Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1Media Studies

Jake Scott

QuestionIn what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms of conventions of real media products?

The structure of any magazine all depends on the type of image used on the front cover. The differences between the real magazine and mine is I used a ‘group’ which is typically unusual for the genre I went for. For example the rule of thirds would not work with my magazine as I have two people on the front, who aren't fully on the image. As though my magazine is not focusing on the models, this could have been something I did not take into consideration when creating the magazine.

Real Product My Product

The masthead is in the same format, at the top of the page, is large font and almost reaches across the whole page. Even though the text is completely different to a real magazines masthead, this is the font that was most popular to my focus group.

The colours used for the backing of the front cover are completely different, using a bright colour would not have gone with the type of image I chose for the magazine and the seriousness of my models faces in the image, which is a contrast to the Paramore band in ‘Rocksound’ who are a lot less serious and are having fun.

Both magazines have the main focus of the magazine written across the front cover, over the magazine models. This is so the information jumps out to the audience to tell them what is the main story in the magazine, which is a main selling point in most magazines, depending on the model. Different text and colour was used for the bands name in the real magazine. I also included it on my front cover. Most magazines in all genres usually include a button, usually promoting free gifts for the buyer or some sort of quiz/competition but I challenged this by using the button to promote another big story that would be inside the magazine.

This real products is the one that is most similar to my product. The factors they have in common are; The image type is very similar, mine just captures a close up shot, instead of the medium shot ‘NME’ used on their models. Again the main cover line is over the models on the front cover. All other cover lines are placed on the left of the cover. Many different fonts and sizes are used across the whole page. No secondary images are used on either. Buttons have been used and the barcodes have been angled differently to a normal magazine. Bothe include a header which includes more reads in the magazine and news.

The plus sign used on my magazine at the header of the page isn't normally used in a rocker magazine like this issue was aimed towards, its mainly used in multi genre magazines such as, Billboard, Q and Vibe. So this is what I used from the other aspects of the actual magazine I planned to create a multi genre magazine. I did this so I included aspects from a Multi genre magazine and a rock / rockers magazine as this issue is aimed towards them.

My Magazine

Vibe Magazine

Q Magazine

Billboard Magazine

I found inspiration from the Billboard contents page and did design mine very similar to it. I did it as I liked how it sectioned off different parts of it, telling the audience about different parts in the magazine or different things about the music industry right now.

I included the charts on my contents page just like Billboard do, which would be updated weekly. There are a few differences, I didn't included as many as I found it hard to read the small text they have used. Do to the large text I could go any higher then 10 and couldn't have as many categories. I also put the date on the upper half of the chart box. The similarities are the title ‘No.1’. We both included the title of the magazine on the top right hand corner and used a grey colour scheme.

We both included 4 images on the contents page. All the images on my contents page were taken from me. The gig one was at a concert I went to 2 years ago and decided to use it in my contents page and the other 3 were staged just for the magazine.I placed the front cover in the top right corner as I noticed this was common in magazines, I done it to just give it the effect of an actual magazine.

I like how Billboard sticks to one group of colours throughout their magazine. So I though I would but with a more expressive colours; red, blue, white and black. These are also the colour schemes on the DPS and Front cover. I used the same text as I did on the front cover for the competition. ‘Win’. The contents are centre right on both magazines. I black that sections background out as all the background to the images were black so it they didn’t look out of place, say with a white background. It gives it more of an effect.

A typical double page spread in a multi genre magazine is by having an image covering up one page and normally an interview of the main model on the other. This is what I wanted to achieve in my magazine and I believe I did. I included a pulled quote on the image page as do real magazines, this quote brings the audience in and makes them feel as if the models are talking to them.

These are the two images I included on my double page spread. The one on the left I included to show a emotion of the model, (laughter) and that its a very natural image. Then the one on the right is of ‘DUO’ performing which is common in Q’s magazines. There was an image of Coldplay performing on the double page spread that I bought.

Columns are used in all magazines especially when a interview with an artist is the main focus of the double page. That is exactly what I used.

I didn't use a drop capital in my magazine as I have noticed in most rock/punk magazine they don't use them very often, so I used the conventions they use on my double page spread as this issue of Junkie is based on a Rock/Punk/Pop duo group. I used columns as they do and plenty of images across the pages. Different coloured text and different sizes and fonts. Live gig images and analysis of the photos. Pulled quotes too.