Evaluation Question 1

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

My school magazine fits the conventions of an actual school magazine as they contain similar elements. For example, both the real magazine and mine have centralized titles and a banner line beneath it. Also, varying font sizes have been used on both and more than one colour. Both magazines have subtitles on either side of the picture which are of studious girls. The models are all wearing smart clothes and have some form of item related to a work environment. However, although they contain all these similarities, they also have some contrasting factors such as my image takes up the whole page, whereas the other image is centralized and smaller. Unlike the actual magazine which uses eye-catching colours, the colours I have chosen for the the articles have been taken from the school logo which I added underneath the banner line. I did this to add an element of the school theme to my magazine. The mise-en-scène varies also as my magazine has a computer in the shot and the other has a book.
Main Task

Title

Originally, I had to come up with a name for my magazine. I looked through a range of album, song and artist names for the genre of music I am using for inspiration. I came up with various names and to be honest, most were pretty awful. However, after coming up with a range of names for my magazine, I narrowed it down to my three favourites. I then asked a few friends to tell me which they preferred. This is how I ended up with the title 'detach'. I liked this as a magazine name as it has an abrupt impact which is also associated with rock music. Also, as it is one word, it is simple and therefore stays in your mind more easily. I then chose the font by trailing various fonts that i thought fitted the genre which i was using. I downloaded a number of fonts which I thought would be effective.

When I first decided on my title, I wanted to use blacks and reds for the font as it is often used with this genre of music. Red is a bright passionate colour which is also the colour of blood which a lot of rock songs are related to in some way or another. Also, black is dark and pretty much goes with anything, plus my target audience often dresses in black. Due to this, I trialed and errored my favourite fonts using this colour scheme.

However, when I had taken my photos, due to the colours within it, it was obvious that red and black woulndn't look good with it. I then took the blue from the top my model was wearing, added various effects such as a drop shadow and bevels and then enlarged it. This I felt fitted well with my picture as the colours fit with the picture, yet it wasn't too boring. This made it seem a little bit edgy, but not as much asKerrang! but not as calm as NME.

Against othr music magazine titles, I feel that mine fits in well. This is because it is not too busy and quite basic, yet it has a uniqueness. I eventually used the font 'sliced juice' which I downloaded from DA fonts as it was simple but not overly dull. It doesn't look too formal or particularly casual against the rest, fitting comfortably in. However, I have added in a drop shadow and it looks more 3D than the others, which they may not have done in order to make it easier to apply to any version of the magazine and in a more varied way.I added these factors as I wanted some individuality within my work and hoped that challenging the conventions wouldn't be too drastic this way. Overall, it created the look I hoped for on my front cover so I was pleased.

Cover Image

My images took me a while to acquire as I was unhappy with my first few photo shoots. This was due to various factors such as the lighting and outfit worn etc. However, i am pleased with the image I ended up with as it is clear, well lighted and looks professional. It also is similar to some I have found. Looking at the mise-en-scene, neither have any props in particular, although the actual magazine she has a throw over her shoulder. I cut my image from it's original backgroun and blurred it's edges to make it white. This both magazines have in common. Most music magazines fit this convention of a black or cut out background as it draws more attention to the artist. Also, the women are part of the mise-en-scene. Often the person on the front of a magazine is attractive and in some form of alluring pose, which I feel that I have acheived. Both women are framing their body in some way even if it is not the same. Their heads are not facing straight ahead but are at some angle although they are both making eye contact with the camera. Neither has their whole body in shot and they are both wearing dark colours. The make up that the artist wears is very important which is why I made her eyes dark and seductive with bright lipstick. The lighting I used was natural as the artificial lighting I had used before was unsuccessful. I feel that this added a more clean, clear look about her.

Contents

I split my contents into 3 sections; weekly, extras and on the cover. I did this as usually in music magazines, you can find what you want by category. I didn't include too many as I didn't want to make it too complicated. I put these sections as an avid reader may be interested in the various features that are included every week. Similarly, those who have bought it on a one off may have done so due to a cover story, which is why I made this another one. Finally I used extras, as it was the rest of the features that were in the magazine but I felt it sounded better than 'the rest'. I mainly looked at various issues of NME for my contents as I liked the way they included a band index down the left side. As you can see, I also included one as part of mine. Although on this edition it is a singular image of the London Astoria, usually NME includes 2 images of bands, which is where I also took influence.

Double Page Spread

The most important part of my double page spread was the written content. The style used in a music magazine is very colloquial and chatty against other types of magazines, and they don't censor what the artist says. For example, if the artist swears, it is included. This was hard to adjust to as whenever I have written a piece over the last few years, it has to be formal, and I have only ever sworn in one essay before. However, I feel I was good at adjusting and I didn't really hold back. I had to read a range of articles in music magazines in order to develop this writing technique. I also tried to fit the conventions of music magazines by using the same sort of format. For example, both of these magazines have the image, almost, if not taking up the whole of one page. The title is usually on this page too. I didn't completely follow the format though as on this magazine, the introduction is on the same page as the interview, but because I had a lot of page around my image, I decided to put it around it as a text wrap. I think this adds a nice effect as it shows a clear distinction between the article and the introduction.

Like in most music magazines, I took quotes from my interview and made them large on the page. Also, to give more of an impact to them I added the pink circles behind them, which fits with my house style.

House Style

The house style is very important within a magazine as it shows that it all fits together. I tried to keep my house style very obvious in my work by sticking to header and footer lines, colour schemes, fonts and the pink cirlces which I put under important pieces of text. I felt that this would make it obvious and effective.

Other Factors

I had to include other factors such as barcodes, dates and prices, Obviously these weren't particularly hard as all I had to do was make up a date and insert a picture of a barcode. I did however have to research magazine prices and then decide on how much mine should cost. I decided that £2.20 would be enough as it is higher than some but less than a lot.