IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP, OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

MASTHEAD

I decided to name my magazine ‘Rave’. This is because the genre that I am doing is clubbing and my target audience are a young age group and that the word that they use for ‘partying’. I decided to use their language and not make it too formal as I wanted to keep it appropriate for them. Not only that, but also the masthead will be the only big and bold written element

on the magazine cover and so the audience will judge the magazine looking at the masthead. As you can see, the clubbing genre of the mastheads shown above and immediately the similarities that I can pick up is that they either have 2 syllables, or 2 words. However, if you compare that to my masthead it wont fit in as mine is only one word with one syllable. I have

chosen it to be this way because I wanted the masthead to be short and snappy. I wanted to display as least letters as possible on the cover so that the masthead could sound catchy. I have seen multiple music magazine use this trick so I have decided to follow the convention of music magazine mastheads, but not clubbing mastheads.

As I haven’t followed that convention, I still followed another clubbing convention which is that they always match their mastheads to the rest of the magazine cover. As you can see, I have clearly done that as my central image as well as my cover lines had the colour blue a lot and that is what I have done. I followed this convention as a lot of clubbing magazines did it

especially the ones that I have chosen to analyze throughout this project. Its worth mentioning that I have also tried more than one masthead and I have analyzed them all. This helped me to pick up the most suitable and appropriate design that fits my genre as well as target audience. I have posted this task on my blog also.

Moving onto the design of this masthead, I have chosen to use a bold font. This is because as you can see mixmag and the bible all have have bold mastheads and I wanted to follow that convention. Not only that but other music magazine covers also follow this convention. It is important for the masthead to be clearly shown as it is one of the main elements of a

magazine cover. Not only that, but the font of of mixmag is bubbly and curvy while the font for the bible magazine is straight and serious looking. I have added a combination of both fonts as I have used a straight bold font like the bible masthead and I have also added effects so that the masthead looks bubbly and fun just like my target audience. I have decided to

outline the masthead. As you can see the clubbing magazine masthead that I have shown above don’t have any outline, even with the other mastheads below of music magazines. I have decided to challenge this convention as the font colour of my masthead is black as well as my background and if I left it without an outline then it would blend with the background and will not be visible and that is the last thing we want as the main convention for it is to stand out. As I wanted to follow the convention originally, I decided to change the colour of the

masthead to blue. This then made the magazine cover look childish as the colour was so bright. This is how I came up with this idea of only applying the outline of the blue to my masthead as I wanted to match my masthead to the rest of my magazine colour. I have seen mixmag already do this as well as the clubbing bible and so I have decided to follow that.

In terms of similarities of mixmag masthead and my own masthead is that they are both bold and noticeable. More, importantly they are both positioned at the top of the magazine cover. The clubbing bible as well as other music magazine mastheads also display it at the top of the magazine cover as it ensures that it is easily visible and clear to read. I have also noticed

that even though mixmag magazine is very successful and known, they still do not display their mastheads behind the model on the central image. I wanted to show professionalism and so followed the convention. Overall, I feel that I have conformed to the conventions of magazines and developed some, particularly with the style.

Metal RockR&B/HIP HOP

MISE-EN-SCENE OF MAGAZINE COVER

Images are a very important part of the magazine as they attract the audience, especially for the magazine cover because it’s the only visual element as the rest are all writing and text. As you can see on my blog I have planned my photoshoots well so that the outcome could be impressive and attractive for my target audience.

Starting with the shot, I have used a medium close up as I wanted the main focus of the image to be the models face. This is because all the props went on her face. Also, I chose for my model to be a female, this is because most of my target audience are males and so they would be interested in the opposite sex. Not only that but a medium close up is a very good shot to use if you want to show the models facial expressions and that is exactly what I tried to do. This is because through the medium close up you could see that her mouth is wide open. This could tell us a lot about her personality. My target audience are young and interested in clubbing a lot which would indicate that they are very energetic. Energetic people would usually pull these kind of facial expressions as that could relate to the music also. It could relate to the music because clubbing music is very loud and usually when someone widens their mouth that would mean they are shouting. This could refer to my audience as they are young and the typical stereotype of young people is that they ae loud. This may relate to Jacques Lacan theory ‘Ideal I or ideal-ego’. This is because they might spire to be like the girl on the front cover as she might look fun and energetic. They might aspire to this model also because they are into clubbing and they would want to perhaps have a sense of style like her, with the make up and the glasses.

Next, moving onto the props that I have used for this photoshoot, as you can see from the image opposite, I have used neon make up. This prop was the main element of this image as it represented the clubbing atmosphere. I have challenged my convention here as in all of the mixmag central images, they show the persons features. However, here I made the main focus the neon make up and presenting the club more instead of focusing on who the model is. I have done this to enable the central image to look interesting as my target audience are young adults and so they get attracted by elements such as the image. As well as the neon make up, I have also added the clubbing glasses. This is a clubbing element and so it ensures that my magazine represents my genre. This follows the key convention as mixmag uses props that young adults would most likely wear, such as caps and jumpers as shown in the examples I have provided.

In terms of lighting. I haven’t used any studio lighting here as I needed to be in a very dark room. Within this room I have used special lighting called a UV black light. This type of light allows you to exaggerate the colors on the models face. This is to represent the vibrant lights that you would find at the club. ‘

MISE-EN-SCENE FOR CONTENTS PAGE

For this photoshoot, I have used mise-en-scene to represent my genre. I haven't manipulated this picture as much because I wanted to preserve the natural raw colors. Not only that, but because the picture was already vibrant, I

didn't’t want to develop it furthermore and make it look unprofessional. Many of the contents pages that I have seen use pictures that look very natural and so I will follow that convention.

Starting with costume, I decided to make the model wear a white t shirt. This is because t shirts are usually worn when clubbing (men), especially to neon clubbing as they need to wear a bright colour so that the colors of paint could show up when it is splashed on them. T shirts are very simple and so I believe that this is suitable for my target audience as they are young. Looking at existing mixmag contents pages, I see that they are all images of people raving and that

was my purpose for this photoshoot. Linking this back to costume, the models in the picture (if men) are either shirtless or with a T shirt on. I have shown some examples opposite.

In terms of props, I have decided to stick to my ‘neon’ clubbing theme and use neon make up on this photoshoot. This is because I wanted to make it seem that this picture has been taken live and not planned in a studio. I did this as I wanted to follow this convention that mixmag does. I feel as though this makes the contents page look very realistic and professional. I have put this neon paint on this model carelessly as again I wanted to make it look live and not

planned. I have decided to use a male for the contents page as I was planning to use a women for double page spread and I didn't’t want to use women throughout the whole magazine as this magazine is aimed at both men and women.

This is how I see it done on clubbing magazines and so I choose not to challenge this convention as it is repeated throughout all music magazines and that shows that it is a very important convention. For props, I have also used a

bracelet on my models wrist. This is because young adults are usually interested in jewelry like watches, bracelets etc.…

Moving onto lighting, I have used the UV black light again here just like the cover image. This is because I wanted to show consistency and stick to a theme as I have seen clubbing magazine do that and I wanted to follow that to ensure that my contents make looks believable and professional. The UV back light enabled the colors to appear vibrant just

like the colors that you would find in a club for lighting.

The shot that I have used in this photoshoot is a medium shot. This iis because I wanted to focus on the shirt as well as the models face. I wanted to show the paint as that was the main focus on this picture. Not only that, but when

looking at existing contents pages, I have noticed that most of them are medium shots just like the ones I have shown opposite. Also, through the medium shot you are still able to see the models facial expressions and so you could see his tongue out. This could represent my target audience as they like to pull these kind of silly facial expressions. In clubbing contents images, you always see young people having fun and to show that, they usually pull silly facial

expressions like sticking their tongue out.

MISE-EN-SCENE OF DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Finally, moving onto the photoshoot for double page spread I have decided to do something different and not like the front cover and contents page as I don’t want it to become repetitive. However, I still want it to link to my genre and theme.

Starting with props, I have decided to make my own raving bra. This is because I wanted to relate this to my genre so much and so I knew that females sometimes wear light up raving bras. I have explained the steps on how I have made it on my blog. Looking at clubbing magazines, I noticed that females show a lot of skin and that could be because they are young and young people often enjoy to show off their body and that is exactly what I am betraying in this photoshoot. As you can see the bra has lights on it (same colour scheme as cover picture).

On this photoshoot, I decided to use a different set of lighting. The lighting that I went for here was colored lighting. I felt as though it would show a realistic depiction of her actually being at a club. Not only that, but it shows the atmosphere of the club as the background is black and the colour of her skin is red which you will immediately indicate that it is the clubbing lighting or artificial lighting. I have decided to do this as when looking through double page spreads for clubbing genre, I have realized that they always do it at a studio and so I thought I need to show that it was planned instead of showing that it was live. This then brings us to how the model is standing. To show that this photoshoot is planned, I have made the model stand straight and not make her look as though she is dancing. I have provided some example below that supports my idea. I have decided to follow this convention to ensure that the magazine looks as realistic as possible.

Finally, I have decided to use a medium shot for this photoshoot. This is because I wanted the main focus of this image to be the bra as that is the only colored thing shown on the model. You could see that I have made the model all one colour and made sure that there are no distractions. I made sure that the bra was the first thing they saw when flicking to this page. Clubbing magazines have use a wide variety of shots as I have shown below. They use close up, medium close up, medium shot, and also long shot. It depends on what the picture is and what the purpose behind it is. So, for this partof magazine, I was forced to use my knowledge and understanding as to which shot I should use and which is suitable for the type of picture I am taking.

When choosing my font, I knew that it was a very important step as typography needs to be considered very well before its done. This is why I have done a good amount of research on typography and on which font suits my genre best.

Within my research I have found out that ALL magazines tend to use simple fonts that could be close to Times New Romans as they only want it to be easily readable. This is why I have decided to use fonts such as ‘Futura’ on the cover picture so that it is bold and easy to read. The font that I have used on my magazine cover is very similar to the font that mixmag use on their front covers. I have showed this opposite. Throughout looking at current magazine covers, I have realized that most of them use the same font throughout the whole magazine cover. However, I decided to develop this convention and use more than one font. I have used 3 fonts on my cover, this is because I wanted to use font to show importance for example, for the main cover line, it must stand out the most and so it should be the most bold text in the whole cover. This way, it will stand out more and people will know that it is the main cover line.

For contents page, within my research I found out that same with front cover you should not use more than 2 fonts. I have decided to follow that as I have already developed this convention and so I felt as though I didn't’t want the magazine cover too be crowded with so many different typography. This makes it look very unprofessional and that is of course that last thing we want! So, I have decided to only use two fonts for contents page which is Arial Black for the headings and Calibri for the description. I thought these were perfect as they didn't’t have a serious look to them as we don’t want that because my target audience are young adults and serious fonts do not represent them in any way.

Finally for the double page spread, I decided to use bold heading with curvy edges as again, I didn’t want the typography to be too serious for my target audience. However, on mixmag, they show their double page spread headings as being very thing and small. I have decided to challenge this convention as I know that if I use the type of typography that a mixmag uses on their double page spreads then the headings will not stand out against the black background and it would be hard to read.

In terms of house style, as I have mentioned I have changed my colors from pink, black and green to blue, white, and orange. I did this because my survey results stated that the blue/orange colour schemed magazine products have attracted my target audience and suited them best.

FONT AND HOUSE STYLE

Mixmag magazine

My magazine

LANGUAGEThe written element of my magazine cover definitely follows the key conventions of magazines similar to my genre. I used specific language to grab my audiences attention as they are attracted to a certain type of language. Not only that, but I also used a specific kind of language to ensure that it is suitable for my target audience. For example, I decided to use informal language instead of formal. This is because young adults tend to prefer to use informal language. Before I started to create my double page spread, I have analyzed several double page spreads of the genre that I am doing so that I could get an idea of how to write the article and the heading. For example, one of the double pages that I have analyzed had ‘BIG IN THE GAME’ as their title. This is when I decided that my heading for my double page spread was going to be ‘DJ WAS MY STAGE NAME’. From that, you could immediately pick up some similarities. For example a key convention of a title should be that it is very short, and as you could see I only used 5 words. This ensures that the title is short and catchy so that the audience would feel that they want to read the article.

In terms of the actual article. I have used other language devices such as alliteration, assonance, grammatical techniques such as teasers and also finally punctuation marks to exaggerate some phrases on the article. I have seen these devices used in within the double page spreads that I have analysed and so I know that this is a key convention. I decided to follow this convention as I wanted my article to look very professional. I have also included an interview to ensure that my target audiences are entertained. This is also something magazines do and so I have followed it.

For my contents page, I have also used specific language and words such as ‘ where you at?’ and ‘tick’em off’ etc.… I have used words that are not only informal but also words that relate to the genre itself. This is because I have seen mixmag clubbing magazine do this and so I wanted to make my magazine suit my target audience as much as possible.

Finally, for my magazine cover, I have also used a specific language. I aimed to stay consistent with using the same language throughout the whole of the magazine products. This is because all of the magazines that I have seen do this. So, for my magazine cover, I have used words such as ‘madness’ and ‘vibes’. These are words that my target audience would most likely use a lot and would also understand very well. For example, other people would say ‘music’ instead of ‘vibes’ however my target audience prefer to use vibes. I am doing this because I want to make the audience feel as though they can relate to the magazine and so they could build a relationship with the magazine itself.

CONTENTS PAGE LAYOUT I had to research a lot before starting my lay out and as you can see I have done what I originally planned. I decided to only place one big main picture on the side of the page. This is because I wanted to follow mixmags style as I really enjoyed it. Not only that but also I am using mixmag for inspiration to make sure that my contents page looks as professional and realistic as possible. I didn’t want the contents page to look overly crowded and so I decided to present the contents in a list design so that they could fit the whole page. I have also displayed a CD section on the contents page. This was inspired by the magazine mixmag as they did this on most of their contents page. I have displayed an example below.

On this contents page I have also displayed a header and footer. The header was a key convention as all music contents page and other magazine genres must display the word ‘contents’ as their title. This is so that the audience are clear that this page is the contents. As you can see I have decided to follow this convention as it is not only done to clubbing music magazine, but all magazines and so this tells me that this is an important convention. I have also decided to display the name of the magazine as I know that this is a key convention. Between these two elements, I have added a date. This element is not compulsory however some magazine do it. I wanted to do this as the genre of my magazine do it and so I wanted to show professionalism.

For the footer, I have displayed the date again as well as the website of the magazine. This was also inspired by mixmag. Usually, the pages of magazines contain number at the bottom. However, I have noticed that mixmag did this to all pages on the magazine except for the contents page. This is why I did not insert numbers on the contents page.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD LAYOUT

In terms of the double page spread, I have followed a number of conventions when constructing it. The first convention was the page numbers. As I mentioned on the previous slide mixmag the clubbing magazine

added page numbers to all pages within the magazine, except for the contents page. This meant that I had to add numbers to the double page spread pages. I based my magazine on mixmag which is a monthly magazine

with 30 pages and so this is why I wrote the number 20 and 21 at the bottom of the page. The next convention that I have followed is the layout of the image. This is because mixmag presents the image

on one whole page and they use the other page for the article. As you can see, I have used this convention to show realism and professionalism as well. Moving onto the layout of text, I have presented it in columns as that is how all magazine double page spreads do it. It is not only music magazines that do this, but also other genres of

magazines. Also part of the article, I have seen double page spreads make the beginning letter of the article larger than the rest of the article. This is so that the audience could clearly identify that this is when the article

begins. I have done this on my own double page spread as I wanted to use this convention. As I have analysed various double page spreads that belong to clubbing genre, I have noticed that they rarely use

sub titles. However, in other music magazines they tend to use subtitles a lot. As I have shown the planning on my blog, I have decided to use this element. This means that I have developed this convention. It is better to place sub titles underneath the heading. This is because it gives the audience more of an idea about what the

article is going to be about. However, I had to ensure that the language that I used would attract the audiences. Finally, I have included a pull out quote. I have seen many magazines in the clubbing genre as well as other

genres include pull out quotes. Pull out quotes catch the audiences attention as it is something that a celebrity might have said, and it is also often dramatic so that it shocks the reader wanting them to read more. I have

followed the convention as clubbing magazines place the pull out quote around the article and not in the middle of the article as some genres would do.

OTHER FEATURES

Barcode I have placed this element at the

bottom right of this magazine cover. This is because I have seen many other

magazine do this, not only clubbing magazines but also other types of genres. This tells me that this is an

important convention and so I had to follow it to make sure that my magazine

cover looks as realistic as possible.

Free giftMusic magazines would also display that there is a free cd included if offered. Because clubbing magazines do this, I have decided to add a free cd and I displayed its promotion on the top left corner. I have done this because I see many music magazines do this. Not only that but this is the place where it doesn't’t make the magazine cover look unorganized. I have also placed the picture of the CD that I have made on the contents page as I wanted to promote it furthermore. The clubbing magazine mixmag did it and so I was inspired to do it as well.

Issue numberI have decided to add this in a very small

font next to my masthead. This is because that place was the only place

where it didn't’t have cover lines. I added an issue number because I have seen

many magazines do this and I wanted to make my magazine look very

professional. Also as you can see, I have used a very simple font. This is because

that is how they always present it.