Kieron Mcadam evaluation question 1

1. Evaluation Question1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. The front cover of my magazine followed the style of Rock sound as it uses a the same/similar genre as mine, so I used a similar style font. The size of my mast head font is smaller than both kerrang and rock sound, as I wanted the model to be the main focus. However my font is solid and stands out against the model and background. The genre of my magazine isn’t really represented from the font I have used unlike Kerrang which has a harsh, aggressive font which is generic to the music within. Instead I have the title of my magazine which is “Stand-Up!” this connotes to new artists which aren’t as ‘big’ or as well known. This along with my model represents the genre I am trying to create. The positioning of my mast head is the same as both professional magazines; top third of the page with a skyline above and filling the width of the page. I tried not to challenge any of the conventions within the genre as people in the genre consider themselves to be unique and have their own individual style so I used similar clothing to that of most rock/metal magazines would wear. The genre of the magazine is represented through my model and fonts used on my main sell line. This is to create the aggressive nature of the music something which kerrang also does but within the mast head. The content within my sell lines is the same as both rocksound and kerrang; these mainly include bands featured, information on posters and a news preview. The choice of model also follows the conventions set by other magazines; he is very representative of the genre I’m trying to create and therefore suitable. The magazine within the genre I challenged most was metal hammer, they follow a cartoon style which would have been appropriate for younger fans of the genre. However I wanted to distribute my magazine to a wider audience so I decided to follow a more professional look but keep the content more relatable for both younger and older generations.

3. My contents also tried to follow the conventions set by other magazines. It used the same use of models and fonts ( except metal hammer a magazine which I challenge a lot of the conventions set by it). The clothing on the models is very similar all following genre stereotypes such as skinny jeans which all magazines use. The props I used also follow the style set by the 3 professional magazines. They are suitable for the genre and add professionalism. The colour scheme is another area which I used from professional magazines due to it being representative of the magazines genre. The written content inside the contents doesn’t challenge any of the conventions of professional magazines, it contains similar sub-headings for example. I included editors notes also which kerrang and metal hammer included. The structure of the magazines follows kerrang magazines theme. I chose this theme over metal hammer and rocksound due it being more suited for my target audience without substituting professionalism. Another reason I challenged metal hammer is due to the genre being represented is very aggressive metal where as mine represents less hardcore metal such pop-punk and rock so my magazine has to be suitable across multiple genres within rock/metal genre. Rocksound used just one image whereas I used 2, this is due to the fact I want to give readers a wider insight to what bands are featured within the magazine so displaying one picture wouldn't be suitable.

4. The structure of my double page spread challenges the examples I have provided. However, many other issues of the professional magazines use the same structure to the one I have used. I challenged the examples due to the fact I didn’t think it was suitable for this artists feature. The content of my article is all about him so a single page shot was needed so the reader knows that he is the focus of the article. Also the structure used on the metal hammer and kerrang magazines featured here are for bands which have multiple members so space would be an issue where as I had the one artist so I had plenty of space for an image without needing to go over into another page. The content of my article is very suitable for the genre as it is a common story for bands in this genre (band members falling out) and therefore it was suitable to use in the magazine. The lighting of the image used challenges the metal hammer photo; many metal/rock magazines have dark lighting in their photos due to the nature of their lyrics/songs containing dark content so a dark image would be representative. My model isn’t a hardcore sub-genre of metal but more acoustic rock so the music is much lighter so the lighting connotes to his genre which I was I challenged this. The prop used doesn’t challenge common conventions due to it being used very often by the professional magazines of this genre. The fonts used on this page challenge rocksound's, this is due to the target audience for their magazine being much older so I had to compromise a font which would be suitable for younger and older audiences.