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

Ryan Hamlett

Use

Use- The masthead that is used on my magazine Showcase is very similar to the one used on empire. It is a very simple font used to give a classic and professional look to the magazine. The use of a simple font gives the viewer of the magazine something to look for every week. The design will stay with the magazine for long periods of time so people will be able to recognize the magazine instantly. This is something that I wanted to create for my magazine. The only little difference between my font used and empire’s is the thinness. Empire has gone for a sleek design for there magazine where as I wanted a font that was going to stand out to anyone who would look at it. - The barcode style is another classic convention of a film magazine and it is a must for any magazine. I have located it in a different area to empire but the style of it shows of what I was trying with the whole magazine. I wanted to get a simple design that would look good but still have to technical aspects to it. I think I achieved that with my magazine cover.

- I didn’t take many parts of the magazine and use it in my product. I used my imagination a lot more this year because unlike year 1 I didn’t have to depend on real media texts. I was able to create my work from my own knowledge a lot easier.

Develop

Develop- The top and bottom banners allow me to show different important sections that will be featured on the magazine. I took the idea of doing a banner from year 1 when I did the same technique on my music magazine ‘Uproar’ it allowed me to show special features like posters and exclusive interviews. I took the same idea this year because it added features to the cover because I only have a cover and not a contents page and double page spread as well. So I had to get as much on their as possible but no overflow it with information so you couldn’t see the background of the picture. If I added as much text as empire then it would have took the social realist aspect of the magazine. - The middle section of the magazine was a section that I had trouble sorting out. Due to it being a two shot of me and Wes it was hard to fill any sections because our bodies took up a lot of the side space because of how I shot the photo. So having the traffic font below the image allowed the story and the image to pair enough. - The main cover image was slightly developed but also challenged. I changed it from a single medium close up to a two shot medium shot. The main reason for this is that my film has two main stars in it. This was a needed change to make to make it suit the genre and the style of my film but it was still something I had to consider the way that I shot it. I decided to have the stood by side so they look equal.

Challenge

Challenge - I kept to a very simple 3 colour scheme style of Gray, White and Black. Where as on Empire’s

magazine uses a few more colours in their layout. I wanted to keep my front cover very simple and give it a clean look. I have used basic colours to give it a simple effect which this was the look for the entire trailer, magazine and the poster.

- The text the we want to catch the eyes of the reader I centered it so it filled the space between me and Wes. Also with it being in the center it is the first thing that the reader will see because the eye is natural drawn to the center.

- I changed the brightness and contrast of the background image of the street to give it a different, ruff edge look to it. Before adding this it looked a little bit plain and thought it was missing something. Doing this fixed the problem right away. Also another reason for me doing this effect is because the background stood out more than the actual two shot, so I had to tone it down so it could look a part of the cover. Before having this idea I did just have a plain background behind the image, so adding this made the cover look complete.