Evaluation Question 1

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

The magazine industry is a very competetive industry in which every day/week sales increase and decrease. The sales all come down to meeting your target audience needs and making sure there needs are met every time you publish a magzine, as once they find something that catches their attention somewhere else that you dont have it means you lose money and audiences.

• Mojo                 ( Bauer Consumer Media ) :    87,555 ;   -7.5%
• Q                      ( Bauer Consumer Media ) :    77,522 ;  -12.1%
• Classic Rock    ( Future Publishing Ltd ) :        62,354 ;  -7.9%
• Uncut               ( IPC Media Ltd ) :                   62,305 ;   -14.2%
• Kerrang!          ( Bauer Consumer Media ) :    42,077 ;   -2.1%
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) :       35,259 ;   -15.7%
• NME                (IPC Media Ltd ) :                    27,650 ;   -14.0%

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=48770&c=1

In order to get my magazine up to professional standard as other magazines in the music magazine industry i had to do a lot of research and comparison. I used all research and other elements i gathered to create my own music magazine. The magazine genre i used was R'n'B, personally i feel that my magazine can be identified by others as a R'n'B magazine. To do this i had to use similar images, set out and style to other magazines.

Take for example the image, i had to make sure that my image related to R'n'B music in terms of style, clothing and body language. I chose the look with my model wearing sun glasses because it gave him the known and famous look. I had to make sure the image was very clear and neat. I made sure this because in my preliminary task my image was not as good as it could have been. This is because i didn't take into consideration the lighting and the positioning of the picture. If you were too look at a front page image of a R'n'B magazine you;ll see that the image is not only clear and flawless but there is also good positioning. To make my image clear i had to use certain tools in photo shop to clear the face and make it look professional. I also had to crop out some bits of the background to make sure my image was centered and not leaning more to the right or to the left.

One thing i liked, was the use of putting the head of the main image in front of the Heading. I felt that this made my magazine some what stand out and look a bit more professional. Although in some cases this may not be good as some people will not be able to identify the magazine because it covered up by the head, but it all comes down to whether your target audience can walk into a supermarket or shop and come across my magazine and automatically know the name of the magazine the whether the magazine name is not there or covered. They'll mainly be able to identify my magazine by the layout. so, i decided to do this because almost all R'n'B magazines did this and i would make my magazine look slightly professional. When i compare my music magazine to my preliminary task magazine you can see a lot of difference when it comes to the title and the image. In my preliminary task the Magazine title is right at the top of the page and the image is right below it. So in order for me to put the head in front of the music magazine name, i put the image layer on top of the magazine name layer. 

My media product uses the format and conventions of a real media product by the way it is set out. Different magazines have different layouts for their magazines. For example they may have their magazine title at the top of the page and the picture at the bottom or they may have the magazine name behind the images head. In my case I made sure my front cover reflected and looked like a typical R’n’B magazine. After researching the layouts of several other magazines, I finally came to the conclusion of how I wanted my magazine to be laid out. I decided that my magazine title will behind my images head, I wanted my stories/text to fall down the sides of my magazine and aligned either to the left or to the right. What I didn’t want and didn’t like is when there is a lot of text crossing the page and spoiling the image. I made sure that my barcode was at the bottom of my page and not half way or at the top. I also had to make sure that my image looked sharp and catchy.  My layout is very much different to my preliminary task in which my writing almost covered the faces of my model which was not professional at all. Also the layout of the preliminary task magazine set out was very basic and boring. The way my music magazine is now set up it can appeal to the audience research as I kept my colours basic and my image flawless. In order for me to do most of this I had to make sure that I was learning new skills to use in Photoshop to not only enhance my knowledge but to enhance my Photoshop skills.

When i research other music magazines i found out that, the size of the word depends on the importance of the word. This is very important as the words that are in big fonts are the words that draw the potential magazine buyers attention. This is because they may either know the artist, be interested in one or two of the topics or they just want to know more about the artist/subject.

 

In order for me to attract attention i knew that i had to use names that were big in the R'n'B and music industry. The bigger the name the more people will recognise your magazine and want to read about itm the smaller or unpopular the name is the less recognition your magazine will get. In my magazine i used big names such as "Ludacris, Beyonce, Rihanna and B.O.B". These are well know names in teh industry in which will help me gain recognition from my target audience and from other passers by.

Another way in which i felt my magazine represented and developed the conventtions of a real musica magazine is through my music magazines double page spread. I did a research on the layout, set out and uses of models on other and current music magainzes. http://princeobode.blogspot.com/2012/01/research-into-magazine-double-page.html

One way my double page spread develops the conventions of real music magazine is through the set out. For example:

The first double page spread is from an music magazine featuring UK Rapper Dizze Rascal and the second double page spread is one in which i constructed by myself. I feel that my double page develop these convetion through the layout for example take the image. I have made the image half the size of the page which fits perfectly and is balanced. The image and the model are suitable for my magazine as teh model is dressed very well and smart. He look like a famous music artist and the background in which his standing does nont only add colour and creativity but it also suggests the age of the model himself. If you relate this to the double page spread i feel there is a good use of space, colour, and size. I made sure it was like this so it fitted the dizze rascal double page spreads standards as it was obviously made by professionals.

I had to make sure the heading of my double page spread was clear, bold and was placed some where appropriate. I most of the double page spreads i have research i have found that the headings are clear and put in a place where it can catch a persons attention. So i decided to put a little bit of my heading on top of my picture and the rest on the plain white back ground with the drop shadow effect. I felt this would help make the title stand out, but not too much as i needed everything including my text and image to be balanced.

Another way in which my media product uses, develops and challenges the from s and conventions of a real media product is through my contents page.

The fisrt contents page is the contents page i created with the help of the music magazine 'Q'. As you can see the layout of these two contents pages are slightly similar. I used the magazine 'Q' as a guidline to make sure that that my contents page was along the lines of a real music magaizne and not something obviously created by an amatuer. As you can see form my contens page on the top right of the page my magazine logo is there which is the same as the Q magazine (placed on the left). This is used to show brand identity, this helps as it reminds the reader of what magzine there reading and also makes look professional as you are branding your work.

I also made sure that i used some type of unique and different picture in my contents page which is the same for both the images in the Q magazine. THis highlights creativity and uniqueness in your work which is good as it serperates you from other magazines in the music industry. The uses of images are very important as they add excitement and interest to a page. They also draw the reader and audiences. This is why i decided to edit my picture to make it stand out a bit more but not too much as i wanted and needed it to be balanced with the text as they are both equally important.