2. Qu1) - In what ways does
your media product use,
develop or challenge
forms and conventions of
real media products?
3. I chose to call my magazine „SOUND‟
because it is a short title and I also needed to make my
font bold for my masthead because the main image for
my front cover is quite feminine and I don‟t want my
magazine to just appeal to woman, I want it to appeal
to men too. So I made I tried to stop making the front
cover so feminine by making the font different and
masculine. If I wanted my front cover to look very
feminine I would have used the „Times New Roman‟ font
which is smart and chic, but in doing this I would be in
danger of making my magazine look like a fashion
magazine, for example like Vogue whom also uses this
font.
SOUND
4. For the front over of my magazine I wanted
the model to be the entire focus, so I wanted
no distractions in the background therefore I
made sure my background was completely
clear and white by hiring out my college
photography studio. I chose simple lighting,
trying to avoid creating any shadows on my
models face because I wanted the face to
be the main focus, and I achieved this by
doing a close up shot (Similar to the
RollingStone Magazine). In having an image
like this, if I didn‟t make the font around the
image look masculine, my front cover would
have looked like a fashion magazine, but in
my research I found a few magazines with
main images very similar to mine so as the
RollingStone Magazine and Q Magazine of
famous female artists like Florence and The
Machine and Adele.
Also to make my music genre more obvious
to the audience I did more music magazine
research into cover line of a genre similar to
mine. So Q and RollingStone Magazine were
a big influence to me again. My magazine
front cover image does look very similar to
magazines with the same genre as mine,
partly because I used these magazines as
inspiration, but also because this sort of
images the average image you would see
and associate with a mainstream/chart
music magazine.
5. My image is only of my model,
giving the impression she is an up
and coming or already famous
artist. So I think and wanted my
audience to think my magazine is
of mainstream/chart music
because, from my audience
research questionnaire, I was told
mainstream music and music in the
charts are most popular, mostly
because it is easily found and
accessible, played on radio
stations such as Radio 1 and
Capital.
6. My image was originally quite
colourful; my model had
turquoise eye shadow on, but
I wanted my models eyes to
be a big main focus and the
bright colour of the turquoise
took the „limelight‟ away
from her eyes a bit, so I
manipulated my image to
make it a tiny bit grey with
small hints of colour still
coming through. I also
changed the colour of my
models eyes to make them
„pop‟ ore by making them I
light hazel colour. After
changing the colour of my
image the turquoise eye
shadow went a grey colour
and I added the colour grey
into my colour scheme along
with white and black.
7. I had no props for my front cover image, my
models face was most important for my
image, so the makeup was very important. The
image makes the artist look innocent and
new, and this is exactly what I wanted because
she is supposed to be, “The New Heartbreak
Superstar”.
8. To make the genre of my magazine
clear in my image I made my
model look like a “pop star”,
someone who you could imagine
being in the charts. I didn‟t make
my artist look „individual‟ to avoid
confusion of what genre my
magazine is.
9. My model featured a lot in my
magazine but festivals goers did too,
because this magazine is aimed to the.
I think the images I used for my
magazine are very appropriate for a
magazine genre such as mine because
it really appeals to me and my friends,
whom are my target audience, and
we love festivals and chart music.
10. Straight away I knew how I wanted my masthead font to look like; I have already
said that I needed it to look masculine because of my feminine looking front
cover image, so I needed the font for my masthead to be big and bold which I
think worked well. But for the rest of my cover the font went all feminine again! I
didn‟t mean to do in on purpose, I think I can‟t help it because I am a girl, so if I
could do it again I would be more disciplined on making my front cover fonts
look more masculine. But in saying that I think I did well on the contents page
making the fonts look masculine but I go back to feminine again on my double
page spread. I got my masthead font from dafont.com, it was called „Nova
Solid‟, and the rest of the fonts I used were easily accessed on either Photoshop
or InDesign. For my masthead I print screen the font from the website and
cropped in in paint then, but using the lasso tool on Photoshop I was able to
crop the font even, but this time really accurately leaving to white from the
website behind. Font for a magazine, especially for the front cover of a
magazine is very important because it is the first thing the consumer looks at
when deciding whether to buy the magazine or not, so I made my font smart
and easy to read with no other distractions of PLUS or EXTRA ruining the front
cover. I am most proud of my contents page title, I originally did it by accident
but I love how it‟s my models eyes colouring the word contents.
11. My front cover doesn‟t have much text
on it because I didn‟t want it to look
chaotic and have too many other
things distracting consumers from
looking at the image.
Chaotic Neat
So my exclamation marks and slang
comes out better in my Contents page
selling the magazine a bit more. The
contents using „young‟ language
hopefully appealing more to young
people aged 16-25.
12. For my front cover, I wanted my image to be the centre of
attention and I made this happen by not putting much text on to
the front cover avoiding the image to be ruined, I made the
image of my model go on top of the masthead and I made sure
no text covered my models face. For my contents page I wanted
to balance it out a bit by making the text the main thing on the
page but images do take a lot of the page up and also for my
double page spread one page is solely for an image and the
other one for text. I didn’t want to do loads of text though
because personally I am not a big reader, I like to look at
pictures, this may to be the same for other people but for the
people I am aiming this magazine at are like me and prefer
photos to text.
I have made the genre very clear with the images I have used, a
few of a famous artist and the rest of people at a festival. The front
cover is not colourful but the contents page and the double page
spread especially are much more colourful giving my magazine
more of a fun, you and colourful vibe. I have followed
conventions with my magazine because I know it is successful
with the consumer and will look for like a real magazine.
13. Qu2)- How does your
media product represent
particular social groups?
14. The magazine I have made is
definitely a young people‟s music
magazine. To make this clear I have
only used pictures of young people
throughout my magazine, from my
young artist/model on my front page
to the festival goers on my contents
page covered in mud wearing
colourful clothes and covered in neon
paint. This magazine is aimed to a
social group of young people who
love music, having fun and are
interested in new bands and artists. I
have represented them through the
clothes the people wear in my photos
and the language I use which is
simple, with no long words – not that
they won‟t be able to understand
them but because they do not care
for long words, they want it straight up
and easy… just like me.
