Evaluation Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

CONVENTIONS

• The following pages show the conventions that are in most magazines regardless of genre, it is what gives the impression to the audience that the product is a magazine, however the way these conventions are articulated and put forward can be developed and adjusted to suit a particular genre or audience.

Conventions of a main coverMasthead

Cover lines

Main image

Additional images

Barcode

Main headline

Conventions of a contents page

Title : ‘Contents’

Main image

Additional images

List of contents with page numbers

Copy of main cover

Conventions of a main article

Headline

Main image

Additional images

Typography

Subheading

Floating quote

Similarities: Main coverComparing my main cover to the two magazines on the right I can find many similarities. Firstly, as both magazines do advertise rock artists/music we can see it in the colour schemes which consists mainly of red, black, white and some yellow to bring in some attention to the magazine. These colours are a convention of rock magazines as they compliment the darkness of the music making it appealing to audiences. Looking at the main images, the focal point is on the female artist which although is quite unusual does happen especially for solo female artists. Looking at the KERRANG magazine we can see both have very intense and or funky expressions and poses, again weaving in the theme of intensity and darkness of the rock genre. Although Lilly Allen in the NME also has an intense facial expression it’s done so for other reasons, as she is actually a pop singer.Both examples also include additional images as I have giving the magazines a busier look. This look is accentuated in the KERRANG magazine as they present a more rock oriented magazine.

Mastheads

Both mastheads to the right are in capital letters, NME is quite similar as it is using red and is quite bold. In comparison the KERRANG masthead is probably more similar to mine, using a white font against a black background concentrating more on the darker colours of rock. Looking at the typography you can also see KERRANG has lines emerging from the font to correlate with the onomatopoetic sound of the ‘Kerrang’, similarly I have downloaded a font with splatters to associate it with those of fireworks that come with the use of a rocket. However I have chosen to keep the last two letters of my masthead in lower case letters to give more attention to the ‘ROCK’ which introduces the genre of the magazine, establishing a pun which the audience can understand.

Differences: Main cover

Looking at VIBE which is mainly an R&B and Hip-Hop genre, has an artist which connotes the gangster imagery . The colours are also slightly more earthy. The typography used is less extravagant making it more simple. On the other hand blender has used colours of pink, black and white which makes it more appealing to females, however as the artist is also wearing revealing clothes it also makes it appealing to men, it is also very plan and simple as unlike rock it does not represent a busy genre of music.

Similarities: Contents pageLike the KERRANG contents page my contents page has a copy of the magazines front cover in the corner. Many images are also used, however the composition of the images on my contents page is slightly more messy as I have laid images on top of each other and tilted some. In the drummer contents a similar convention of additional images is used, also the theme colours are very alike to mine as it is selling a similar genre of music.

Differences: Contents pageThe contents page of a magazine like VIBE compared to my contents page is very simplified and hardly uses any colours as this is the image they want to portray for the artists. On the other hand I have used vivid colours and composition to represent the intensity of the rock genre. Similarly, the second example of the contents page has used only one image of their artist Katy Perry as they want the readers attention to be on her and have used minimal writing so as not to diverge the readers attention, although I also wanted my artist to be the centre of attention I have simply used more images of her.

Similarities: Main ArticleI have picked out a double page spread that I think is very similar to mine, the magazine has in a similar way used a full page for the main image and added additional images below the page to give it that busy look. Both articles look full of activity as they are both about rock artists , therefore making it more interesting for their audiences.

Looking at the typography, they have both been tilted to the side for added effect and are in different colours to suit the main theme colours of the page. The colour scheme consists of black, white and red although my background is using red instead of black. The darkness and vibrancy of these colours links in with the rock genre.

Differences: Main ArticleThe double page spread below uses only different tones of black, white and grey. This gives it a dark mood which links in perfectly with the title ‘Art of Darkness’, just as the title ‘I’m rockin it’ fits in with the bubbles and the vibrant red on my page.

Here only one image of the band is used as they are an alternative/indie band, this makes them look humble and mysterious.

Textual analysisMy double page article. Art of Darkness article.

•Phrases such as ‘Stormed the rock industry’ keeps referring to the rock genre of the magazine.

•Has a slightly Q&A style although does rely on some descriptive writing, attracting an a younger but mature audience.

•Uses the floating quote- ‘It’s crazy and amazing at the same time’, for a person who would simply be flicking through the magazine this would grab their attention and make them want to read on.

•The ‘xx’ between the paragraphs makes the bands name clearer to the audience.

•The title ‘Art of Darkness’ is actually based on the title of the book ‘Heart of Darkness’, this intersexuality treats the audience with intelligence.

•Uses a journalistic style to show formal and sophisticated writing, attracting an older audience.

•Subheading is a question which pulls the reader in.

Development of ideasTo make my work unique there are several ideas that I weaved into my work which was not necessarily based on another magazine and yet portrayed my selected genre.

Another idea I had while working on my main cover was an image reel, I thought this was useful to use as it allowed me to neatly add in more images to grab the readers interest and yet not make the page look too messy. I therefore decided a similar structure for the main article would be good to give me enough space for the main article and additional images.

One idea I had for my main article was to use splatters around my artist and around the page, this gives it a messy look which would appeal to my audience and also complemented the theme colours I had used. I done this by changing my brush settings, making it more spaced out and more frequent and then experimented with a variety of brush sizes.

Challenging conventions

For example I inserted an image of my main artist on top of the title of the contents, this not only gave the impression of the rock attitude that my artist had but put a lot of focus on her, the composition of an artist around the objects already on a page gives the reader a more professional impression of the magazine. In most magazines the contents title is not used in this way, but I believe that it works well with my magazine.

In my magazine I used several things which challenged conventions.

Also the fact that my magazine has a rock genre, and yet I have chosen to use a female solo artist as my featured article is not conventional, as most rock magazines are very male dominated, however this may work in my favor by attracting more female audiences, and also because she is attractive more male artists.