Evaluation Question 1

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

Throughout my magazine, I have stuck to and followed conventions of traditional magazines. I think this is shown particularly on the front cover, where I have used aspects such as coverlines and taglines, as I have used a similar style to that of real life magazines I have researched (for example Kerrang! Magazine). With my masthead design I have tried to reflect characteristcs of the magazine's genre, in the sense that the rugged, rough nature of the font reflects the heavier nature of the music feaured, and the fact that the masthead is simply one sohrt, impacting word also helps to reflect the musical styles featured, as the characteristics of many of the artists featured are such that the musical elements used are simple riffs or recurrent phrases which are deliberately simple to create a larger impact on the audience.
Whilst researching these magazines, specifically magazine covers, I have focused on the layout in particular, and used a similar layout to that of an issue of NME I analysed. The main aspect I have taken from this magazine is the main image, and rather than simply replicate this image I decided to vary it, as this magazine (and many other magazines like it) focus on a large, centered main image which is a close up shot of a band member, or usually frontman. I have taken inspiration from this, but rather than have a close up shot on my magazine, I have decided to have a medium range shot of a frontman performing, an edit of a photo I took whilst at a concert. The face is almost blacked out, and the whole image is edited in black and white. I decided to do this as it sets up the style for the rest of the magazine, and I think when viewed alongside the rest of the magazine this works really well, and also links in with the feature article, which is based on a Young Guns, a band who’s image and overall sound is particularly dark, and their album covers/videos tend to be shot in black and white, so fans or readers familiar with the band will be able to relate to this overall style.

Editing and cropping main image:

 Editing images for contents. I wanted to bring a more modern feel to the magazine, so i decided to create a list for this page, and then edit it with photoshop, rather than use a standard layout of page reference

Original image:

 Cutting out and adding in titles to image:

 Placing text behind image:

Finished image:

 

 Adding in borders to highlight against background of contents page: