QUESTION 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

I tried to integrate as many conventional features as possible on my front cover which you would find on real music magazine covers. Taking the colours, font, image, size and position aboard when producing my front cover. The colours I used are pretty bright; blue, white, off white and then black. The use of the white/off-white compliments the models skin tone as it highlights my main image. Also the blue and black goes with the colour of the models outfit with the blue matching the fact that it is a male model. This colour scheme was consistent throughout my media production. The colours of my masthead are very bright, the white body accompanied by the blue edging and the black shadowing allows my magazine name “STUDIO” to stand out more. I also made my masthead look more graphic than the magazines I have studied.

I chose to position my masthead central at the top of my cover because this would make my magazine title clear and visible to the community for example when sitting on a shelf this would make my magazine stand out.

On my contents page I change the font of the word “contents” to make it less graphic than my masthead. This is done to keep my masthead original, embracing its own trademark like the Q magazine.

Straplines

The cover lines used on my cover are eye catching due to the use of consistent colours, and font. The colours I used match my colour scheme through my product. As my masthead was rather bold I decided that the font I used for my straplines should equally match, so I chose the font “impact”. The size of my cover lines depended on the importance of the information on my cover for example; the main artist feature “KYLE” was the larger cover line as he was the special feature of the magazine. I made sure the artist I chose to feature in my cover lines were current artists as I found most music magazine feature current upcoming or popular artists.For my cover lines I tried to follow the VIBE magazine as it was a similar magazine to my own. This style consisted of less straplines with larger font to highlight important content

The image I decided to use was of myself in which I modelled to look like a music artist, looking directly into the camera lens to engage my target audience as this gives the audience a perception of the model looking directly at them. I enhanced the natural colours of the picture which I found was typical of many music magazines such as VIBE magazine.

My target audience was predominately males aged16-27 year olds. So by using myself as model (18 year old) would be a clever way of attracted this audience as I am technically a teen but a qualified adult. Using the colour blue for the name of my featuring artist also would appeal to males as blue is known of being a boy/mans colour.

The photography that I have used in my product is all primary sourced. As two of these photos are of myself each one of these photos are people portrayed as well established music artists. I had to make sure I used a good quality camera so that these pictures looked legitimate like professional magazines.For my cover and double page spread I had taken photos which were medium shots, these two pictures were to show a split personality of the artist. I edited each of these photos to enhance the colours to give a super real effect. For the photo used for the double page spread I also used the blur tool on Photoshop software to zone in on the face of the artist, this was to draw the reader in to the eye level of the model.

The masthead is bold and substantially stands out from the background

The barcode is typical and what you expect to see on all magazines, this is to show professionalism.

The audience may feel as if they are gaining something from this magazine, also typical of many magazines.

The biggest strapline which stands out and links to the image as it is about the artist. I also used Anchorage, “I LIVE AND SLEEP RAP CULTURE” adds more information to the image. I placed this near my models face so it is noticed by the reader

These straplines put in place to entice my target audience as it is what I expect my audience to be interested in.

Insight into the type of music content this magazine consists of.

Mise en Scene – The gold watch the artist is wearing, hat, hoody and leather jacket all relevant to RAP/HIP-HOP culture

I decided to use the same colour scheme and fonts throughout my magazine which included the cover, contents page and double page spread. As I found that this is typical of many magazines such as the Q magazine. Keeping a theme was essential to my magazine products looking legitimate although I used different fonts for my mastheads and detailing writing such as on my double page spread. I also used images of the model on two stages of my product to highlight the artist and express different RAP/HIP-HOP sides of him.

For my contents page I decided to keep the word “contents” simple and bold so that it was clear and firm. Alongside my large image I thought that this would stand out and alongside my image which I cleverly edited would be artistically pleasing to the audiences eye. The image I took for my contents page was aimed to link directly to my cover where I mention fashion, as the model in this picture is dressed and styled to fashion what is current. Again appealing to the age group of sixteen to mid/late twenties.

I took inspiration from double page spreads in which I found on the internet. These examples are where I developed the idea of the large letter positioned behind my main text linking directly to the artist as it is the first letter of their first name. Another idea I gathered from the internet was creative lettering and font used in this other magazine.