Media evaluation Q1

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

MEDIA EVALUATION

MY MAGAZINE VS. KERRANGThroughout this presentation I will be referencing an existing and well established rock magazine known as Kerrang! And I chose to reference this magazine in particular as it is a well established magazine that follows conventions for a rock magazine, as well as that it is a rock magazine aimed for a teenage to young adult audience (16-20+) which fits the same primary target audience as my own magazine, which serves as a good guideline for my own magazine.

TITLE/MASTHEADA masthead is a the main title of a magazine to let your primary audience know what your magazine is called. I decided to call my masthead “Crunch” because it’s a new name to challenge the forms of current media products but also to follow convention of a rock music magazine by giving my magazine an “edgy” name. My Masthead is conventional as it sticks to a dark code of colour of blacks and greys whilst having and “edgy” style of font and background for font which follows conventions of similar magazines of the same genre of rock.

Both have simple codes of colour such as Kerrang! (an official magazine has two contrasting codes of colour whilst mine has similar contrasting colours of grey)

Both titles have very edgy style of font makinbg Cr5unch (my project magazine) seem conventional to its genre

WRITTEN STYLESI chose a variety of font styles for my essential information, my sub-headings, my sell lines and my editors note. I chose a variety of styles to gain attraction from my primary audience and so that the writing would not become repetitive looking and create an eyesore for the layout of the magazine. I chose my font styles from two different sources. The first source I chose was from a website called Da Font.co.uk where it showcased a lot of styles of font which appeared to be conventional with and “edgy” style to them, so I picked the 28 days later font and the Evil Dead Regular font as they appeared to be very gothic styled which fits the convention of a rock magazine. I then chose the other fonts straight from Abode Photoshop CC 2014 because they were easy to read for the use of essential information and slug lines. The font I used from Photoshop were Gill Sans semi bold, Ariel Regular and Times regular.

MISE-EN-SCENE OF IMAGESMise–en–scene are aspects which complement each other to create a shot that gains instant attention. These aspects are costume and props, camera angles, lighting and location.

The location is set in a bedroom which reflects the area I was describing in the double page spread interview I had created for my music magazine, which adds the aspect of accuracy within my magazine. I chose the bedroom as a set to challenge convention of the usual blank background as you usually see in conventional rock magazines, to give my magazine a more personal atmosphere which gains attraction to my target audience by playing on the socio-economic code of my audience as my primary audience are young and like to go to gigs to see their bands for that personal inclusion of being able to se there favourite bands, so I decided to challenge convention by humanising my main attraction to my music magazine so that my primary audience can feel even more intimately included with my magazine.

COSTUME AND PROPS: Costumes are an aspect of mise-en-scene that tells the audience what the subject is wearing which helps identify what genre and setting the image is taken for. Props are an aspect of mise-en-scene that complement an image4 to show what the sunject is doing and to also help reinforce what type of setting the audience is looking at.

I chose two types of costumes, one of casual clothing and one where my subject is dressed up as a prison inmate. All of the clothing l chose to use is conventional to my music magazine, as the casual clothing can be seen as fitting to the rock genre due to the contrasting codes of colour such as the black and white of my subjects hoodie for example which complements the subject of the hoodie itself which displays a skeleton which is also seen as very rock in the genre.

The prison costume I used to reflect the double page interview accuracy to show that my subject dresses up as part of her gigs and wants to dress up for her upcoming tour. I decided to use the prison outfit as that follows convention of rock as other existing bands have dressed up for their bands as well such as Alice Cooper and K.I.S.S.

I chose the guitar as a prop as that follows convention as most images of rock stars include instruments to display that they are a music band as well as existing music magazines already establish Instruments in rock magazines such as Kerrang! does this to establish to their primary audience that they are a music magazine.

MISE-EN-SCENE: CAMERA ANGLESCamera angles provide a variety of ways to take an image of a subject. Each camera angle gives provokes the primary audience to express certain emotions from an image, and example of this is a low angle shot of a subject may provoke sympathy for a subject as the primary audience looks down on the subject establishing that they are viewing the subject as someone in power whilst in high angle shot may provoke unrest or unease as they view a subject in a position of power.

I chose to use a variety of camera angles to keep my audience interested on the imagery as I did not want my magazines images to look repetitive and become an eye sore to my primary audience. I chose the following high angle, long, medium and close up shots to display my variety of shots within my magazine. I chose the long shot to show a full descriptive image for my target audience so that it catches the readers attention and encourages them to read ahead on the articles provided in my magazine. I chose the medium shot during more active scenes such as when my subject is holding and using the guitar prop to let the reader know that this subject is part of a band in my rock magazine. I chose the close up shots to give the reader a level of intimacy as the reader is looking directly in the subjects face, to see that the subject is looking directly back at the reader and this encourages the reader to read ahead as the reader feels as if they have established some sort of personal connection with the subject.

MISE-EN-SCENE: IMAGE EDITINGImage editing is when images are edited so that the images can reinforce to provoke an emotion from the audience. I chose to use the software Abode Photoshop CC 2014 to edit my images as this variation of Photoshop as it is what professional existing magazines use to edit their own images. I chose to edit the colours of my images to reflect moods within the image and to also catch audience attention especially within my contents page so that my audience will be willing to engage into the rest of my music magazine. I also edited the images so that they appear to use high key lighting so the reader can visibly see the whole of all my images to engage further attention to my magazine.

PEOPLEI only used two people within my magazine, the first person I used was my main attraction to my magazine which was the lead singer for the band within my music magazine. My lead singer is conventional to my music magazine as she appeal to my primary audience as she is young, appears enthusiastic and energetic within the magazine both in imagery and within the interview, and she wears conventional costumes such as the prison inmate costume and uses conventional props such as the electric guitar which is conventional as lots of existing rock bands use electric guitars in their music.

The second person I used within my magazine is a male who is portrayed as the editor within the editors note of my music magazine, and he is conventional as some music magazine such as Kerrang! Use editors notes to add a more personal approach to further encourage the reader as the reader will feel more included and therefore feel more obliged to read ahead in the magazine.

WRITTEN CONTENT: Written content is the content that tells the reader what the contents of the magazine are all about. I chose my written content to be set in a casual tone as it follows the convention of rock music magazines as other existing magazine also have a casual approach towards their primary audience such as Kerrang! In their articles, and I made the tone within my interview casual by using slang, mild blasphemy and also include sounds of when my subject laughs or giggles as a way to help the primary audience identify with the subject in the interview. By using a casual tone within my magazine I am able to engage my primary audience on an intimate level to make them feel as if they are personally included in the interview which fulfils my primary audience expectation.

HOW IS GENRE REFLECTED WITHIN MY MAGAZINE?Genre is reflected within my magazine with the use of its dark contrasting colours of a primary set of colours which are black, white and red. I have included existing, established rock bands and music festivals with gigs displayed as articles within my contents page and cover. The layout of my magazine also follows the layouts of other pre-existing rock magazines. The mise-en-scene of my images follow convention with the use of conventional clothing and the use of props within the imagery of the electric guitar also follow the convention of a rock magazine as my primary audience would expect to see some musical instruments relating to the genre of the magazine. The use of a casual language also follows convention as it sets a casual tone within the magazine which is what my primary audience expects to see as established by other existing rock magazines.

LAYOUT OF FRONT COVER:

I have followed convention with my music magazine cover as the layout is similar to existing rock magazines as I use existing and established rock bands and artists for sub-headings.

I use a main sell line underneath my main image to establish my main article of my magazine along side a sub-heading for that to give the main sell line more information to further draw in my primary audience.

My magazine masthead is easily visible as it is the largest text on the magazine making easy to catch primary audience attention.

My proportion to text to image is unbalanced as the image dominates over the text in size which follows conventional approach to a music magazine cover as it is meant top catch audience attention.

I have also used essential information within my magazine as to establish when this issue of my magazine will be released, what this issue of this magazine is, how much his magazine costs and a bar code to scan the information. This follows convention as all magazines are meant to include this essential information.

LAYOUT OF CONTENTS PAGE:My contents page follows convention through the use of layout with essential information and writing is on the left hand side as this magazine targets a western audience so it makes the magazine easier to read for them. The essential information includes the page numbers and articles next to them to display to may target audience where the articles my primary audience are most interested in.

My contents page also includes a more balanced ratio between images and text as there are more images but they are smaller as opposed to the front cover and the images are surrounded by text, which is conventional for a contents magazine as my primary audience expects more essential information on contents page so they can find the articles they want to read within the magazine.

I also have an editors note within my contents page which follows convention as established magazines already use editors notes to establish a personal connection between the primary audience and the magazine itself.

LAYOUT OF DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD:

My double page spread follows convention of rock magazines within the context of layout as it includes a headline to draw in the audience to catch their attention. There includes a sub-heading to give a little more information of the article to the audience to further encourage the audience to read onto the article. Within the main article there is a balanced ratio of image and text with one domineering image followed by a complementary smaller image on two different pages while the text of the article dominates both pages evenly. There is also advertisement at the end of the article to let the audience know where they can access this artists music. I liked that Kerrang! Magazine had kept to one dominant image with text surrounding the image but I chose to place my dominant image to the side and a complementary image to create a different sense of style. Throughout the magazine I have used the same house themed rock styled colours of black white and red to attract my primary audience.

CONCLUSIONOverall I feel as if I have followed convention with using a few differences to make my own magazine unique. I have chosen to follow a majority of conventions as I wanted my magazine to look professional and realistic so that my primary audience would believe that this magazine would be genuine, so that it would fulfil audience expectations. I have slightly challenged convention with the use of composition of imagery as well as they imagery themselves as I have not used a clear background for my images instead using a natural background of a teenage females room to give my primary audience a very personal intimate relationship between the reader and the image so that the primary audience feels more inclusive into the magazine which fulfils audience expectation as well as making my magazine unique as other rock magazine do not attempt this route. The layout challenged convention specifically in the double page spread as whilst most rock magazines use a dominant image they usually compose the dominant image in the centre of the article whilst I have composed it to the side so that both pages will catch the audience attention evenly.