The document discusses how the media product, a music magazine, uses and is inspired by real music magazines. It describes: 1) Using Photoshop and an iPhone camera to match the quality and photo styles of magazines like Kerrang!, Q, and NME. 2) Basing the layout of the cover, contents, and a two-page spread on rock magazines to replicate their conventions. 3) Conducting a focus group and publishing the results online to get feedback and improve the final product. The goal was to use available technology to emulate the forms and styles of popular music magazines.

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

2. Production
 I used the internet to check for big-name
music magazines such as Kerrang!, Q
magazine and NME to see how their
magazines are portrayed.
 I created my music magazine using
mainly photoshop to match up to the
quality of real music magazines.
 I based the layout of my cover, contents
and 2 page spread on certain rock
magazines that inspired me.

3. Camerawork
 Here are a few examples of photos I
used in my music magazine:

5.  I used my IPhone camera to take all photos in my
magazine.
 I took them from different angles to give them
different effects (i.e. low angle, close up…). I
thought I’d do this because as I flicked through the
pages of famous rock magazines, I noticed that
their photos were taken from different angles, etc.
 I took a wide range of photos; different angles of the
same photos. This helped me choose the best
photos.
 I used the best technology at my disposal to get the
best possible photo quality I could.

6. Layout
 The main image slightly covers
the masthead, just like in most
magazines I analysed. This is
because the magazine is so
famous, you only need to see a
few letters from it’s title and it’s
shape/design to recognise it.
 The taglines are scattered around
the main image, using different
fonts.
 I got the layout idea from two
different covers: a Kerrang!
magazine cover and an NME
magazine cover. They have
generally the same type of genre
in their magazine so I thought it
would be relevant to use them as
a template.

7. Layout
 In the top left-hand corner of
my contents page, I left an
“editors message”, directed at
the people who have bought
my magazine. I saw this
feature in a few magazines
such as Kerrang! and thought it
would be interesting to put in
my magazine.
 I tried to use as many different
fonts as possible without going
too over the top with it; I
basically used a different font
for each bands
name, depending on their
genre (distorted for heavier
bands)

8. Layout
 I based the layout of my 2 page spread on a “Rock Sound” music
magazine’s 2 page spread.
 One page has pull-out-quotes with a photo of a band member
playing an instrument. Rock magazines that I analysed had this
feature so I thought it would be good to include in my magazine.
 The other has the lead singer posing next to paragraphs of text
which talk about him and his band. This is the first time I used a
photo of a band member posing, so I thought it would be a good
idea to use it next to text that is talking about them.
My 2 page spread Rock Sound 2 page spread

9. Focus Group
 I used a focus group to evaluate my final
magazine draft, hoping to use any
constructive comments to improve my final
product.
 This allowed me to do the best I can with
the technology at my disposal to get the
same effects for my magazine as big name
magazines i.e. Q magazine, NME and
Kerrang!
 I published my focus group on my
blogspot.