EVALUATION 1. In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

I feel that my indie rock/ singer songwriter music magazine

Encore! For the most part challenges and develops the forms

and conventions of real media products, instead of fully

conforming to the conventions of music magazines. During the

stage of research I analysed various different music magazines

including 'Top Of The Pops', 'NME', 'Q', 'Kerrang!' and 'Billboard'.

I felt that by analysing various different music magazines which

are all different genres and have different target markets, I was

able to get a better understanding and knowledge on what the

main conventions were of a music magazine and therefore I was

able to apply these conventions to my own magazine, to ensure

my magazine appealed to my target market as much as

possible, therefore hopefully making my magazine successful.

House style Firstly when doing research into the different conventions of music magazines I found out that the

more successful magazines like 'NME' that have been around for a long time and are still going, have

certain house style colours which are carried out throughout their front cover, double page spread

and contents page. I planned on having the same house style colours throughout my magazine too,

as it makes the magazine easier for the audience to navigate and find in a shop and if they like what

they see the first time round when they buy it, they will go back and they will be able to easily

navigate it when they go back to purchase it, thus making the magazine successful. When doing a

case study on ‘NME’ I found out that there genre of music the magazine focuses on is ‘indie’ music

just like mine, yet their house style colours were predominantly red, white and black i felt that

although i wanted my music magazine to stand out, I wanted it to stand out because it was different

not because it was eye-catching. My music magazine doesn’t have the typical conventional house

style colours like ‘Q’, ‘NME’ and ‘Kerrang!’ as theirs are all very similar featuring the colour red and

red is a very eye-catching colour making them stand out. My music magazine features the colours

purple, indigo, lilac and blue tones therefore standing out because they’re different and

unconventional therefore this will interest the readers and they will hopefully want to buy it as it looks

different to other music magazines which will intrigue them. I also had my house style colours

featuring the colour indigo to play on the fact that the genre of my music magazine is indie and the

colour ‘indigo’ sounds like ‘indie’. In addition the fact my house style colours are different and new

reflect that the artists featured inside my music magazine are different and new as my magazine

features new and up and coming artists. Another unconventional feature to my music magazine in

regards to house style is that i have put a border on every page unlike any music magazines I’ve

researched into. I think this gives the music magazine a more professional and coherent look which

was important as I wanted to suggest that even though the magazine doesn’t featured very famous

artists and it only features up and coming/ indie singers the magazine is still a professional magazine

and it is just as worthy as ones with very famous pop singer on it which have is a more popular genre.

All of this makes my music magazine stand out from the crowd.

Layout

The layout is a typical layout like most music magazines as the masthead is at the top of the page, I have used different headlines and I have one main image in the middle. I also placed the image slightly over the masthead, many music magazine which I have researched do this as it means that the magazine already has a big enough following to be easily recognized without having to see the whole masthead, meaning that when the magazine is on the shelf the target audience will already notice the magazine and also the effect of having it at the top of the page means that the audience can see it as soon as they look at the shelf, as it is eyelevel to the reader. I have put information all around the music artist on the front cover creating interest for the reader and they’re more likely going to read the headlines and want to buy the magazine to see what they’re on about inside. For my contents page i have used a typical layout with columns with what’s on each page and page numbers, I have also used many different images in order to hint the content inside. I would say that the layout to my contents page is similar to the magazine ‘Kerrang!’ as I included more than four images, a review, and a subscription box and also a list of what is included in the music magazine. I did this as I wanted to get as much on the contents page as possible as I believe it gives the contents page a more organised and aesthetically pleasing look and having more images than writing gives the magazine a more visual appeal. Also having a lot on the contents page makes the readers feel like they’re getting a good value for their money.

The masthead

The masthead usually has a background colour just like ‘Q’ and

‘NME’ making it stand out, however i felt that that was not needed

on my music magazine because when creating my masthead in

Photoshop on the inside of each letter i put an inner shadow which

makes it stand out to the reader without having a bold background

colour. Another unconventional feature of my masthead is the

shape, this is purposely done because most music magazines from

the indie genre like ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ are in a rectangular shape due to

the background colour, however because of the name Encore!

Actually being a sound that an audience says I did it in the shape of

a sound wave to reflect that the word is something it is shouted at

the end of a gig. ‘Encore’ is what a crowd says at the end of a gig if

they want to hear more, which is a code to the audience that artists

featured inside are that good that the readers are going to like them

that much that they’re going to want to read and hear about them

more and more as they’re that good. Just like on the ‘Kerrang!’ their

masthead has an exclamation mark at the end of the word because

‘Kerrang!’ is a sound and the exclamation mark makes it appear if

the sound ‘Kerrang’ is louder. I have also put an exclamation mark

at the end of ‘Encore!’ as I felt that it reflects that people were

shouting the word ‘Encore’. Having the one main image on the

front cover is a conventional feature of a music magazine front

cover.

Mise en scene

I got the person modelling on the front to look directly at the camera therefore it gives the impression that they’re on the same level as the reader and therefore the reader will feel that they can relate to the artist. The image I have on my front cover I would say is unconventional in regards to mise en scene because on ‘NME’ their front covers usually have a plain background and the artist's face covering most of the magazine or a plain coloured backdrop and a medium shot of the artist, however this was intentionally done as I wanted my magazine to conform to the genre of indie, therefore I felt my magazine had to be different to others and having a brick wall as the main backdrop for my front cover gave my music magazine a more 'grunge' like feel giving connotations of mystery and leaves the reader interested as it’s something unconventional.

Mise en scene

I wanted the settings in all my photos to reflect the genre of the magazine and the target market, just like on one of ‘NMEs’ contents pages that I did a textual analysis on during my research, the image of the band ‘The Courteeners’ was set in a rural setting which has connotations of festivals and indie music is what usually gets played at festivals suggesting the genre of music magazine is ‘indie’, suggesting that the image of ‘The Courteeners’ set in a rural setting will attract their target market as their target market goes to festivals and listens to indie music. So on my magazine the image of the artist ‘Haley summers’ is set in a rural setting having connotations of festivals and indie singer songwriter music is what gets played at festivals suggesting that the genre is indie and because my target market like that kind of music and attend festivals it will attract them.

Mise en scene

I also got all of the models to pose in a different way to suggest that each one are individuals and different from another, for example one has a sulky yet content look, another is smiling and another is smoking reflecting that even though they are all in the same genre of music their looks are all different and posing different represents them and their music to all be different, creating interest for the reader as each one is interesting. I dressed my models in 'indie' clothes, for example bowler hats, denim jackets, leather jackets etc. I felt that this was an important conventional feature for my music magazine was that the models are dressed in an appropriate way to suggest the genre of music magazine as in my research i found out that people who like indie music also get style inspiration from indie music artists. Another conventional feature of an indie music magazine was that makeup was done quite dark so I’ve done dark eye makeup etc. to keep up with the conventions of the indie style. When referring to dyers star theory i have done this because the artist is not just a singer has been constructed to appeal to a particular indie genre.