1. Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
2. In order to answer this question I had to
split it into three sections within the
product such as ; Front cover, double page
spread and contents page…
3. Front cover
Introduction : when creating / making my front cover, I needed inspiration from other similar
magazines such as ‘XXL’ and ‘Vibe magazine’. I needed inspiration from these specific
magazines because, they are based around my target audience and in the same genre , and
are very successful. I tried to fit conventions while also trying to create a unique product.
4. lighting/ background
The lighting in my front cover image isn’t low-key or high-key instead I made sure the
lighting was balanced , as I knew , I would have my masthead in white on the off
white background , because if they was the same tone, if hey would clasdh, I could of
made the background whiter in ‘photoshop’ and change the colour of the ,masthead,
but I wanted the artist top to be the same off white as the background so it would
blend more.
For the lighting I used a hair light, which created a light around the artists body to
bring his body off the backdrop, and brang the artist body more forward. This brings
the image more together.
5. location
The location of this front cover image was in a professional photography studio on a
white background as I have seen in the majority of ‘vibe’ and ‘xxl’ frontcovers are
normally a plain background and is white which I thought would be effective because
it will focus the readers on the artist, compared to if it was a coloured background
which was plain it would most likely distract the readers.
6. Artists body language
I made the artist body language also appeal to my target audience; by making the artists
body be slightly arched and bent over leaning and looking directly into the readers eyes. This
pose denotes a young persons pose , which makes the artists relate more to the target
audience . The image connotes a serious vibe as the artist has no facial expression , I did this
so the vibe and feel was like the artist is ‘the man’ or like the top guy.
7. costume
The outfit the artist is wearing is casual and is the lastest most common style of 2015
in the 16-19 even older fasion. The triple black huaraches which he wears on his feet
are the most popular shoes. I didn’t want to dress the artist in expensive brands which
will make the audience want to brake their pockets for, I wasn’t trying to make the
artist look higher hierarchy in the way they dress on drakes level as my magazine
advertises music not clothing brands that are ridiciously expensive , I wanted the artist
to look average and casual, which differs from other magazines in the same genre as
mine
8. Composition / positioning
The composition is good as it looked like he is behind the text and zoomed out,as
there was some text to be put onto the magazine and this made the magazine look
more positively positioned so it looked more professional. But I could of improved
the composition but adding abit more text as bits at the bottom of the front cover
was abit gappy, as I sadly ran out of interesting appealing coverlines.
9. angling
The angle of the shot is a longshot as you can see the artists full body and the body is
zoomed out. The image is portrait, as most magazines are.
11. Coverlines
I had to be very selective when chosing my coverlines as this is the main thing that
draws my target audience in, and it sums up abit of whats inside , so I did find this
challenging so I had to make it interesting and appealing as possible . I took
inspiration front old issues of the ‘vibe’ magazine to get a rough idea about what to
write to make a successful front cover.
12. Colour scheme
Overall I have learnt a lot in terms of magazines when creating my front cover such as
colour schemes for different genre magazines, which is one of the main reasons I kept
the colour scheme simple with three main colours that all co-ordinated well. I chose
these basic colours of white and black as this was the colour clothing the artist is
wearing , but didn’t want the colour scheme to be too dull so I added in a primary
colour of yellow to make the magazine look more exciting, these three colours went
well together and made my magazine successful .
13. conventions
To make this magazine look even more professional , I ialso included a barcode, prics
and issue number
14. DPS
in order to create a successful, conventional and appealing DPS, I looked at other
magazine double page spreads and took inspiration from there…
15. For my DPS I decided to have a portrait image of the artist instead of a full DPS image
background, so the artist is separate from the text. I also did as the angle of the artists
body is standing which is directly to the left looks like he is looking towards the text,
which made my DPS more appealing.
The image of the artist is a medium shot as it is a three quarter shot of the artist body,
from his waist upwards. The artists pose makes him look sophisticated while dressed
in causal clothing which is what I intended as I wanted the image to relate to the pull
quote “music is how I got out the hood for good” I made sure the artist wore a
bomber jacket which is hood like but is stylish and more sophisticated than the nike
or adidas version of a bomber jacket.
16. angle/lighting
The angle I took this shot was so that you can only see half / one side of the artist
body and face, as the other side represents his past and the side the readers can see
represents his success. The side not shown (the dark past) is to imply he has come a
long way . The location for this shot was again in a professional photography studio.
The lighting in this image is not too bright or to dark, I made the colour background
in the image as the same colour as the colour background on the text so it all looks
blended and brang together to look conventional, instead of two separate pages.
17. DPS conventions
My double page spread also follow the conventions as it has an introduction
explaning what the article is about, a large image and the interview on the right hand
side. My analysis of existing magazine products helped me a lot when creating a
conventional product, as I used other sources for inspiration.
18. Changes
When making my DPS I made a lot of changes regarding to the layout, i.e. whether to
have a full background and image or only one image on one side of the page, also
what fonts to use as I wanted my magazine to follow the conventions of a successful
music magazine
19. Contents page
I had issues creating the contents page as I had to include two images minimum on
the contents page, which meant constantly changing my ideas.
I started of after about 6 times changing non keeping this was my contents page…
until I changed it to this …
