My Media AS Evaluation Question 1

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

2. Tim McMorrow
I carried out very specific research before I started to choose
my genre. During my research I discovered that there are
different conventionsand components that go into making a
magazine. I focused on the big names who are famous for
their magazines such as KERRANG and NME as they featured
artists related to the rock genre. I therefore used them as a
base and used similarlayouts, colours and fonts to make the
magazines fit as closely as possible to theirs. At first glance
we see no similarities between the two however, KERRANG
and NME inspired my magazine production mainlymy cover
and contents page.
The majority of rock artists are Caucasianmales so to make
them stand out more, they have to rely on their personality
and how they are perceived by the audienceto help them

3. Tim McMorrow
gain awareness from their intendedtarget market. In the
case of my model, he is a big white male which meets the
typical stereotype for rock artists but also brings across a
challenge of him not standing out compared to other artists
so I had to create a compellingbackstory and personality for
my model to make him stand out. Since my model is white, I
decided to use low and high angle lighting to help make the
image darker by creating shadows which could also help in
relating his personality to the main images.
My magazine has the background image taken out which has
allowedme to set a colouras the backgroundwhich will
complement both the artist and the genre and by doing this,
it will help make my magazine more appealingto my
intendedaudience as the colours will appealto the audience
but at the same time, the colour don’t stand out more than
my artist making it so the audienceare caught by the look of
the magazine while not being bombardedwith lots of
different and conflicting colours and information. I got most
of my inspirationfrom KERRANG and Rolling Stones. I did use
props however this consisted of a set of drum sticks and a
guitar both being held in the artist’s hand. I feel that the use
of these props help to show the audience his affiliationwith
the rock genre and shows us that he is a solo artist due to
him not sticking to one type of instrument but rather
showing his flexibilityas an artist which has led to his growing
success. There are several instances in famous magazines
where the artist will be showing off the instruments which
they play as to let the audience know what type of musician
they are in the band. There was no make-up on my artist due

4. Tim McMorrow
to him being male and because I didn’t feel there was a need
as most rock bandswho wear make-up tend to be more
excessive, a good example would be Kiss with them over the
top make-up. When it comes to the artist’s body language
and positioningof my artist, I discovered that using a
medium shot is the most effective as it allows me to show off
his body language as well as getting the props in the shot
also. By using a medium shot it also allowsme to cover more
of the page which results in making the artist more appealing
to the readers. I made it so my artist was making eye contact
with the reader as this will assist in captivatingthe audience
into wanting to read as they will feel a personal affiliation
with the artist and what he must say. Magazine Subject: As to
keep with the stereotypes, I decided to aim my magazine at
the male audienceas they are considered the ones who
listen to rock music and are who I have aimed my magazine
towards. In terms of class, my magazine is tailoredmore to
the high-middleclass who may have a part time job due to
their age.
Researching other doublepage spreads, I noticed that they
includedinterviews with the artists which helpedto captivate
the audienceeven more and help them relate to the artist. In
my contents page, I tried to includeas many topics that are
appealingto my target market. For example, recently there
has been a lot of talk of new albums being released and so I
decided to make cover lines about it to raise the audience’s
awareness of the news. Overall I believe I have portrayed the
rock genre well in my magazine. Conventionsof rock include
dark clothing, messy hairstyles and make-up. My focus was to

5. Tim McMorrow
have an artist who looks like he is still in pain from his past
however now he has done well for himself. The lighting was
hard to get right. Thisis because it needs to go well with the
colours of the magazine and the skin colourof the artist.