Evaluation Questions

ALEX TWAITES

Question 1

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

Examples of magazines

Conventions of a music magazine.

These are:

Masthead- This is the name and logo of the magazine.

Drop capitals- This is the large letter that begins an article.

Banners- This is text that stands out because of the background.

Sell lines- This is text on the cover which helps to sell the magazine.

A picture of the artist or the band

Conventions continued

Bar codes

Cover lines

Lots happening on the front cover

Co-ordinated colours

Pull quotes

The use of a real magazine

This magazine mostly uses red and dark colours this corresponds and with the perception that rock is quite bold and loud, the dark colours make the cover stand out.

I like the mast head because it is very recognisable because it is always in the top left hand corner, and it is bold and stands out. Again it gives a sense of rock because of the boldness and the strong use of colours.

I really liked the use of the photo because there is no background so all of the attention is on the picture of the two men, as well as the surrounding writing, this is so it is not distracting and focuses the attention of the audience. The two people are looking directly at the camera are side on to the camera, as if they’re trying to create eye contact with the audience. It also gives a sense of impact because they are standing side on and looking directly at the camera.

Amidst the dark and bold colours of rock they have added a yellow information piece, it is very short and to the point and gives all the information to the audience that they need to know. Also the fact that its yellow makes it stand out a lot more because of this and is more likely to get the audiences attention.

Above the mast head additional information is added to give the audience some idea of what else is inside the rest of the magazine. Also alternate and brighter colours, this again is so that the readers attention is grabbed and directed towards the top where the information is.

I like the use of the pull quote because it gives the reader more information. It also gives the sense that they are talking directly to the audience.

I Based my music magazine upon the NME magazine. I based it upon this magazine because my target audience is for people who like rock music, and the NME magazine was also aiming for the same target audience. This is because the colours are very bold as they are in rock. Also they referenced different rock groups, such as the rolling stones.

I used a similar style of layout and the similar colour scheme. This is because the front cover of the magazine was very eye catching and I wanted to recreate this.

I feel that my magazine follows the conventions of a music magazine and does not challenge them. This is because my magazine follows what most other magazines look like.

Front cover

Again I liked the way that the contents page was laid out in the magazine that I researched. That is why I wanted to recreate the contents page as much as possible. I used the same colour scheme as I used on the front cover, this was to keep within the style of rock, by using dark and bold colours. In the contents page that I researched there were two main pictures in the middle. I instead only used one picture because I wanted people to focus on the main character and story. I also used one large image so that it grabs the readers attention. Below the picture I wrote a short taster to get the readers interested, the same as on my example. I kept most of the things similar to the example contents page, the only thing that I really altered apart from the stories and pictures, were the artists and songs in the left hand column. In the example contents page it only gave the different names of the band and what pages to find them on. I changed this because I chose a number of different popular bands, and listed their best hits. This is so the reader knows what to look out for. I don’t feel as if the contents page is the most conventional piece of my magazine. This is because I have deviated from what is normally done on a contents page such as the example.

Contents page

On my double page spread, again I have tried to stay within the conventions of my example music magazine. I feel that I have followed the conventional layout of the magazine by using a large image on the left hand page, and the main story and the other page. On the other hand I feel that my music magazine has broken the conventions of a rock magazine although I followed my example, this is because instead of sticking with the rock theme of using dark and bold colours, it has changed to lighter colours and using a more softer approach.

Double page

spread