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

Here is an example of a magazine cover, contents and DPS with the typical conventions labelled.

The Magazine Title

For the masthead of my magazine and the main cover line, I have used the font ‘Monster AG.’ I liked this font because I think it is quite plain and bold but also stands out well. I decided to use the same font for the masthead and cover line because I think it shows continuity and helps draw the reader’s attention to the cover line as well as the masthead. I chose a deep pink colour for the masthead and some of the other text on the page. This colour also worked well on my cover as my three colour choices were pink, black and grey.

My masthead could be compared to this NME masthead as it shows many similarities in terms of colour and font style.

I don’t think my masthead challenges any conventions however I don’t think this is a bad thing as I am pleased with the final appearance of it and I think it works well.

Graphology/Page Layouts

I think that my front cover follows the conventions of a magazine quite well. I have stuck to the main ideas of having one cover image, the masthead at the top and the barcode in the bottom right corner. I chose to have minimal cover lines and all in one section as I thought this would have a better effect for my magazine. As a convention, a magazine cover is usually either full of cover lines or doesn’t have many. So I have pretty much stuck to that convention.

For the contents I have tried to stick to the conventions of normal contents page quite rigidly. I liked the column idea shown on most Q contents pages as I think it looks structured but also interesting and appropriate for the audience. Therefore I tried to follow the basics of this layout when creating my page. I think I have done it relatively successfully in terms of appealing to young teenage girls, whilst sticking to a colour scheme and including the information needed on a contents page.  

I have mainly stuck the conventions of a DPS as far as the basic layout goes. Although, most magazines tend to use one main picture to cover one half of the page, and then the interview or article on the other page. However, I have challenged this slightly by using 4 pictures on the left hand page. I chose to do this as I thought it would be more appropriate for my audience and draw them in more. I stuck the convention of having my interview on the other side of the page. I tried to make this slightly unique by adding a photograph of a rose behind the interview (linking to the name Naomi Valentine), to make the page more eye-catching and appealing.

Costumes, props, iconography used to reflect genre

I have decided to use quite plain clothing on my model but I also wanted her to look fashionable in a way that would attract my audience. I also chose her to be of a similar age to my target market as I think this makes it more sellable as they can relate to her, and are therefore more attracted to the magazine. I asked my model to wear a few different outfits on the DPS as I thought this would look more interesting. In terms of reflecting the genre of pop music, I did originally decide to have a microphone as a prop. However, I thought this was maybe too simple and obvious, so in the end I didn’t have any props as I thought it suited my magazine and genre more appropriately.

Camerawork

I think I have used very conventional images throughout my magazine. The image I chose for the cover is a mid-shot with the model looking straight down the camera. On most magazines, this is a normal type of shot used on covers and therefore I thought it was important for me to stick to this convention in order to gain the approval of my target audience.

I have decided to use quite plain clothing on my model but I also wanted her to look fashionable in a way that would attract my audience. I also chose her to be of a similar age to my target market as I think this makes it more sellable as they can relate to her, and are therefore more attracted to the magazine. I asked my model to wear a few different outfits on the DPS as I thought this would look more interesting. In terms of reflecting the genre of pop music, I did originally decide to have a microphone as a prop. However, I thought this was maybe too simple and obvious, so in the end I didn’t have any props as I thought it suited my magazine and genre more appropriately.

Title, article, header etc font and style

For the title on my DPS I used the font ‘Airplanes In The Night Sky.’ I liked this curly type font because I think it would be attractive to my audience. I also thought that it tied in well with the page as a whole and it stood out. For the article I used a relatively plain font because I wanted it to be easy to read and therefore more enjoyable.

Genre and how the magazine cover, contents and spread suggests it

The main music genre of my magazine is current chart music, mainly focusing on pop. I think I have shown this on the cover because of the colour scheme and the cover lines. Also, in my opinion, the name of the magazine (Fresh) portrays pop music and current up and coming artists based in that area of music. For the contents page and DPS I think the actual text makes it apparent to the reader that this is a pop focused music magazine because of the types of pages listed and the bands and artists used. Overall, I haven’t used many props in the magazine and I tried to keep it as simplistic as I could whilst still focusing on my genre and audience.

How your artist(s) are represented

My artist is represented in a typical ‘pop star’ way. She is smiley and gives off a positive and happy attitude. I have challenged the convention slightly as most pop/chart music magazines have the cover artist with a slightly edgy/moody expression (as shown on the edition of Q featuring Cheryl Cole). However, I wanted my artist to appeal to my audience in a particular way and this type of expression wouldn’t have suited it. I chose my artist to be of a similar age to my audience, I did this as I wanted my audience to be able to relate to her as I believe this makes the magazine more attractive to them rather than having a much older main star that the readers probably wouldn’t be interested in. Having a similar age cover star to target audience is conventional of most music magazines.

Colour scheme

The colour scheme I used for my magazine was dark pink, black and light grey. I wanted to use one bright colour that stood out against the plainer colours of black and grey and pink did this whilst also stereotypically appealing to my young female target audience. I followed the magazine convention by doing this as most magazines use black and white/grey with one other colour, also sticking to the three colour rule.

Another colour related convention I followed, was to have the main cover line the same colour as the masthead, this makes it stand out more and seem more important.

               

Conclusion
On the whole I have stuck to many of the main magazine conventions for a front cover, contents page and DPS. There a few that I have slightly challenged but not many. I decided to stick to the conventions as I thought this was a good way to go about making sure I appealed to my target audience.