2. 1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products.
What I will be mentioning:
•Page numbers
• Masthead
• Fonts
• Colour scheme
• Style of photography
• Writing style
• Pull quotes
• Cover lines
3. Fig 1 Billboard Fig 2 NME Fig 3 Traxx
Front Cover
Starting off with my front cover, I used NME AND Billboard magazine as my inspiration to produce an overall
layout for my front cover so I had an idea of what kind of design I would like. I’ve used a medium shot as my
front cover as most of the NME and Billboard covers were medium to close up shots, so I used a similar
idea. Using the layout and design from these magazines as a plan, I made the background on my front cover
a plain colour to make it simplistic and helps the words stand out more so it will be easier to read for the
buyers and readers. Using the idea of male gaze, I looked at magazine covers from Billboard and NME and
researched woman on the front covers. When it came to taking my photos, I took a picture of my friend who
is a girl to attract the men for the male gaze. I have also realised that the women on the covers have make
up on and have a simple facial expression and so I used my model and put make up on her and made her
pose in a casual manner. This look is simple and it attracts the male gender by putting an attractive female at
the front of the cover and it could also attract the female readers as they want to find out more about the
female artist and use her as a role model on how to look to attract men and it helps the magazine more
popular.
4. Masthead
With my masthead, I wanted to create something that would stand out to the buyers and
readers to make my magazine look interesting and it helps people to remember the magazine
name. I used Dafont.com to create the font by choosing an appropriate font to use as a
masthead. Before choosing the font, I had to figure out which one would look right on the cover
of my magazine. In my pitch, I explained that my magazine design was going to be simplistic and
clean without any bright or colourful fonts and colours to imitate magazines like Billboard and
NME with their clean and simple masthead that clearly shows the name of the magazine. I kept
it simple with using just one colour, which is black, so it can be read and will stand out to the
plain grey background of the front cover. I have also created a slogan under the masthead
following the same concept that NME has done.
Fig 1 Billboard Fig 2 NME Fig 3 Traxx
5. Front Cover Photography
Using the idea of male gaze, I looked at magazine covers from Billboard and NME and researched woman on
the front covers. When it came to taking my photos, I took a picture of my friend who is a girl to attract the
men for the male gaze. I have also realised that the women on the covers have make up on and have a
simple facial expression and so I used my model and put make up on her and made her pose in a casual
manner. This look is simple and it attracts the male gender by putting an attractive female at the front of the
cover and it could also attract the female readers as they want to find out more about the female artist and
use her as a role model on how to look to attract men and it helps the magazine more popular. In my front
cover, the photos I took had a similar concept. I took pictures of a single model for my front cover following
fig 1 and 2 (as shown above). This is where I’ve matched conventions with these 2 magazines because I have
used a female figure as the main character to attract the male audience. I have taken a medium shot which
is a little different from figure 1 and 2 as they are medium close up to close up. I chose the image to be like
that because then I could put more words and writing around the image without having any problems with
reading the captions and headlines of the magazine so more areas of the magazine could be shown in the
front cover for the audience to have an idea of what to expect in the magazine.
Fig 1 Billboard Fig 2 NME Fig 3 Traxx
6. Fig 1 Billboard Fig 2 NME Fig 3 Traxx
Cover line
On my front cover, I have written a cover line to show the readers what will be in the magazine and
what are the main attractions and stories that are inside the magazine. My cover line isn’t the exactly
the same as NME and Billboard as both magazines have listed out and revealed quite a lot about
what is going to be in the magazine. Also on Billboard and NME, their cover line talks about the main
person/ act on the front cover, whereas I have not. I have just shown the readers what will be
included with the magazine, such as freebies, and one main story.
7. Barcode
The function of the barcode on every magazine is to help the readers purchase the music
magazine. Also alongside the barcode, it informs the readers the price of the magazine
and the date when this magazine was put out on the newspaper stands and book stores so
viewers can keep up to track with which magazine they have read and which is the latest
one.
8. Colour Scheme
The colour scheme I used on my music magazine cover is simple and easy to read with the grey
background of the picture. Like Billboard magazine, I used some of the same colour's over again
so that the colour scheme doesn’t distract the readers from the actual texts and headlines of
the contents inside the magazine. Although something I would like to change in my magazine
cover is the colour of the name ‘Rae Johnson’ to a brighter colour to contrast with the colour of
the models hair to make it more visible to the readers, like ‘Florence’ on the cover of NME
magazine with its dark blue colour standing out from the white background.
9. What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
10. Software:
• Photoshop
• Survey monkey
• Dafont
• Internet
• Slideshare
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Blogger
• Youtube
• Windows Movie Maker
• Facebook
• Twitter
In the process of making my music magazine, I have used different types of
technologies to compose the magazine and the pages and programmes that help
make the magazine look better. I have also used different websites such as survey
monkey to help with my research.
Hardware:
• Computer
• Camera (Canon 600D
SLR)
• Thumb drive
• SD card
• Voice recorder (for
interviews)
11. Research
Planning
For my planning stage, I used the internet to research different types of magazine as our inspiration for the
music magazine we are producing. When researching magazine, I looked for magazines that are similar to my
ideas of the style of magazine I wanted to create. I searched for magazines out there in the market now and
which ones are selling out fast or which ones were the most popular to the people. I chose magazines such as
Billboard, NME and Q as my main inspirations for my magazine. I also then researched the companies that own
these magazines to see what type of genre of magazines they are after and what different companies expect
from music magazines. Bauer Media and IPC media are the leading consumer magazine companies with
NME, Q, Mojo, Kerrang and other entertainment magazines.
12. Research
I then chose a type of genre of magazine I would like to make for my music
magazine. To help me decide, I have done an interview with a student in my
class and survey monkey questionnaire to help me see what kind of music
teenagers in the same age range I am making a magazine for like. After
interviewing and gathering up the information from my questionnaire, I put
all my research together and came up with the genre magazine I would want
to make and what readers expect in a magazine.
13. Research
Linking to the Survey Monkey questionnaire, I used the social networking media to get my friends
to help complete my survey to gather up more answers and help with the researching process so
I get more of a solid amount of answers to back up the reason behind my magazine genre and
other additional information inside the magazine. It was also he fast way I knew to get enough
attention to people and get the questions out the quickest way. I used Facebook and Twitter to
share my questionnaire out and asked my friends on Facebook and Twitter to help me with my
research.
14. Research
I used Blogger.com to put all my coursework pieces in 1 area which is easy to
access and to reference to. I have never used Blogger before so this is a first
time experience for me to learn how to upload individual posts, photos and
videos for easy viewing for everyone and it was quite simple to use. I used
Blogger to upload my research, planning stages and my final production. Even
though Blogger wasn’t the main software I used in my project.
15. Slide Share
I used Slide Share to convert PowerPoint presentations to put them on Blogger. I have
also never used Slide Share before so it was a first time for me. It was simple to use
and it was really helpful when uploading PowerPoint presentations to my blog.
This software wasn’t a big part of my coursework as I only had to use it twice but it
was vital for putting my research, like my pitch, on my blog. I used how to embed the
PowerPoint files using the HTML code and posting the code on our blog.
16. Research
Another software I used for my planning was Microsoft Word and
PowerPoint. I used PowerPoint to create my Pitch (magazine plans) and to
make my flat plans for the overall layout for my magazine with the individual
pages. I used Microsoft Word to write up my double page article, which was
my interview with the main attraction/band of my music magazine. These
both programmes I have used before so it was easy and simple to use.
