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

FRONT COVER 
I would say that my magazine front cover altogether conforms to the conventions of a real professionally finished front cover. I have tried to include everything that would be found on a real magazine, pulling different things from different front covers I have looked at. Maybe a professional magazine cover may not have included every single detail I have on mine but I tried to include everything I could to make it look authentic. The main image is centred in the middle of the page and so gives a clear indication of what the main story in the magazine is; with pull quotes and titles to accompany it. I chose to have only one subsidury image on my front cover. On most magazines I looked at they mostly all had subsidury images, but as I tried with mine they didn't have many that cluttered up the page, so I chose just to have one because any more I think would have made the main image seem less important and would've resulted in the magazine looking messy. With including more text and sell lines than images I feel I have avoided clutter whilst still managing to capture the reader's attention.

Unlike many magazines I have looked at however the image on my front cover does not obscure the masthead. I decided to leave my masthead unobscured because my magazine is not a recognised magazine, and so I needed my masthead to be fully visible to the reader so it would grab their attention.


With my magazine I also tried to stick with a main colour scheme. On numerous magazine's I have looked at they generally stick to a specific colour scheme, and so I attempted to replicate that with mine. My colour scheme being mainly black and gold with patches of red.



With regard to more minor details on my magazine cover I tried to conform to conventions of real magazines. I included a bar code on the bottom right of my magazine which is similar to many magazines. I have included the date and my magazines website address also but unlike the magazines I have show on the left, I chose to have the date underneath my masthead and the website address next to the bar code.  I again conformed to real music magazines by including a bar at the bottom of my magazine with a list of important bands that feature in it. This is in place to attract those readers who aren't that interested in the main article, and also as just another promotional device. This is used by many magazines (in particular Kerrang)

Contents page

With my contents page I thought it would be best to be as conventional as possible, due to the fact that I thought it would be easiest to use. I took inspiration from NME about the band finder on the side of the page that lists all of the bands that I include in my magazine.The layout is fairly simple and contains four images. Contents pages I looked at varied in the amount of images they contained but the ones preferred and seemed the most professional were the ones that kept things quite minimal.








    Double page

With my double page I chose to have my main headings to take up two pages, which I took from looking at certain professional double pages. I thought it suited my double page like that because it kind of represents my characters different personalities. I modelled my picture on a double page article that my teacher showed me in class, except mine only has one person on compared with the one I looked at which a group. I like the idea of the picture being the background for the writing and it kind of emphasises the fact my character is starting something on his own without a band.

Final double page

Again this final draft of my article undertook a lot of changes when it came to the main image. I had originally thought of having another similar action shot like I had with the contents page, one of my model jumping and being shot in mid air. But I settled for this image for a number of reasons. I liked the fact that there was plenty of space to the right side of him so that I could fit my article there; I prefer having writing on a natural background instead of a plain white or a filled in background. The image also seemed to emphasise the fact that my singer was starting something on his own as he is the only one in the shot. The colour scheme is slightly different to the black and gold theme that I had on the cover and the contents page. I felt that pink seemed to stand out better and complimented the off pink background of the wall behind the singer. I then tried to match the colour of the models trousers with the sub text just below the main title with a mustard yellow. My article itself is not question and answer but more of an interview and a tour around the studio that the artist is working in. I have a few quotes from the singer and the odd quote which I have pulled out and enlarged in attempt to replicate how real magazines set out their articles.

Final draft contents page

This at the moment is my final draft of my contents page, but I'm still undecided on whether I'm totally satisfied with it. I really like the main image on this contents page but I'm uncertain whether it is too cluttered and it my not do the image justice. With the colour scheme I have kept with the same colours as I had on my front cover, and also with the layout of the masthead and the fonts. With the subsidury image of my friend on the guitar I had to edit the background with what (hopefully) looks like stage lighting, with him playing a solo on the guitar in the foreground. I've also just realised that the top picture on the column of subsidury images doesn't have a page number on it which it did originally, so ill have to publish a new post with that on.

Final draft cover

This is my final front cover draft, as you can see from earlier on in my blog I completely changed the main image on the front cover, In order to accompany the new image I had to completely change the color scheme, from the previously light blue concentrated text to black and gold. I added spots of red text just to add a bit of change to the black and gold orientated color scheme and i feel it worked well. The main image itself was very difficult to decide on.  I had many images too choose from but I was pretty settled on the black and white effect, I think the black and white effect is very flexible as well when choosing colour schemes as most  colours seem to suit well. The image I finally settled on however was chosen because I felt it added a bit of quirkiness and originality and didn't take itself too seriously. I tried to put as many pull quotes and sell lines that I could on the front cover without it seeming a bit over the top and silly.

Magazine article first draft

Examples of contents pages

This contents page is very cluttered, but it does give more information than the other examples of the contents pages. This contents page has alot more text and page numbers. It also contains a message from the editor of the magazine (in this case Kerrang) which may give an idea to the reader of the content of the magazine and a brief overview before they begin to read it.