The media product challenges conventions of music magazines by basing its format on VICE magazine, which covers multiple topics beyond just music. It simplifies the magazine's front cover design compared to most indie rock magazines which are busy. It also uses a similar font to VICE which stands out. While some conventions are followed, such as the rule of thirds layout and typical model clothing, other elements diverge like taking some photos outside of a studio setting. The color scheme adheres to the black, white and red scheme common to music magazines to signal its genre.

1. In what ways does your media
product, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products? (i.e. music
magazines)

2. • I based my magazine on 'VICE', this challenges the forms and
conventions of real magazines because 'VICE' is not a magazine
specifically about music, its about all sorts of things such as current
affairs and fashion etc. as well as music. My magazine was 'indie
rock' and most indie rock magazines such as 'NME' and 'Q' have a
lot of over lines on the front cover and there is a lot going on,
however I wanted to keep mine as simple as possible as I liked the
way 'VICE' looked so in that way I have challenged the forms and
conventions of indie rock magazines. I used a similar font for the
masthead to that of 'VICE' as I really liked this font and thought it
stood out a lot and looks aesthetically pleasing on the front cover of
a magazine. The model I chose was good because he looks like he
should be in an indie band as he wears the right clothing and has
a similar haircut etc.

3. • We learnt about the key concepts of making a magazine, the first one that
we learnt about was the rule of thirds, and this is where the magazine is
split up into thirds and most of the magazines tended to copy this by
having the masthead in the top third and it would always be in the middle
or on the left. This was the design that I wanted to follow because it
allowed me to get lots of focus on the name of the magazine, and this is a
very good way of advertising because it is normally the first thing the
audience would see which is why I decided to set my title in a large and
bold font with lots of space around it. The next rule is the Golden Spiral
concept, and this is where you would put your masthead on the top left,
this is because the readers automatically read from left to right so its more
aesthetically pleasing. I did not just use one of these concepts; I used
them both as my title is towards the left but also it has plenty of space
around it so that it gets the reader’s attention.

4. • For the clothing of my models i decided to follow the conventions of other
established indie magazines such as NME and my models just wore normal
Indie jackets and the model looked like a typical model that you would see
in any other indie magazine, I felt that it was necessary to follow these
conventions as I needed the audience to relate to the band in my
magazine otherwise they might not buy it if they think that they would not
like their music.
• For my camera work I used various shots, for my front cover I used a
simple mid shot of my model with a white background in the studio, this
is fairly simple and following the conventions of other magazine photo
shoots, however for my contents and double page spread I didn't take the
photos in a studio I took them outside which is not used frequently in a lot
of magazines so this can be seen as challenging the forms and conventions
of the genre.

5. • The colour scheme of my magazine is definitely following the forms and
conventions of media magazines as I used the black white and red colour
scheme, this is used for the majority of Indie rock magazines e.g. 'NME'
and 'Q', I decided to do this because it’s a new magazine and I needed
people to know that it was an indie rock magazine and I felt this was a
good way of doing this and also I think that it looks good.