Evaluation Activity 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

The genre of my magazine is pop therefore I have used some styles that have been included in other pop themed magazines. The font I used for the masthead suited the style of my magazine; it was called ‘Elephant’ and is bold and eye catching to the reader, it is also slightly similar to some fonts that you see on other pop magazines like ‘Billboard’. It is big and bold however they use different colours in the holes of some of the letters to make the title stand out, I have not done this as I did not like this idea. I have developed my magazine by adding a red colour to make the magazine pop out more and the colour red links in with my cover as the model is wearing a red jumper, this makes all my pages tie together. The ‘M’ in ‘Melody’ was in italic so that it looked like a music note, following the conventions of a music magazine. The name of my magazine fits in well with my style as it makes the reader instantly think about music. I feel that my magazine has challenged some of the conventions as my double page spread isn’t as vibrant or eye-catching as other pop magazines, however my contents page has some features that are similar to pop magazines like Billboard and Q which makes it clear that the theme of my magazine is pop. My models are dressed in a casual outfit which is unconventional for my magazine as it is not similar to other types of pop magazines and their make-up is a subtle look but it should’ve been vibrant for the reader so that they can recognise that my magazine is about pop music. The mise-en-scene in my photos is not like a pop magazine as there is a tedious white background in all of them. This makes my magazine look less like a pop magazine as they don’t look eye-catching or interesting to the reader. I have chosen to use colour in my photographs as this makes them pop more and it fits the style of a pop magazine, one of my models wears a red jumper so I have included this colour throughout my magazine pages which links them together.

I have developed the conventions of a normal pop magazines as the style is quite different and not all of it would be found in a magazine like Billboard or Q. I have challenged the normal look of the model as the make-up is subtler on my magazine. The layout of the cover is simpler with less text however some Billboard magazines don’t have a lot either. This follows Roger Black’s theory; “A cover should be a poster. A single image of a human will sell more copies than multiple images or all type. Always has, always will.” The cover is the most important thing I think on a magazine as it represents the whole magazine and is the first thing my audience will see therefore it needs to be simple and easy to read but also draws the reader in as they could like to read more due to the lack of information. This could be a bad thing however, as the reader might think that the whole magazine is boring so I needed to think carefully when laying out my cover so that it doesn’t look boring but is still simple and catches the readers’ eyes at the same time. The mid shot of the model on my cover introduces the perception of Roger Black, as I had used only one person instead of a group which relates to his idea. I have been researching and looking at other magazines like NME, Billboard and Q and how they’ve laid out their pages. My contents page is quite similar to the style of Billboard’s with the lines separating the pictures from the text. I used the colour red as throughout my magazine the theme is mainly red due to my model wearing a red jumper on my cover page. For my photographs, I have included some mise-en-scene for example my models hold a guitar, however the background is a white, plain colour which makes my magazine look boring so I could’ve been more creative with the mise-en-scene in my photography.

I have challenged Chris Frost’s theory; “Don’t use too many typefaces. Too much variation will end up looking a mess. It’s best to limit yourself to one font, and variations of it.” as for my magazine I have used a variety of fonts with my text to create some style, however, the fonts I have used are quite similar. My masthead and other headlines are in the font ‘Elephant’ and my smaller text that is on my contents and double page spread is ‘Tw Cen MT’. My colour scheme is mainly red therefore under the masthead on the cover and the headlines on my other pages I have underlined most of the word with a red rectangle, this links all my pages together and gives a vibrant feel to my magazine as the red is quite bright, following some of the bright colour schemes in most pop magazines. On my double page spread, within the interview I included a block quote of what my pop star has said. This makes it stand out more and represents how they are and their personality due to how they answer their questions. With just one quote, it encourages the reader to find out what the question was and also find out what else they have to say about becoming a pop star. This section might be good for people aspiring to become pop stars or famous or it could just be good for people that are interested. The genre of my magazine is pop and it is clearly represented throughout my product with the way I have laid it out and the angles of my photographs.