Evaluation Activity 1.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I think the main design of my music magazine has the conventions of other real music magazines, for example a typical convention is having a photograph of an artist or group on the front cover, and then text wrapped and shaped around them. My magazine also follows this, with my artist as the main attraction to the front cover, and text including what else is in the magazine wrapped around it.

Examples of real front covers which follow this typical convention:

Other elements of my magazine also follow the typical conventions of a real music magazine. Firstly, the title. In researching music magazines, the title is always the boldest and biggest text on he cover. This is obviously to attract the reader, as the title instantly jumps out and attracts readers to certain magazines. So with my title I tried to achieve the same effect. I made it the biggest text, and have put several effects including a 'drop shadow', 'outer glow' and 'bevel and emboss.' I found that these effects made the title really stand out. The title is also the unique part of magazines, as it is the only part which stays the same in every issue, plus no other magazine has the same title. With the effects I also found it made the title look more unique and original. The last thing I found when researching music magazines, was that the title implied the genre. For example RAVE, KERRANG, VIBE and ROLLING STONE are all words people associate with music. So I named my magazine RADAR, as i think it implies music and so instantly indicates the genre of my magazine.

By looking at many other real music magazines, as well as other types of magazine, it is clear that a main convention of magazines is the artist or people on the front. The pictured people always cover the whole front cover, they are the focus and the main selling point for that particular issue and everything else on the cover is shaped around them. Within the music magazines that I researched I found that there are not that many magazines use things like props in their pictures, so I decided not to use props for my artist. However there was always a unique pose adapted by the cover person, and there were lots of interesting costumes and outfits used in photos. This is obviously to attract readers attention and draw there focus to the magazines. So I decided that I would have to put quite a lot of thought into how I would dress my artist. The make-up is also a key aspect in real magazines, the people must look perfect and almost flawless. I carefully edited my artist, and adjusted her make-up in photoshop, with tools such as the blur tool, adding eyeliner and the skin healing brush. Although I dressed her as i thought appropriate, if I was to redo this task again I would probably put brighter clothes on her, as looking back at it her clothes do not attract too much attention to her, and if they had more color the magazine would simply have a brighter look to it.

Music Genre

Apart from the title which immediately suggests the genre of the magazine from researching real magazines there are also other elements which show the genre.

This is a front cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The image on this cover conveys the genre immediately, as the artist is holding a guitar, which people obviously immediately associate with music. Taylor Swift is also a very well known artist and so by having her name in large bold writing on the cover straight away tells people it is a music magazine, and attracts people to it.

I tried to create the same effect with my magazine, by having bold writing. I did not use props as I did not see it as a typical convention. So I made the writing 'EXCLUSIVE CHRISTIE' bold and a different color, to make sure it stood out. As she is an artist, people would know her and so by having a close shot of her face on the front, people would immediately realize this was a music magazine. I also added other writing, about other artists and 'this weeks top 40.' Again these are things that are linked to the genre of music. Looking back at my front cover, all though props are not a typical convention, I realize that it would have been a lot easier to convey the genre if there were props, such as some kind of instrument. This would have made the genre even clearer to audiences.

Contents Page

The contents pages in the real magazines I researched all had very similar layouts and contents. There tended to be one big image, as you can see in this NME contents page, and then sub headings, for example NEWS, REVIEWS and FEATURES. So i created the same effect for my contents page, a big photo and sub headings so I could write everything that was in my magazine. However I feel m contents page could have had more on it, as comparing it to this NME page it looks a bit to empty.