colour range. This presentation on my magazine shows that I have followed the conventions of a published magazine; I know this because they use the same conventions to represent their magazines as each one is recognisable because of their house style.
My magazine contains an issues date, but it does not have a bar code. A published magazine would contain both of these necessary conventions on their magazine, as these are necessities. I have not followed these conventions, however when I looked through my research I noticed that very few magazine have the bar code on the front cover, I decided to agree with this because it seemed to just throw of the whole balance of the front cover and didn’t not match the colour scheme.

My magazine contains a unique logo that stands out and is significant, it is placed with in the left third of the masthead, a customer browsing the stand for the magazine would easily be able to recognise is. I have followed this magazine convention as I have shown a professional and needed convention towards the layout of the front cover of my magazine.

Contents

I have followed the conventions by including the name ‘contents’ on the page and I have kept the same colour scheme as my front cover and this is to aid the creation of the house style. I have toned the red down slightly so that it is easier to read as consistently bright colours throughout the magazine can be harsh on the eyes. The contents is in page number order, which makes it easier for readers to find anything that they are interested in.

In all the contents pages I analysed there were smaller images that were linked to other important articles within the magazine, these often have a page number a name and a small quote about the content of the article. I have used this convention by adding 5 smaller images and one bigger image, I have made the larger image on the contents of ‘Drowning Pool’ rather than of ‘Mutiny’ I think that highlighting that there are other articles in the magazine is important, and I also noticed that this was quite common in published magazines.

There is a mix of gender on my contents page and I have done this for a specific reason, in the contents pages I analysed I noticed that most of the photography was of males. I am trying to create a twenty first century twist with my magazine, I am trying to show that women are not only fans of rock music but are also able to produce and be involved with it. It is a traditionally male dominated genera, however it does have a large female fan base and it is something that not many people are aware of as most of the target audience for magazines such as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Q’ are males.

A contents page of a published magazine is usually laid out a little different to mine. I have challenged the conventions of this layout but it still looks professional and organised. The content of my contents page is ranged from font size 10 - 14 with the page numbers being the biggest as they are the most important and the name of each article being the second biggest and the numbers are situated before them so the readers are able to find certain sections of the magazine quickly and easily. Many of the magazines that are published follow this convention precisely which is why a lot of them look similar.


The only convention that I have not bothered to stick with is the advertising of a subscription as I have targeted my magazine at the general working and middle class so I am aiming for them to spend their disposable income is enough to cover the cost of my magazine.

Double Page Spread 

One of the pages is a full image featuring the name of the artist. I have intended this to be a poster that can be removed from the magazine this is why I have included the name of the artist on the image, but I have done it in the same font that was featured on the front cover that the magazine name was written in. The font is really unusual as I have said before and by putting it on the pull out poster I am trying to show that people do recognise the house style of the font and they will know which magazine that it came out of. Similar images to mine are often published in music magazines, this shows that my images meet the professional conventions to a high standard. My image is similar to the cover image (meaning it is easy for people to know who the article is about and that this is also the cover story), apart from the model is now looking down at you. This is a different angle and perspective meaning that the photography is different and the readers do not get bored with similar images. The second image is of her on her knees swearing at the camera, I have created this character in my magazine and I was her to be seen as someone who isn’t your everyday pop act, the idea is that people like her because of her attitude and the fact that she is almost like rebel. I chose the name ‘Mutiny’ as it suggests standing up against authority and fighting for what you want. Her attitude is reflected in the images and this is how I wanted the mise en scene to be. I am trying to show that the old school rock conventions of males with long hair, tattoos and leather can be mixed with the new 21st century rock that combines females with unique fashion and attitude. However although this does challenge some of the conventions of double page spreads I have also challenged them by not giving credit to any photographer on any of the images this gives my magazine a less professional look.


There is not an overlap of the main image on this spread, however there is a smaller image on the other page that does take a large up some of the text space which I thought would challenge the conventions. When I looked over my research of double page spreads I found that compared to published magazines I have fewer images and more text. I found that a lot of double page spreads usually have 5 or 6 images and a smaller amount of text, usually only key parts of an interview. This is a convention that I have challenged, but it does still give a professional impression.

My colour scheme is still present within the double page spread. It is slightly different shades of the colour but it is still effective and within the house style. The text is in the same colour scheme as the front cover; however the artist name is in grey instead of red, which is slightly different but still fits in with the colour scheme and is not unheard of in published magazines. I have chosen to put the name of the artist on the image rather than above the article so that people know that this is definitely her and that if they do decided to remove the image and use it in a poster it is still possible to know which magazine it came from and who the person is.

Traditionally an article on a double page spread, has the columns are divided up into 3, I found this in my research mainly in ‘Kerrang’. My magazine has changed this convention with 2 columns, however it does work well with the image that I have included and the answers are quite lengthy which means that the image to text ratio is well balanced. I have also chosen the traditional black font, which contrasts with my grey background; this therefore allows the reader to easily read through the article.