Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

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

How do your school and music magazines relate to existing examples of these media forms? 

What conventions have you observed in terms of design, mode of address and use of imagery?















Below I took the time to go and print off my magazine into the professional style of existing magazines. It includes the glossy paper that magazines have. It also has advertisements in between the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Firstly I have constructed a series of magazines that follow the style and genre of my magazine being both Rap and RnB. I did this in photoshop to see how the front cover of my magazine would look in comparison with it's competition when on sale in a shop. You can see that the colour scheme of red, blue and white is consistent throughout three of the magazines which was the style and genre I was following when constructing my magazine which connotes the urban style of music magazines today. The unique selling point of my magazine is the Reloading sign in the title which not a lot of other magazines have.

The considerations I had to take when making my magazine were as follows:

• the title of the magazine
• mise-en-scène of images
• costumes and props
• people
• title font and style
• written content
• music genre and how your magazine suggests it
• front page layout
• contents page
• double page spread

Title (Font and Style)

For the title of my magazine I wanted to follow the idea of having a logo/symbol included in the title to make it look more interesting than just a plain and simple title for a magazine. My inspiration from this came from RWD Magazines there are some copies above and it has a rewinding symbol over the 'R'. I wanted to go a step further and actually incorporate a symbol as one of the letters in my title. So I came up with the title 'RELOAD'. I chose this name as it connotes an urban genre of how other magazines are called 'RWD' or 'VIBE' for example. I also thought about making a reloading sign and using it instead of the 'O' in my title. This turned out to be most effective in my feedback as I received a lot of positive comments about the idea, which will end up being my unique selling point. Also The colour scheme of the title from the magazines I was following was usually red however I didn't want my magazine to have too many similarities to another magazine so I decided to change the colour of it to white, but still keep the element of red by leaving the symbol in the title red, this creates my own brand identity.

When it came to choosing a font for my title I found this very difficult but after I had researched more urban music magazines such as RWD and VIBE magazine I found that they used a very simple font but edited the font and used effects on it to make it stand out and draw the attention away from the actual font. The font I used was Arial Bold which is one of the simplest fonts to use however when you make the size of it very large, mine being 73, then it changes in its layout and looks like a different font. Some magazines such as VIBE use a gradient on the font to give it a unique look as you can see below. VIBE have used a vertically faded black to red which is more visually impacting than a plain red title. It also gives VIBE their brand identity as they are known for this gradient on most of their titles. I wanted to incorporate an element/effect like this on my title as I felt it was a bit plain and simple even with a symbol in the middle of it. So I used a reflection effect to make it seem like the title was being reflected at the bottom.

Mise-en-scène of images (costumes, props, people)

When thinking about the type of images I wanted to take with my camera I firstly had to do some research on what the existing images were like in the urban category that my magazine comes under. When choosing a model for my magazine I wanted to use someone, obviously who I knew well, but that looked old enough to be a model, if the model looked too young it would give the magazine a tacky, unprofessional look to it. So I decided to use my friend who looks as if he is in his late teens which is the kind of model I was after.

After doing some thorough research into the gesture, gaze, posture of the model and the clothing, scenery the model is involved in. I set up with my model and positioned him to how I wanted him to look, whilst constantly referring back to images I had printed off to remind me of the key factors when taking an image. The main image on my front cover was an interesting image to take as most magazines don't really go for an unusual pose on the front cover they leave that to the double page spread and keep the front cover simple but effective. So I had to take this into consideration when applying the clothes and positioning of my model.



Above is a short video of some of the different types of photos I took when trying to find the picture I wanted for my front cover. I experimented with a variety of different clothes, gestures, direction of gaze and angle of the camera. The main aspect of the image was for the model to dominate the page so I zoomed in quite close to his body with hardly any of the background showing in the image. Also I wanted people to be able to identify the genre of the magazine which is urban as you can tell from the casual dress style including t-shirts, jeans, jumpers and baseball jackets.

When taking images for my contents page and double page spread I wanted to ensure that the pictures were totally different to the front cover image because If I had used the same sort of image the magazine have that professional look, which the variety of images throughout a magazines gives it. For my contents page I used my surroundings a lot more when taking these images and I didn't have to plan for them as much. I wanted to relate to some magazines with the idea of taking an image during a party or outside in a cool environment that suits the genre of your magazine. In my case the image I took for the dominant photo on my contents page was outside in an alleyway with graffiti on the wall which highlights to urban genre of my magazine.



Above are the photos I used for my contents page in a short video and as you can see the images are mostly action photos taken during a party or whilst someone is in motion. The photo I used for the main photo on my contents page was whilst the model was walking through a tunnel. This relates to existing conventions of media product as I found out during my research.

Above are the pictures I analysed in my contents page research and as you can see I have related my images to types this this such as an interesting gaze from the image on the right like I have on my contents page. When taking this image I ensured that the camera was tilted down slightly on my tripod to give a sense of direction in the photo. I also took images of more than one person and image from parties to create a sense of realism and give a variety of different pictures throughout the magazine. I did use some props in one of the photos for my contents page as I instructed the model to stand in front of the speakers at the party to make him look like the DJ, which was an effective prop as it worked, giving him the look of a DJ at a party which I could then caption as one of the featuring articles in my magazine.

When constructing my double page spread I wanted to ensure that the photo I took was very dominant however different from my front cover photo. The photo needed to be different as the double page spread is an interview with the artist and he can't be wearing the same clothes as the day he got the photo shoot done. Also it would look odd if he was in the same position in the same clothes. This time I went for the more casual approach when taking the image. I instructed my model to wear a casual jeans and t-shirt with a leather jacket over the top to make him look like a famous icon. The photo would of maybe been a bit plain and boring if he was just wearing jeans and a       t-shirt. I did use some props in the main double page spread photo as you can see to the left I used a sofa and some cushions to give the setting of the image a relaxed comfortable feeling. When taking the image I asked my model to give an interesting gaze towards the camera which invites the reader in when looking at the page. The photo I was referring to when constructing my double page spread was also a relaxed confident image which took one side of the double page spread.

This image below that I took my inspiration from also used a chair/seating as a prop which gives it the artist a sense of confidence when taking the image.

The pictures I used on the other two pages of my double page spread were very different (see below) as one of them was a close up of my model wearing a branded jumper outside on the street to again emphasise the urban genre. However, the other photo which I used to create the album for my artist was completely the opposite I dressed my model up in very smart attire and placed him in a dark room with a grey backdrop to match the bland colours he was wearing. I also used a black box behind my model for another visual element to look at in the image.

Written Content

For the fonts of the cover lines I wanted to use modern/urban fonts to connote the urban genre of my magazine, because if I had used a posh, fancy font It would not portray the conventions of an urban magazine. The written content in my magazine from the start was going to use a mixture of formal and informal language. I wanted to write my magazine in a style that was appropriate and normal to read but then add some urban elements to it that not everyone would understand to which would reemphasise my target market of the younger generation. On my front cover I wanted certain elements to stand out as being informal and urban such as the screenshot above of some of the text I have used on the front cover. The features on my front page were mainly the large headings inside the magazine and the famous artists that were included inside which is a key feature to have on a magazine as people may recognise their favourite artist and buy the magazine just to read about them. This is a feature that most magazines have on the front cover.

Another feature in the written contents of magazines that I used was a chart or an insight into some sort of information and I saw on a lot of magazines when researching that they had the cover line "50 biggest singles/tracks out now" So I decided to use this and change the wording of it to give my magazine a realistic feel to it following on from other magazines. 

The last element I used on my front cover was a header featuring other categories such as sports, gaming and television instead of just music. Obviously most of the magazine is about music however a magazine should have a small variety to keep the reader interested. Below is my header and I decided to use a wide range of options to appeal to almost everyone. I came across this ideas when also doing research for my magazine front cover. The header underneath the first one below with all white writing is one of the examples of the magazines that has a header, except a lot of magazines that have headers put them at the top of the front cover, however I put mine at the bottom as I didn't want to follow the exact same styles as other magazines.

On my contents page I used some informal written content as most of the page was full of features and images with pull quotes on top of them. Below are some of the informal written content I used on my contents page to keep to the urban genre of my magazine. I used the word badboy's in the pull quote from the image of the DJ with his speakers as it is in his nature to use informal language being a DJ and being stereotypically modern using informal language. So I decided to say this to highlight the character of the featuring artist in my magazine. 

The written content of my double page spread was much more formal in terms of the build up to the interview with the artist and the questions being asked were very formal. The written content of the artists replies to the questions were actually quite formal and you would expect an urban artist to use informal language often however in the interview I chose not to make him sound uneducated and informal so instead I decided on the artist being well-spoken with the occasional informal phrase or saying that he inhabited from his background as a child. In my double page spread I chose to talk about the album the artist had just released as I actually made the album and displayed it on my DPS so I thought it would be relevant to spend some time asking questions about the artists career and his music. I also asked some personal questions about his family and upbringing which I kept private so it seems there is something the artist is hiding which makes it more interesting for the reader.


Music Genre

The music genre of my magazine is urban which could relate to any of the following; hiphop, RnB, Rap or Grime. I didn't want to narrow down the genre of my magazine to just one as It would of been harder to collect well captured images for my magazine and the fact that it isn't just one genre is an effective choice as some people may not like certain genres however if the urban category appeals to the customer they may still want to buy it. My magazine suggest the urban genre throughout the front cover, contents page and double page spread by using different techniques and effects that represent an urban look, style or image. The urban clothing in the images I have taken relates to the genre as I had specifically instructed my models to wear casual urban clothing such as jeans, branded t-shirts and jumpers, baseball jackets and trainers. The setting of my images also suggests the urban genre of my magazine as I have used brick walls and graffiti in two of my images (below)

The featuring artists I used throughout my magazine also suggests the genre of urban as most of the artists's music involve Rap, Hiphop, Grime and RnB such as Wretch 32, Devlin and Professor Green. Another feature that highlights the urban genre of my magazine is informality of some language used on the front cover and contents page such as "sick life"and "these badboys".