The document discusses how the media product uses and develops conventions of real magazines. Key conventions included are a masthead, cover lines, barcode/date, footer, flasher, rule of thirds, color scheme, contents listing with issue number and masthead repeated, quotes, subheadings, images matching genre, page numbers, editorials, and opportunities to subscribe. The document explains how each convention is implemented in the media product and how some conventions are challenged or developed, such as adding stroke effects to make elements more eye-catching.

1. Evaluation

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

3. Header: I have used a header because it is a common convention of magazines and helps the reader to know what the content of the magazine. Is. I also noticed that rock/indie magazines such as ‘Kerrang!’ included bands/atrists on the cover so i too have done this. Masthead: I have used a mast head because it is an essential convention of a magazine. I have made sure it is bold and stands out by using a bright stroke around the black text. Main cover line: I have chosen to include a main cover line as I noticed the majority of magazines I looked at during my research such as ‘NME’ and ‘Q’ used this convention made my main cover line slightly larger than the rest of my cover lines and have used the same stroke as I did on my masthead in order for it to catch the readers eye. It is placed slightly across the person on the front cover, I did this because I noticed this was a common convention of other magazines. Cover lines: I have included several cover lines on my cover as this is an essential convention. I used different fonts and colours for my cover lines as when doing my research I found that this was a common thing to do in order to make the cover appealing and eye catching. Barcode/date: I have included the date and a barcode on my magazine as I am aware that it is essential to have a barcode on your magazine in order for it to be purchased and having the date was a common convention used to make it easier for the reader to know when the magazine issue came out. It is written in small print not to take up to much room and take the attention away from things such as my cover lines. And placed in the bottom corner as when doing my research i found most magazines tended to place it there. Footer : I chose to include a footer as well as a header. When doing my research I noticed that not many magazines did this only a small minority however i wanted to make my magazine as eye catching as possible and felt, with the added ‘poster special’ feature I could attract my target audience more and allow them to get a better understanding of the content of my magazine. Flasher: I have included a flasher on the cover as I noticed during my research this was a common convention. I have made it stand out by using white text against a black background including a yellow stroke around the text and a red stroke around the circle shape. Not many magazines use a stroke around the flashers however I felt it was a good idea to make it more eye catching. Main Image: My main image is of a male aged 17 who is into rock music. I felt this was appropriate as my music magazine is a rock magazine aimed at both males and females aged between 16-21. I have made sure the way he is dressed matches the style of the magazine as this is commonly done on most magazines. Therefore I have chosen for him to wear dark clothing to match the genre and have chosen for him to be playing an electric guitar to fit in with the indie/rock genre of my magazine. I have chosen to challenge the conventions of most magazines as I have chosen for him to not be making eye contact with the camera I chose to do this because it created a more ambient moody mood which is what I was going for. As I wanted it to seem as though he almost didn’t want to look at the camera in a sense which I felt helped to put the feel of my magazine across to my target audience. Rule of thirds: I have chosen to use rule of thirds as the majority of magazines I looked at in my research such as ‘Kerrang!’ used this convention. Colour scheme: I have chosen to just use a few colours as I found in my research the majority of magazines just stick to a certain house style or selection of colours. I found in my research the colours they used tended to match the style of their magazine for example when looking at ‘Top Of The Pops’ I found that they used bright girly colours such as pink and blue, So for my magazine I chose to use red yellow black and white as I felt these colours where dark colours which created an ambient mood linking with the rock/Indie genre.

4. Masthead : i noticed during my research that many magazines such as ‘NME’ and ‘Rock Sound’ all repeated there masthead on the contents page and so chose to follow this convention. Contents: i chose to include the word ‘Contents’ as this seemed to be an essential convention that almost every magazine i looked at had included. I chose to make it a different colour to the masthead to stand out which was also common in other magazines, i also chose to place it just under the masthead at the top of the page as most magazines placed it there such as ‘Kerrang!’ Issue no/Cover date : I found when looking at other magazines that they often included the cover date and issue number so i chose to include this i placed it under the masthead in small print which is where it was commonly placed on other magazine contents’ pages for example ‘Rock Sound’ Quote : When looking at ‘Kerrang!’ magazine during my magazine research i noticed they had included a quote, i felt this was a good convention to follow and so included it in my magazine and made it red in order to stand out Subheadings: I have made sure to include sub headings as this was something i found in all the magazines i looked at. I chose to make them stand out by having bold, black writing against a bright yellow background and i noticed during my research that the magazines i looked at had chose to make their sub headings a different colour to the text underneath. Not many however had the sub headings in boxes but i chose to do this as i felt it would separate the text underneath from the sub headings more and make it easier for the reader and more eye catching. I also chose to have the text underneath bolded and capitalised which i found wasn’t common in a lot of magazines however i felt it would make it stand out more and add to the ‘loud’ and ‘bold’ vibe of my magazine as it is targeted at the loud, noisy rock/indie genre. I also chose When i was looking at ‘NME’ magazine i noticed that they had used a feature similar to this, and as NME is a rock/indie magazine i felt the feature would fit my magazine well and so decided to include it placing it at the bottom just like they had done Page numbers: i decided after doing some research to include a yellow stroke on my page numbers as many magazines used a different colour or added some sort of effect. Rule of thirds : i kept to the rule of thirds by placing my images on the one side with a few features underneath and my text on the other side a lot of magazines did this Images: i made sure the images i used matched the genre of my magazine as this is something all the magazines i looked at did. Therefore i used indie clothing for my model in my dominate image, my second image has a more ‘rock’ vibe to it as she has dyed red and black hair and piercings and the third image is an album cover which many magazines like ‘kerrang!’ often included. On my dominate image i also included a caption as i found the majority of the magazines i looked at did this. And on all of them included page numbers which was also a common convention of other magazines i developed the idea by adding a stroke on to the numbers so they would stand out more as most magazines had them printed quite small with minimum amount of effects added to them .

5. Colour Scheme: i chose to stick to the same colours as my cover sticking to a house style as this was a professional approach i found a lot o magazines in my research did Editorial: i chose to include an editorial as all the magazines i looked at for example ‘Q’ had one and just like they did I made sure the language/tone fitted my target audience. I placed it underneath my pictures towards the bottom, where as most of the magazines i looked at chose to place it at the top however i felt it was more suitable to have it at the bottom as it made the contents page layout better. However i did keep to the idea of having large quote marks which i found where used in ‘Kerrang!’ and developed this idea by having the quote marks a different colour and adding a stroke effect in order for them to stand out more Subscribe : i chose to place a subscribe feature box at the bottom of the page as i found that many magazines included this feature however in most magazines such a ‘Kerrang!’ i noticed they included a few images of past magazine issues however i decided not to do this as i felt it looked more effective without it as the bold whit text with red stroke stood out really well against the black background .

6. Header: i have chosen to include a header only a few of the magazines i looked at included one of these however i felt it would benefit the overall appearance, and i made it eye catching with the use of colours and stoke effect Title of article : I chose to have ‘James Stone’ written in black large capitalised font with a red stroke as many magazines such as ‘Q’ and ‘Rock Sound’ presented their article titles in this style. I placed it across the top as this was common in most magazines i looked at. By-line : All the magazines i looked at included a by-line and so i followed this convention. Using a slightly different font style and italic style writing to add effect and make it more professional as i noticed ‘NME’ had used this technique. Stand first: whilst doing my research i often found that there was a stand first beneath the article title i stuck to this convention and developed it by using a yellow stroke effect to make it more eye catching and making it capitalised to stand out more and add to the ‘loud’ theme of my magazine with most my text being capitalised to add that effect Drop Capital: Almost every article i read during my research contained a drop capital and felt i should therefore include one developing the idea by adding a stroke effect to make it more eye catching Q&A : i found a common convention used in Q&A articles was that the questions were presented slightly differently for example in a different colour however rather than changing the colour i decided to just add a yellow stroke effect i thought this made it look more professional and eye catching matching my stand first At the bottom of articles i looked at during my research i noticed information of some sort about the person /people in the article had been added for example album release dates so i chose to do that too, it made it more professional looking Page number: I chose to add the name of my magazine and page number at the bottom of the page as this was something i noticed every magazine i looked at did however none of them included the date so i decided to challenge this by adding it in i thought it might make it look more professional Pull Quote: Some of the articles i looked at included a pull quote and i felt that it would be a good idea to use one in mine as i thought it would add to the professional look of the magazine and would be eye catching i used a red stroke effect on both the text and the shape to break up the colours on the page and to make it stand out from the other text on the page which is what most pull quotes in magazines i looked at for example ‘Kerrang!’ did. Website : when looking in ‘Kerrang!’ magazine during my research i noticed thy had included a website at he bottom of their double page spread so i decided to do the same i kept it small like they had however i capitalised the text to add to my capitalised theme, using a red stroke to help it stand out even more

7. Images : When doing my research i found some magazines had used just one dominant image on their double page spread and some had used a number of images i chose to used 3 different images one dominant and two smaller ones as i saw this being used on a double page spread in ‘NME’ and liked the idea. I took 3 different shots of where he was looking ‘up, across, down’ unlike most magazines i looked at i decided to challenge the idea of having the person look at the camera i wanted to again create an angry, moody atmosphere and mood to portray the personality of the person being interviewed. I also felt this idea linked to the rude, noisy, angry mood that of the rock/indie genre and therefore chose not to have him look at the camera. However i did make sure like other rock/indie magazines e.g. ‘Rock sound’ that the clothing matched the rock/indie genre so dressed him in dark band clothing and had him hold and electric guitar. I also included an image caption on the dominant image as i noticed this was done a lot when looking at other magazines. Colour scheme : i chose to stick to the same house style as most magazines i looked at such as ‘Q’ did this therefore i felt it would be professional and effective to do the same. Layout: i noticed different ways in which double page spreads where laid out during my research some landscape, some portrait some with text flowing over both pages others with it just on the one side, i took the approach of having it portrait with the text on the one side and images on the other i felt by doing this the images would be more eye-catching and i could afford to make them larger. Rule of thirds: All magazines kept to the rule of thirds and i chose to do the same as it made the layout look better and professional