Evaluation 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The masthead of the magazine
I wanted the title of my magazine to be simple but quirky, I looked at various
pop music magazine to see their titles which were mostly more than one word. I
thought that I would give a one word title for example ‘Smash Hits’. I thought
I would give the title a go and see how it turned out. In my survey I asked the
audience which title they would prefer and the highest was ‘BEATZ’ so I thought
I would go along with that one. It may challenge the codes and conventions for
a pop music magazine because beatz could be for any genre, I thought it suited
this genre and audience. The Audience are young and bouncy and I thought the
title looks quite bouncy and fast.
My masthead of my magazine and Smash Hits masthead are very similar. Both
mastheads stand out with the bold, bright coloured text, this is important as
it should be the first thing that gets noticed. I found during my research and
planning that most pop/ chart music magazines used variety of colours but stuck
to similar ones on the front cover. I had to think carefully about the text and
colour I would use for my masthead I needed it to attract my target audience
strongly. To help me decide on texts and colours I looked at a few magazines so
the codes and conventions would fit with similar magazines in the same genre. I
found the blue and yellow theme went quite well as it suits both genders. Due
to using light colour I needed to make the letters bold and easy for the reader
to read, the light colour scheme was one of the main reasons why I chose
capital letters and a blue stroke just to give it that extra boldness and a
good contrast from the yellow. Quite a few of the magazines I was looking at
had a colourful background I challenged this code and convention and did not
have a colour background. Looking back to my front cover I feel like I should
have added colour in to the background. The Smash Hits masthead is covered with
parts of images, I purposely chose not to do this because I wanted my masthead
to stand out clear because it is a new music magazine and I wanted the title
easy to read. I did attempt to cover part of my text with the image but I thought
it did not look right and the target audience might not benefit from it as they
are teenagers.
The images
Since learning about music magazines I have learnt that images in a music
magazine have a pretty big part because with no image certain audiences would
not be interested. For my magazine images are very important because my target
audience is mainly teenage girls who buy magazines to see bands and their
latest music and photos. I had to choose my models very careful, I needed to
make sure they fitted in the with the typical boy band style, this took two
attempts but eventually I got there. My models needed to represent the type of
genre perfectly, I found a magazine with One Direction on and used this to find
my models, I had a vague idea who I would use at the start of the production.
My models outfits had to be very precise, in the first photo shoot the colour
on their clothes did not match models in the same genre. For my second photo
shoot I made sure my models would wear bright colours and act like a typical
boy band which I thought was a success. I wanted to make sure that when people
would see the image they would know straight away the style and genre. I
researched conventions of the same type of magazine to get my models similar to
popular magazines/ boybands. I think their colours of their clothes go well
together, I also needed them to have that cool look about them which I think
they successfully did. To use this image on my front cover I had to remove the
background off photoshop I figured out it would be more effective and the wall
behind the photo is quite dark and powerful. I wanted my photo to be a natural
photo for a boy band I didn’t want the boys to look fake towards eachother this
natural smile shows this well also the fact that like they look relaxed. I was
lucky when I was taking the photos it was sunny/ warm so the lighting looks
well.
I also used different images for my contents and double page
spread. I was really happy with the double page spread photos but not to keen on
the contents photos. I believe if I had worked my time correctly I would have
better photos for my contents. The double page spread photo was pictured on a
wall in the castle where I thought was an ideal place to produce a boy band
style. I think the picture I chose for the double page spread represented the
boys well with their clothes, hair, posture and the colour in the photo
emphasises the energetic typical boy band. I did not need to remove the
background because I wanted the photos to look natural and casual as you can
see from the one where they are messing about on the wall. I used 3 images on
my double page spread and each photo could explain the boys past; life were
messes and the scattered/ grey wall would represent their past contrasted with the
bright blue skies which is where their lives are now.
I had to choose my models very carefully, I needed to make
sure that they fitted with the genre and would look natural and the target
audience needed to think that they are a real boy band. Personally I think the
boys I chose were perfect for the role because they look like a typical boy
band with how they look and act with one another. I chose a friendship group in
my year because I knew the photos would look more natural. Also in my article
and before I started I had planned to write about 17-18 year olds and these
models looked the exact age.
The content of my magazine I kept changing, I was never
satisfied with my pages I kept going back to little patches and changing them.
Overall I am satisfied with my outcome of my magazine apart from my contents
page, I know this does not fit in with the genres codes and conventions. I now
know the page needed to be full of blasting colours and more pictures and less
white after looking back to the photos. I used a flash on my front cover, I
used it to promote the magazine because you may win something, these are often
used for the audience to buy the magazine. Flashes are on the top layer so they
have the chance of sticking out more to customers and it brings their interest
in. I kept the layout of my magazine similar to other pop/ chart show genre
magazines because I thought it would look more real that way, however this
failed on my contents page. I kept changing the layout of the contents page and
double page spread to see what suited the page best, I wanted it to look like a
real music magazine.
I think the models clothing
is very important as it represents a specific social group, I also think the
models poses represent the social group. The models I used look quite casual,
laid back and have that cool attractive look about them. The photos I took have
bright lightening this can reflect on the type of audience that my magazine in
aimed at. When I was planning my models poses I looked in to other magazines
codes and conventions and used similar poses that were natural looking but
adding some extra little poses adding my own uniqueness. i think my photos
represent my media social group in a good way and reflects on their style and
personality. I used mainly wide shots to reflect on what the models are wearing
and the poses they are positioned in.
