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

• There are many different codes and conventions used in pop magazines, I tried to stick to these where necessary but some times I changed them to try and give my magazine an edge. Some of the conventions I followed where things like the page number which is present at the bottom of my double page spread, I also kept my magazine within 30 pages in length because not many pop magazines exec this.

• I went for a bold mast head which is common on all pop magazines which I researched, I also used slanted text on my masthead because this is also very commonly used to make it seem less formal and more to the audiences taste. I used two main founts in my magazine, one being my masthead fount on the cover and contents page, this fount was bold and easy for the audience to read, a common trait of pop magazines.

• The second was the masthead on the double page spread, this was also bold but had an intricate pattern on the inside which gives it a more feminine touch, the use of intricate paten and styles are also commonly used in pop magazines because when they are targeting at a female audience because it is something that they would want to look at.

• I also used some standard fonts for my body text, I choose to use the style I did because it mimicked the simple and legible style of other pop magazines. I didn’t want to make it to hard to read because this would have discouraged my readers, by using a simple text it means that it is easy to skim read through the magazine for readers that are looking for more specific articles or text.

• My colour scheme was a simple colour scheme of pink, orange and black though I did use other colours in my work. I used this colour scheme because it was clear and bright, I noticed that these colours went used in the combination I composed much, this will make my magazine stand out if it is on a stand with other magazines of the same genre. I also choose to use these colours because they are more girly, this makes it clear to buyers that my magazine is more female based, this is a commonly used way of showing the target audience through appearance.

I also used techniques such as pull quotes to keep up with the conventions of pop magazines. By using a pull quote I was able to break the text up making it seem more approachable to the target audience as well as grabbing the attention of anyone who was flicking through my magazine.

• Once again I followed the conventions for my images, I used all photography studio images because this is what was mostly done in the magazines I looked at and even when they went they where posed as is the same with my photos. In my main cover image I used a girl in mid shot which is the same as the cover images I looked at. Another convention which I used was making the cover image eye level, this gives the viewer the feeling of equality. I also used conventions in my smaller images, such as my image of three boys, this was similar because the image was taken in a photo studio and shows three people who are clearly close friends who trust each other.