Evaluation – Question 1In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of a front page

The masthead can be seen at the top of the page

Here is the main image which consists of a whole band with five members

Gives the chance for people to win things

The bar code is at the bottom right corner and it contains the price with it

Most of the cover lines are present on the left third of the magazine

My front cover

Here is my masthead at the top of the page.

Here are my cover lines which I have put on the left third of the page.

My main image is large and in the centre of the page.

The main title is large and stands out from the rest of the page which is conventional of a magazine as it draws people in.

I have followed the convention of adding the bar code at the bottom of the page and the price of the magazine is there with it.

I have put a plus and written the other things included in the magazine which is conventional of other magazines.

How I followed conventionsMy magazine has followed some of the conventions of a rock magazine. It uses a dark colour scheme; the background is grey and there is a red and grey colour scheme running throughout the magazine. The masthead also gives my magazine typical conventions of what would be expected the font is black and the letters have a rough, broken up effect, this is typical of a rock magazine. Also there is a circle which advertises the things readers have a chance to win inside. This is also typical of a magazine. At the bottom there is a section saying ‘plus+’ which is also typical of a magazine from any genre. The writing at the side of the magazine is also typical of what someone would expect of a magazine in the left third I have the names of artists and then a little bit of writing underneath saying what the pages which include them are about.

Conventions of a contents page

Title is at the top of the magazine

There are titled columns of what is included in the magazine.

There is a main image and smaller images with the page numbers shown so people can find them.

There is an article at the bottom of the page.

There are adverts about prices people can win.

My contents pageI have also put the title at the top of the page to follow conventions

I have put titled contents on the page on the left side

There is one main image on the page. This takes up around a quarter of the page and then in the corner there is a smaller image which has been cropped out of it original image.

At the bottom of the page I have written a ‘plus ‘ which I have seen being done in other magazines

How I followed conventions

My contents page also follows the conventions of a rock magazine. It has the numbered pages and contains pictures of the artists which make people want to read about them. The title is at the top of the page next to the masthead which is typical of all magazine. The colour scheme also runs through the contents page. The colour scheme contains red and grey and the names of artists are in a different front and in the colour red to make them stand out. I think this gives the page a nice effect and it is not commonly used in magazines so I this way my magazine is breaking the conventions of a magazine. I have laid out the magazine in a way that would be expected of a magazine. The list of page numbers is divided into three different sections; upcoming events, reviews and regulars. After examining lots of other contents pages I have observed that these are commonly used as the titles of features in the magazine. The list of features runs down the left side of the page and on the other side of the page contains pictures of what can be expected in the magazine and advertisements. These are conventions found commonly in most magazines.

Conventions of a double page spread

There is one page which is completely taken up with a picture.

There is a large amount of text in three different columns

The title is very large and stands out on the page

The colour scheme is very dark and the page creates a very dark theme

My double page spread I have made the title very big so it stands out a lot on the page.

There is a bold font for parts of the text which are not in the interview

There is a small picture at the bottom of the page which does not follow the usual conventions of a magazine

I have used a red colour of font to represent when the interviewer is speaking and black font for when the main character is speaking

How my double page spread follows conventionsMy double page spread consists of one main image on the left page, something common of a double page spread and a smaller image at the bottom of the right page which not so commonly seen on this format of double page spreads. On the right page there is a large article of text in which is an interview about the new tour of a successful musician who has left is band and ‘gone solo’. The interview is set into three columns. Everything the interview says is in a red colour and anything which is not from the interview is put in bold. This is something I have seen that’s been done in other magazines. The double page spread stands out from the rest of the magazine. The font and colour scheme don’t match the rest of the magazine so it makes it stand out.