Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My final media product was the front cover, contents page and double page spread of a music magazine.
Before making them conducted research on different genres of music, finding out what types of people listen to certain genres and what the stereotypes and interests of those people are.

I also researched some different music magazines to analyze what different components make up the pages. I decided to stick to just analyzing rock music magazines as that was the genre of magazine I decided for my own, and by just analyzing these ones I would get a clear understanding of what components it takes to put together this style of magazine.

I had also analyzed a variety of different magazine for my preliminary task, in which I gained some understanding of the basic conventions of a magazine, for example on the magazine front cover, there is consistently a master head and an image. From this I also gained the knowledge that different styles of magazines have aspects of them that are unique to their style.

Front Cover

The majority of magazines, on the front cover have a main heading, strap line, main image, barcode and coverlines. But within these components, different aspects are changed, such as the fonts of any text, the positions on the page of each part and the colour scheme of the magazine.
For example the magazines that I researched, Kerrang and Rocksound, have some components that are the same and some that are different.

Kerrang Front Cover

Rocksound Front Cover

   

 These magazines being of the same genre are very similar, the strap lines are both at the top of the page with the main heading underneath it, both the barcodes are at the top of the page and the colour schemes are very similar with black, white and red predominantly being the main colours. But then the position of different cover lines are in different places and the amount of extra pictures on the page varies. I think the reason that these magazine stick with certain aspects is to make it clear to readers what style of magazine it is, for example the red, black and white colours would appeal more to listeners of rock music than other colours.

My Front Cover

So from this I came to the conclusion that my magazine should follow certain components of these magazines as the genre of it is the same as both Kerrang and Rocksound it would make it more easily depcicted as a rock magazine. So components such as edgy colours and fonts, pictures of bands on the front and the colour of the main heading were used on my magazine to relate it to these magazines.

Then I used the general conventions of the majority of magazines on my magazine such as the strap line and main heading at the top of the page, the main heading being the largest lettering on the page and in capital letters to make it stand out, an image filling up the entire page with coverline and headings in front of it, and a barcode, date and issue number prominant on the page.

The image that I decided to use on my front cover was an action shot of the band performing at a concert, this is quite common for music magazines to do this, as it shows the band in their element. But most of the time the image on the fromt cover is usually done in front of a green screen or plain background. I decided that doing this could be quite boring and would blend in this other magazines so I decided that an action shot would be better, it makes it look as if there is a bit more going on.

I then decided that I would change some of the components so they were completely different to Kerrang and Rocksound, as there are lots of rock magazines out on the market, I wanted mine to stand out against the others, so I made the colour scheme completely different to the red, white and black colour schemes of most rock magazines and went for a brighter colour scheme of green, pink, white and dark blue, but still made sure the colours were edgy to make sure that it was easily recogniseable as a rock magazine. I also changed the position of the barcode and coverlines, but this wasn't to go against the basic conventions of the rock magazines but to fit in aroung my main image, which is what most magazines do and the positions of things varies with each issue.

I didn't really go against the conventions of what most magazines do, as I think if you stray to far away from what most magazines look like it no longer looks like a magazine and people would be less appealed to buy it. The motive of most magazines is to make their magazine stand out against the rest, make their magazine more eyecatching, and make it look as fun and interesting as possible. So you could say that this is one of the main conventions of a magazine, to make it look different, which is a convention I followed throughout.

Contents Page

For my contents page I looked at both Kerrang and Rocksound contents pages to help me get a clear idea what the conventions of rock magazine were.





Rocksound Contents Page







My Contents Page



Kerrang Contents Page



Whilst analyzing both these magazines I noticed that the Kerrang magazine had a main heading saying 'contents' clearly written in large, bright writing at the top of the page, whilst Rocksound didn't have this at all. I thought that having this main heading made it clear to the readers what was on that page and not having it on there made Rocksound seem less ordered, so I decided to follow the convention of having the main heading saying 'contents' on my page.

Both Kerrang and Rocksound have many images on their contents page, on the Rocksound one the images are ordered and look neatly set but because there is so much of it, its really distracting when reading the text on the page. On the Kerrang contents page the pictures are all scattered around bottom half of the page, I feel as if this makes the page look messy aswell, so I decided not to use lots of picture on my front cover for those reasons and fill up the space where pictures could have gone with more writing which would be more informative to the reader.

On the Kerrang contents page I like the large image filling up the top half of the page, I feel this splits up the page and make the writing look less daunting to read.

On both the magazine contents pages they have both split up their text into columns, this is very common for magazines and newspaper to do this for large amounts of writing as it makes it easier to read, I used this convention on my contents page as I felt it would make my page look more organized and clear.

Both magazines also have a message from the editor on their contents page, aswell as a picture and signature from the editor, i like this as it makes the reader feel a bit more personal and intouch with the magazine, dragging them into the magazine even more, so I carried this through onto my contents page to make the readers of my magazine feel more welcomed by it.

Double Page Spread

I looked at a double page spread from both Kerrang and Rocksound to help me create my double page spread.



Whilst I was looking at both these magazines, I liked the way that Kerrang has put their image on one half of the page and their text on the other. This is a convention I used on my double page spread as it helped split the page up and made it look a lot clearer. But I moved the picture from the right side of the page to the left as I thought that having a picture as the first thing you look at is more appealing. I didn't particually like the way that rocksound had an image filling up the entire spread as I felt that it made the page look to clustered, and the writing less appealling to read.
On both magazines they have used a variation on different fonts, and font sizes. I like this in a magazine as I think that it makes the pages look less boring and makes things stand out a bit more, this is a convention that I stuck to whilst making my double page spread.
On both these magazines they have used columns to set out the main text on the page, many magazines do this as it makes the writing easier to read and helps set the page out making it look neater and more appealing to read. I thought it would be sensible to stick to this convention as there is a purpose behind why so many magazines do it and I like the effect it gives.
Both magazines have also stuck to very plain coloured writing for their main text, most other magazines do this aswell. The purpose of this is to make the text easier to read, if all off the text was in a bright colour it wouldn't be very nice to read. So I stuck to this convention as I want my readers to be able to read the magazine comfortably.
On the Kerrang magazine all the colours that they have used is very dull, even the picture is in dull colours. I don't particually like this as I feel that it makes the magazine look quite boring, so I didn't follow this in my magazine.

Evaluation of Main Task

I will be answering 7 questions to get a clear, concise and overall evaluation of my final product. These question are:

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q4. Who might be the audience for your media product?

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Q6. What have you learn't about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Q7. Looking back and your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn't in the progression from it to the full product?

Construction Examples from Double Page Spread

To start off I added the image onto the double page spread, i put it on the left side as people read from left to right the first thing that the reader would see would be the picture and as the band are easily recognisable it draws attention to the page. I then made the rest of the background black as it fits in with the picture as well as the style of my magazine. Also when reading a long piece of writing you down want to many bright and bold colours because it can be quite tiring for your eyes so its best to stick to very plain colours.
I then added the master head onto the top right of the page, i used a pull quote for this as it gives the reader a slight insight into what is going to be in the interview and using the most interesting quote makes it look more interesting. I made the words 'rock out' larger and a more contrasting colour than the other words because it make this text stand out more and this piece of text it goes  more with the theme of the magazine and it is what reader would want to hear.
I then put in two lines where the sub-heading is to go as this helps split up the page and stops it from merging into one, making it easier to read.
After that I put the sub-heading in-between the two lines, I wrote this in white as i felt this would help split up the page and make it even more easy to read.
I then added to interview text onto the page i put this into 3 columns as it makes it easier to read, I put the questions asked in a a bolder font and in the colour white, and I put the answers in a slightly less bold font in a grey colour. I did this as I felt it would make the set out of the interview clearer.

I put in a pull quote in-between some of the text to help split the text up a bit and keep it interesting. I also added the bands album to the bottom right of the page as an advertisement to their CD, i put a rough border around it to slightly separate it from the interview.

Construction Examples from Contents Page

On the top half of my page I decided to put a picture on the top half of my page as the band are the main storyline of the magazine I think it would be appropriate to have a large picture of them as it reminds the reader of the interview with them and it makes a point that the band are really interesting. i decided t make the background of my contents page black aswell, as it fits in well with the colours of the picture and fit the style of my magazine.
I then decided to put banners across the page to put the words in as i felt this splits up the page and stops it all from merging into one, and i put in lines in between where the writing is going to go. I put the heading lithium in white as it is on the front cover and used one of the house colours pink for the other headings. I then put the page number of the bands interview on top of the picture so as it help the reader find the page easily. To be able to put the number in the place that it is i had to edit the photo by colouring in some of the persons body and guitar black, as the mix of having white writing against a background of green and black made it hard to read. If you look at the image below you can see how it has changed.

I then began to write the rest of the content onto the page, during this i used the same house colours that i did on the front cover. I tried out different colours in different places to see what looked best. I then put the advertisement in a different colour as i wanted this to stand out and i decided to do this in yellow as it matches the yellow i the picture. I decided to put the message from the editor on the left hand side as it would be the first thing that the reader would read. I then made my own signature to put at the end of it to make it look more professional.

I then added a few images onto the page after to make it look fuller and more interesting, and i also decided to put blue boxes around the subheading on the page as i thought that they didn't seem to stand out enough and i feel like they make the page easier to read.

Construction Examples for Front Cover

On the front cover of my magazine I started off with the picture of the main band filling up the entire page of the magazine. I wanted to put a strap line on my magazine so i put that right at the top using the same colour as in the picture and also as my magazine was going to be called lithium i wanted green to be incorporated into it. I them put the title onto the magazine in white as it contrasts against the picture and lithium is a silver/white metal I think it would be appropriate. 

I then added the text for the advertisement onto the strapline, put in a box including the cover date, number and price, and added a barcode. Followed by adding the main headings onto the page, i put them in place on the page where the colour in the background was relatively the same colour so the text stood out. When I added the heading on the bottom left corner the colour of pink that I used for the other headings clashed with the green in the background so I changed it to black. 

The picture above was the original picture and as you can see there is a large black splodge in the bottom right corner of it, so I edited it out using the colouring tool to colour it in using the same colour as her top and adding detail to it.

After that i added the text underneath the heading to give the reader a bit of an overview of what was in the magazine, i put this in white as it matched with the house colours of the magazine and stood out against the background I then added a further heading onto the bottom as i thought it look very empty, i put in lots of plus signs here as they are a very easy recognisable symbol and lots of other magazine such as kerrang and NME use plus signs to draw attention to the reader and it help save space.

Evaluation of Questionnaire

Mock Ups

These are a few mock ups to help decide on the layout of my magazine.

This is the mock up I chose for my final front cover.

Draft Designs

These are a few draft designs I drew up to get an idea of how my magazine is going to be laid out.

Photo editing for album cover on double page spread

Firstly I cropped the picture so it was the size of an album cover, i made sure there was a clear space where I could put text.


I then put the picture through instagram so that the adges of the picture where faded and I slightly lightened the colour of the photo.


I then put the photo through photo effects app to get the battered, dirty look on the picture.

Writing Copy

Their Album “Youthful Days’ became number 2 on the UK Album Chart just 3 weeks after release, their headlining tour sold out in a matter of weeks and they have been partying with top
rockstars only 2 years after the band first formed. Pretty impressive don’t you think? So Lithium interviewed front woman Freya Hunter and Bassist Cole Beaulieu to get the inside gossip and story of their amazing success.

You were UK No.2 on the album chart, you have a sell out headling tour. How do you feel?

Freya: To be quite honest with you I don’t even know, this past year has been a complete worldwind. Sometimes we’ll just sit and think about it and we’ll all just go into a fit of giggles from
exitement. It hasn’t really hit home yet! All we ever wanna do is just rock out, so it doesn’t really faze us too much.

So, what is the meaning behind you new album ‘youthful days’?

Cole: Well we kind of had the idea that when you are young all things are sweet and innocent, and even when things are horrible, kids never really see it in a bad light. Then as you grow up you start to understand things a bit more, and I suppose life isn’t so great.


Being on tour for months on end must get pretty tiring, do any of you end up not getting along?

Freya: Well like any group of friends, there are always little tiffs. All of us are pretty laid back though, so no-one really starts anything.

Cole: And if someone is in a bad mood (usually drummer Matt) we will just leave them alone.

Being the rockstarts that you are, what do you request in your dressing rooms?

Freya: Lots of sweets, we love sweets. So like Nerds, Reeses Pieces, Starburst and Vegetarian Haribos. And i like Ginger Ale, it helps my voice. And a hangover.

Cole: Just veggie food!

How many hotel rooms have you destroyed?

Cole: We accidently broke the kettle in one and Ali broke our tour bus TV, thats pretty rock’n’roll.


What bands are you guys listening to at the moment?

Cole: Well all of us really like Bring Me The Horizon. We’ve watched them live like 20 times. Architects are really good aswell. And we like our classics such as Nirvana and Motorhead.

So, the gossip we've been waiting for. Partying with the Stones, what was it like?

Freya: Awesome, i’ll tell you now they really know how to party. Its crazy because we used to admire them as youngsters and even just meeting them was awesome.

Cole: And now we are just casual mates with them all, even though they are a lot older, there still so cool. Rockstars never grow up really.

Research

In the Avril Lavigne video, the predominant colours used are green, pink, black and white. Avril Lavigne is in a rock band very similar to the band that i am going to use for my magazine, so i would like to use the same sorts of colours in my magazine as the colours used here as i think the colours have been used very well and it suits her style of music.