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

The Evaluation

Caitlin Hulse

My Magazine - Riddim

Front cover

Double page

Contents

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Title of magazine• For the masthead of my magazine I used a font on the website ‘dafont.com’ under the heading

graffiti and called ‘Inner city’.

• I used the colour white for my masthead as it stood out against the black background of the magazine. I think that the bold and simple colour of my masthead follows codes and conventions of other RnB magazines such as VIBE and JET as they too have their mastheads in a block colour and simple font.

• Although I have challenged the conventions of a masthead for an RnB magazine because my font is more interesting and not just plain and simple.

• I think this gives my magazine more edge and makes it unique, and by using a graffiti font I have

followed the stereotype of RnB/Hip Hop fans/artists being interested or partaking in doing graffiti.

The font I used Example Fonts

Mise-en-scene of images• My magazine follows the codes and conventions of mise-en-scene in other RnB magazines

by the background of my photos. All of my photos have had a plain white background behind them and in most I have also used the cut out tool in Photoshop to get rid of the background.

• Below is a print screen of me using the cut out tool on Photoshop to get rid of the background on the image for my front cover.

…• This is because a convention of RnB magazines

is that there is no background as either the artist on the front has taken it up e.g. in a close up or the background has been filled in a different colour such as black or white, such as the VIBE magazines below.

The majority of my images show the people in them as serious which is a convention of RnB magazines as it shows they are a serious artist and serious about their music. Although in none of my images are the people smiling, some still come across as jokey and not very serious such as the image on the contents page of ‘Georgie’ as she's pouting cheekily and the Polaroid type images on the double page spread such as the image of the lips with the blue spots on. This shows that RnB doesn’t have to always be serious, the artists can still have fun with it too.

Georgie Multi-coloured lips

Costume and props• The props and costumes used in my magazine are very conventional to other RnB magazines.

For example the band DPT featured on the front cover and double page spread follow the stereotypical image of RnB females having big hair, big rings and earrings and clothing ranging from casual and glamorous.

• On the front cover DPT is dressed in jeans and contrasting coloured tops so they stand out and look unique. They are also wearing big rings on most fingers, big hooped earrings and have big hair as every woman in RnB has to be big and extravagant to get noticed. I styled their outfits from the inspiration of RnB artist Rihanna. The contrast comes in on the double page spread where DPT have had a costume change and are wearing a more glamorous outfit of more makeup, shorts and bright tops. I came to this idea from inspiration of RnB artist Pixie Lott shown in the image below.

• On the contents page Jay-C uses a big watch and a silver chain as props. These props are conventions of RnB artists such as Lil Wayne in the picture below.

People

The people featured in my magazine are quite unconventional. This is because they’re quite young and they’re ethnicity is white whereas typically in the RnB genre the artists are mixed race or black and older in their 20’s+ whereas the models I used for my magazine are 17 year olds.

In addition to this, most bands in real magazines consist of three or more members and typically mostly males but whereas my band for my magazine is two females.

This is breaking the convention for bands in magazines being featured as well as breaking the convention of RnB bands as a all female band isn't as known or seen in the RnB industry.

However, because my target audience is for 16+ with a slight bias towards white females, I think that the unconventional choice is actually a good thing because my target audience will see that the magazine is aimed towards their age range, ethnicity and gender and therefore they may be able to relate to it better and be more interested by my magazine if an all girl group is featured on the front.

Typical RnB bands.

Title Font and StyleI created the title ‘Riddim’ by using the font site ‘www.dafont.com’. I looked at several fonts until I decided to use a graffiti style which I thought fit with the conventions of RnB as a stereotypical image of RnB/Hip Hop is graffiti.

..• I think my title is slightly unconventional

because I've used a graffiti style font which is more visually appealing in comparison to fonts and styles of real RnB magazines which are often just simple, big and bold text.

• I think this is a good thing though as it makes my magazine more attractive and because its different, it makes my magazine more memorable.

• Although I have kept to the convention of having the masthead across the top of the page which is where most magazines have their mastheads and also the masthead is the biggest font on the page.

Written Content

•The written content of my magazines follows the codes and conventions of a real music magazine by covering similar topics in the questions in the double page spread as well as the headings on the front page and content page describing what is on each page of my magazine.

•In the double page spread, an example of a convention is the question “How are you going to celebrate if your album goes platinum?”. This style of question is a convention of a music magazine as the focus of the interview is solely about music so the question about albums going platinum is relevant to the convention.

• The headings on the front cover and contents page such as “Top 50 RnB tracks” and “Lil Wayne tour dates” also emphasize the conventions of RnB magazines that my magazine follows such as the music, RnB artists and tour dates.

• All these topics can be found in real music magazine aimed at teenagers and young adults.

• My standfirst from the double page interview, “Dirty Pretty Things, the girls bare all in this exclusive interview, from dating Drake to dancing on tables..” follows conventions by introducing the band at the start of the interview. It uses techniques such as alliteration and irony with the “Dating Drake” and the band’s name being ironic , dirty and pretty.

Music genre and How your magazine suggests it

•The genre of my music magazine is RnB which is clear throughout my magazine because of several things. One being the language used all the way through such as the; “The future of RnB” and “Battle of the Bi#^ches” being examples. • Also the images used definitely shows what type of genre my magazine is by the stereotypical props and costumes used as previously discussed in another slide, such as the ‘bling’ of the artist on my contents page.

•As well as the colours (White, black and purple) which are simple yet visually appealing and effective, also comply to the convention.

Layout• The layout of my magazine is very

conventional. This is shown firstly on the front cover; the masthead is at the top of the page in the biggest font so its easily seen on the magazines racks amongst other competing magazines. A main heading in the centre of the magazine (main is placed in the centre/right side) in the second largest font. And a list of headings/cover lines dotted round the page (main are down the left hand side). The date is at the top of the page and the barcode, issue number and price is at the bottom, these are typical conventions.

• Secondly the layout my contents page follows conventions; a different artist is featured on this page and the page numbers are bigger than the page title text. The page title heading/text is RnB genre related /relevant and situated on the right hand side in columns and boxes which is conventional for magazines as it separates the pages visually apart from the rest of the pages text or images. The date is conventionally at the top of the page too.

• And thirdly the layout of the double page spread also is conventional. The interview is displayed in columns underneath the standfirst and title which are conventionally placed at the top. Quotations from the interview are also dotted amongst the pages as well as pictures scattered round too, this follows conventions but also makes it more visually appealing .

Contents page

• My contents page follows codes and conventions of other music magazines, for example it features a different artist; has several other interesting images with the page numbers to the article relevant to that image; has a column of article headings and their page numbers; has the date at the top of the page; keeps consistency by using the same title colour and font and the same colour scheme.

• However in comparison to the contents page of the magazine I analysed at the start of the project, the layout isn't as ‘perfect’ or rigidly set out as VIBE’s is as there's a lot of things going on in my contents page, which I think is good as its unique and would appeal to my audience better.

My ContentsVIBE contents