1. In What Ways Does
Your Media Product
Use, Develop or
Challenge Forms and
Conventions of Real
Media Products?

3. Like all magazine titles there is a meaning behind them. For example Q is named
after as in the sense of cueing a record, meaning ready to play. Kerrang! Is meant
to represent the sound of an electric guitar as it is plugged into an amp and NME
stands for new music experience. My magazine is called Vinyl for it congers up
the image of vintage and in other words old school. This has the effect of taking
back the reader to a past time where music was real and had not been tampered
with. As you can see the majority of the professional titles are in capital letters
so this is what I have done for mine, it shows the importance of it by making it
bold and standing out more. Another way I have followed suit in the means of
my title is the colour, most of these professional magazine titles are in red. It is a
very vibrant colour and when walking past a magazine shelf most probably one
of the very first colour you will be able to spot out. I thought it was a nice touch
that instead of the dot on top of the ‘I’ I replaced it with an actually vinyl record
otherwise I feel it may of looked a tad plane and boring. The coverline for my
magazine is ‘you’ve only just scratched the surface!’ a playful yet intellectual
pun. Of course to every pun there are two ways in which you can look at it, the
first being that it is only the start of what you are yet to discover inside and the
other being vinyl records can quite easily be scratched when the needle is placed
down to play them.

4. The costume that I picked out for my model
was all black. I deliberately made this choice
for it contrast completely with the plain off
white background giving it a very
monochrome effect making her stand out
very clearly. Black is also a colour we
normally relate with rock music. On the t-
shirt there is the iconic image of The Rolling
Stones tongue. This once again is another
connection to the rock genre and one that
many people can recognise. The lips and
tongue are coloured in a union jack pattern
showing patriotism for that is the
nationality of both the musician and
magazine

5. I actually didn’t use any particular
lighting apart from the ones in the
room. I was lucky enough that the
lighting fell perfectly on her face
lighting it up seeing as it is the
most important and main focus
point on the front cover, it also
added highlights to the hair giving
it a golden tones. the other picture
I took didn’t have any added light
either however if they did turn out
a bit to dark I easily brightened
them up in Picnik.

6. My model I used for the main sum of my
picture is Rosalind Shirm and is actually
my girlfriend and was kind enough to let
me take them of her, even if she did hate
nearly every single one. I chose a young
attractive girl for my main image because
it gives sex appeal to the magazine and
sex sells. I also took a few pictures of
myself as well, some may say it is pretty
vein but I just couldn’t help myself. I did
debate on whether to put the ones of me
in my magazine at all but I felt they were
pretty good and didn’t want to see them
go to waste, plus I felt they fitted in quite
well by adding the question about the
boyfriend.

7. I was originally going to use image number one but after
asking the opinions of my media teachers, students in my
media class and the rest of my peers in my year I decided to
change to images 2. I personally prefer photo 1 but there are
reasons I did not have it as my main cover image, after all
it’s not what I want it’s what the public wants. In the first
image my models face is looking ever so slightly innocent
and as if she is about to say something, also her hair is tied
back giving her appearance a much neater feel to it. She also
had red eye but I could of quite easily of removed that.
These things are not suited to my rock magazine. This is why
I ended up choosing photo number 2. Her pose shouts out
attitude with her hands behind her back leaning into the
camera. Her facial expression is still welcoming yet with an
underling hint of arrogance, something that you look for in
your classic stereotypical rock chick. Her hair is all brought to
the front at one side still leaving her face wide open and
clear to see yet showing it is unkempt and untamed like the
musician herself. Finally on a practically side her body
curved in a way in which I could place the title, text and
other images perfectly.

8. I wanted a natural beauty
so I hardly used any
makeup what so ever. My
model used only a dark
mascara and eyeliner
perfect for the rock and
roll look I was trying to
achieve, as you can tell
from some picture only
Rosalind could pull it off.

9. The setting was easy I just moved all the
furniture that was in front of a plain white
wall in my house and I had created my
very own photo shoot area. I used only
two props and they were musically based,
my black electric guitar and a pair of
drumsticks. The electric guitar is the
panicle stereotype of rock and roll and is
associated with music and that genre. It
was good to use in photos for you can
pose around them, they almost become
an attachment of your body. The drum
sticks are simple yet effective and once
again related to music and more
importantly rock as well.

10. I got my main front style from dafont.com and is called VTKS
ENCOUNT(E)R and I also used Times New Roman for the smaller, more
professional things such as the price, date and web address for the front
cover and then side for the double page spread the same. I used VTKS
ENCOUNT(E)R because it is a very scruffy looking font with a rough edge
to it yet still clear enough to read. All magazines have a unique font style
exclusive to that particular magazine. A more pop based mag would have
curved and bubbled writing, where a rock music magazine has a rouged
styled font.

11. For my interview I followed a question and answer format, but before this I had
a brief introduction to introduce the artist and also to set the sense, giving a
little bit of information before getting into the main facts. I kept the questions I
was asking sort meaning the interviewee had to try harder to give a more in
depth answer. I varied as well altering from just general chit chat to more topical
relavetent questions, like about the tour. When answering as Lola I wanted her
to come across down to earth, giving great juxtaposition between what people
would see from her on stage and what she is like in real life. I tried to do the
same for the editor’s letter. By using phrases, words and sentences that you
could imagine them actually saying it.

12. My music genre is rock indie. My house
colours black, white and red are just one
indications of this. With my own knowledge
of old school rock I incorporated that into
my interview what with the connection of
the kinks. As well as the list on my front
cover showing past and present rock indie
musicians. The images are jam packed with
attitude very typical of a rock and roll
image; it’s all about acting cool.

13. There is evidence into that the first place
a person looks when picking up a
magazine is the top right hand quarter,
because of this reason I have placed my
main image so the face is the first thing
you see, because in my opinion this is the
most important bit. By following normal
conventions of a magazine I decided to
place my title and coverline in the top left
hand corner. I tried to leave to tongue
print on the t-shirt open to the eye as
well, so I placed all the text and subtitles
in the blank spaces down each side.
Separated clearly by the little stars. The
bottom left hand corner was looking very
empty so I chose to place in another
image, something I could then link to and
write about in my double page spread.

14. I didn’t want my contents
page to be to wordy so I
added a film reel/photo
negatives down the side
which I thought looked
pretty cool. I did this because
I find most people don’t tend
to read the contents page
that much. The text that I did
have I broke up into sections,
features and regulars. This is
found in existing magazines
quite a lot.