Evalutation Question 1

What ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products

I first began by researching into different magazines for inspiration to suit my sytle and genre. I used magazines such as Kerrang! and X magazine to help me influence my media products. I first used X Magazine to get an idea of what styles and contrasts are out in the market and to have an understanding of what was required. I studied the pages of the magazine to see what was on offer and to get a idea of how the articles were presented. I used Kerrang! as another example and to use it in contrast to the X Magazine as they were complete opposites, I wanted to broaden my ideas for my own media product.

When I first started using Photoshop, I had no experience with this application. However, as the weeks went on I ganied more experience and furthered my knowledge I began using different tools and experimenting more and more and soon I was able to use Photoshop easily and quickly. These tools were such as "Drop Shadow tool", "Regtangual Marquee tool", using effects such as "Lighting Effects" and adjusting images using the "Contrast and Brightness".

Forms and Conventions

I believe that my magazine is similar to that of a real magazine as I began by choosing fonts which looked aesthetically pleasing to suit my genreof Dubstep and Drum and Bass. I wanted to give my magazine a feel that it was invting and more modern and would attract my target audience for ages 16-26 and for both ages. I wanted my magazine to give off a vibe that it was for both genders and not just males. This is also what magazines nowadays are trying to do give the magazine an inviting vibe and to make it more inviting both genders. I feel I have done this in my layout and my fonts, as the colours I have used the hot pink, blue and white give off this unisex appeal. I wanted to give off this effect as I felt it looked more entertaining. This is also similar to the contents page. The magazines I used, showed that there was a few pictures and a suitable amount of text. I wished to mirror this in my own contents page as it looked more pleasing and eyecatching. Which readers could say that they would be getting more for there money. I believe I challanged the exsisting forms and conventions of exsisting music magazines in my magazine as I have used a completely new genre which at this moment in time there are none of in the magazine market. This is because the popularity of the music has only just started to rise, more and more people are beginning to listen to this style of music. This hosted a challenge to me as I knew I would haveto research and incorporate exsisting magazine styles with this new genre of music. I incorporated such by usingmy font similar to that of Kerrang!'s but putting a less "shattering" and "noisy" feel on the font instead I decided it needed more of a "smooth" and "jittery" sense. On my front page I used one primary image, another image on the contents and then 2 in my double page spread, which also fulfills the conventions of music magazines.

PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAVE CHANGED MY TITLE TO "4 TO THE FLOOR" YET I HAD TESTED OUT THE FONTS YOU SEE ABOVE BEFORE I SET THE CHANGES.

Masthead- Mise en scene

The title of my magazine is called"4 to the floor". My inspiration to call my magazine this is due to the research I did to find out why magazines were called what they are and the purpose behind them. In my research I went through some of the techniques used in the making of Drum and Bass / Dubstep/ Nu Rave , withsuch words as "Donc", "Pulse" and "Bounce". However, When I came across the fact that the opposite to the beats used in Dubstep were called a "4 Bar" Dubstep rythmns usually work on a 2 step rythmn. Therefore I thought it would be ironic to use the idea of "4 to the floor" as usually the term "to the floor" is a term in which is used to say that something is good or has an amazing feel. So I thought this would make the magazine more pleasing. I also replaced the lettering of the number "four" to the numrical "4". This I felt would appeal more to young adult readers and they would be able to understand the meaning behind it. Again with this name I felt my chosen font also conplimented the writing, as it can be read clearly and thereis no struggle to read what it says. One of the effects I have used on my title is a grey drop shadow, behind the blue heading, and due to the colours being not so different, it makes it looklike it has a blur around the lettering. I adjusted the "spacing" on it so that the blurring was not too intense otherwise it would then become unreadable.

This is my title on my magazine front cover

This is my title on my preliminary task

As you can see there is a distinctive difference, although technique is similar.

In contrast, when we begun our preliminary task to create a school magazine, I had no experience in knowing how to set out a front cover or a contents page. Also I did not know how to use Photoshop. You can definatly see this as my title is not of very good quality. Although it has a drop shadow the colour scheme does not work together very well, and the font does not suit the rest of the layout of the fornt cover for the school magazine. I used the school colours in the title and wished to use it throughout the front cover too, yet, because of the background in my picture (as I used the picture as the complete background) the colours would not show up or the colours looked wrong in the placements.

Cover Lines- Mise en Scene

My front cover line use and develop and use conventions set by real magazines. I wanted to keep the house style used so i kept the blue in my cover lines and introduced the hot pink also so that it could recognised as a house style. I also used a font called "28 Days Later" from Dafont which could also be a house style recognition, also it suits the best font used in my magazine. The largest of my coverlines is situated at the bottom of the page. This is because, I learn't through my research, from looking other magazines and incorporating their techniques, that the size of the coverline means that its importance is due to size. Therefore I have ordered my coverlines on size. I also learn't that placement of the article is also important and the bottom of the page is where coverlines are most commonly placed. Therefore I used this technique on my media product. I have also placed and coloured my coverlines carfully as this is also another aspect that is important and used by other magazines in the market. To make the fonts more outstanding as colours play a big role with this in mind I used my background to my advantage and made the titles lighter in contrast to my dark background.

Mise en scene/ Props / Clothing

The clothing I had selected for my model to wear was a floral dress a grey coloured cardigan. I chosen this outfit as I felt that it was a stylish choice which can also be associated with the kind of clothing females would wear when attending a concert. Also so it is seen as being quite fashionable, therefore like real music magazines people might be inspired to dress like the person on the front cover, which is why I decided to dress her the way i did. Also her makeup is very elaberate. I put liquid eye liner running down the cheeks of her face, also she has blacked out eyelids for extra darkness for the contrast with her big bright blue eyes. Also with her makeup I put bright pink lipstick on and outlined her lips with a dark pink eye pencil. I used the pink to make another contrast of the black from her eyes. I chose to do this as her makeup as although not a sterotypical wear of makeup for those wholisten to my genre of music. It does convey some of the heavy and fast beat tempo of Dubstep. Also I chose the blue and pink as one small part of my house styles through the makeup and features of my model, the blue from her eyes and the pink form her lips. Finally, I added gems and jewels over one side of her face to signify the light shows and strobing of the shows. I used this idea of the wild makeup and use of gems as I noticed in my research to catch viewers attention they make the person on the front cover eye catching and to draw readers in. I feel I have acheieved this with my magazine.

This is the dripping eyeliner.

These are the gems that I placed on her face.

These are the "very pink" lips with eyeliner around the outside for definition.

Layout and colour- Mise en scene

I have used a colour theme throughout my media product. I have used blue, pink and white and balck which are all unisex colours and white and black being verycommon in magazines, which I found in Kerrang! and X Magazine. The blue and pink were inspired by the makeup and features of themodel I usedand work with the white and black and actually compliment each other also. For my front cover background I have used a black background as the pictures background itself it so similar to black, the areas where the picture did not cover I filled in with black. My contents page I used white as many of the contents pages I looked at were white and it worked quite well. Therefore I again wanted to mirror this and I incorporated my house style yet again. When designing my layout and looking at placement of articles I was careful with my research as I needed to ensure the placement would not darw attention away from my front cover picture. I therefore used the idea of different sized text from my researchtoinfluence my placements, and therefore my front cover began to look like a genuine front cover.