EVALUATION ANSWERS

 

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND

CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

The way my media product used and also developed in order to follow the conventions of a real media product was by following and analysing the key features that such music magazines had on the front cover, content page and double page spread. Real magazines such as Vibe, XXL and Mojo are all known for the professional layouts and the main highlights that is featured in a music magazine. The two magazines that I analysed previously was Billboard and NME. I found that throughout both magazines they obviously have different house styles and the layout was different but they had the same elements and features throughout both. From me being able to analyse both magazines front cover, content page and double page spread it help me to know what I needed to include in my music magazine.

FRONT COVER: BILLBOARD In the first magazine that I analysed I looked at billboard and what I found from the front cover was the image of the artist was a close up, and this seems to repeat In their other additions of their magazine. The angle that the shot was taken was from straight on but the artist is angled in a way to give a specific look; the artist is looking away from the camera focusing his eye upwards which could be a connotation of him looking out into the future or reflecting on how far he has come.

On the front cover the artist is wearing a jacket with a fur material around the collar. There aren’t any props apart from the artist but what is interesting is the lighting; the light is mainly focused on the inside of his face, and has an effect as if someone just opened a door that was in a dark from letting light in because you can see from the shot that the light is really narrow and on each side of his face it has a shadow effect. That light can therefore symbolise the bright future that lies ahead or that his career has finally taken off and is opening up a door of new opportunities.

The location of the shot is probably taken in studio. The masthead is in a bold and large format and runs down the left hand side of the page and is in a blue colour which is good because it hammocks with the house style of this addition because the background of this magazine is in a blue colour so this masthead goes with the style of the front cover. On the magazine the cover lines are very limited and focused on the artist that is on the cover.

FRONT COVER: NME

The other magazine that I looked at was NME. The cover line is limited to the artist that is on the front and is related to what the double page spread is about; the front image itself is a mid/medium shot of the artist and lighting in the shot is bright which corresponds with what the artist is wearing which is a colourful bomber jacket that is filled with different patterns and designs.

The camera is also straight on and is capturing the artist face and what they are wearing top wise. The artist is looking directly at the camera with their eyes squinting and her mouth a little bit open. This gives off a seductive look because with her looking straight towards the camera it is as if the artist is trying to draw the person that is looking at the cover, it gives off an alluring feel; and with her mouth also being open it automatically makes you look there because the lips are doing something different from it just being closed or if the artist was smiling.

FRONT COVER: SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCES For my front cover shot, it is a cover star taking a mid shot and is angled to the right side of the page. I did this in order to add in the cover lines so that there was space for them and that it would be seen clearly because if I positioned the image to the centre of the page then it could have made the font and the colour of the cover lines hard to see. I put the cover line on the left side of the page instead both sides because I didn’t want to take away from the artist on the front cover and to cover her up by adding in more cover lines which I also felt would make the page look cluttered. So in order to not deprive the page of the information the it needed in order to have the same requirement that a real magazine would ,I decided to add a sales line at the bottom to give information on what else would also be in the magazine.

The image itself has a warm feel to it because the background of the image is a sunshine yellow tone; the artist is looking right at the camera with her eyes slightly squinted and with her mouth close. This gives off a stern look to her face which is also an empowering . The masthead of the magazine is the house style red and white; the reason why I chose these two colours are because they are quiet used in music magazines such as XXL, and a feel that they are colours that can be used in different backgrounds depending on what the front cover image is. I also chose this colour because I feel that it is something rememberable and is something that the magazine will be known for. The colour also goes well with the font that I chose which was a bold white font so that it stood out around the red box that I decided to put it in.

The only cover line on the right had side of the page is the main cover line related to artist that is on the front because I wanted people for the first time who looked at the page to automatically link the person that is on the front to that cover line, that is why I positioned it on her so people would get the connection. Finally the last features that I added to the page was the barcode, the price of the magazine, the date it was published ,what addition it is and the website of the music organization that would be for the online addition of the magazine. This promotes the different avenues to the music magazine industry. The one change that I had to add to my front cover was the changing of the name for my masthead because the original name was to long for the page and if I put the masthead behind the model in my image, I would have lost majority of the word; do I decided to cut down the word from ‘IMPULSE’ to ‘PULSE’.

CONTENT PAGE: BILLBOARD AND NME

The content page for Billboard is completely different and has a different layout compared to NME. When it came to Billboard instead of adding in different images and shots they chose to stick to one main image which was a long shot of the two artist. Whereas with NME content page it contains a mixture of different things; it does have one main image but for example has a small image of the editor for the editor quote , but other than that they also have a sale line at the bottom where they are advertising a new album for a group and is highlighting the main features for it.

I also mention before that NME has an editor quote which is different from Billboard because the layout for Billboard is professional and quiet simple and basic whereas with NME adding the quote from the editor it gives more of a personal feel to the magazine because it gives you an idea of who the editor is and their sense of humour and their style of writing. The features for the NME contents page Is different because the magazine is made up of three different sections so for each one they would have the features that is suited for the section and then there is an overall regular features of different stories or information. And finally they also had a box that was all the organizations that helped them to produce the magazine which was another personal touch to their content page.

What makes Billboard different is because when it comes to their features, the way it is written, the font and the colour is really basic and doesn’t have much going on for itself. It just has the page number and what you are going to be on that page and what is going to be feature in that article. The main highlight of the page is the image itself, and maybe that is why they chose to keep the features and the writing simple because they didn’t want to draw away the attention from the image.

CONTENT PAGE: SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCESWhat I have taken from analysing these two magazine content page is what needed to be included into a content page. My layout is much different from both of them but they have both given me an idea of what a conventional layout of a content page is. I added in two images into my content page, one image being related to the front cover artist and the page number to turn to in order to find the article for that person. The reason why I just added the page number and no explanation or writing for it is because on the front cover it already explains what the double page spread is going to be on.

The other image was taken at a concert that I was at and I used the opportunity that I had to take a few images to make it look like something else, so I made sure when I took it that it was mainly focused on the crowd and not as much as the artist that where on stage, which weren’t related to my genre. I kept to the house style of the masthead which is red and white; the feature bar has different numbers for the page number and the writing next to it is to tell you what you will see on that page. The writing that is in red is the main thing that is about that page so it tells readers straight away what it is about giving them a choice if they want to turn to that page or not. I drew a line under each one to separate them from each other and at the bottom of the page I added a red bar just like the sales line on the front cover which has again the date of the magazine ,when it was publish and the website for the magazine encouraging the readers to subscribe to it ,and then for tiny details I added in the page number.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD: BILLBOARD

For Billboard the colour scheme that runs throughout the double page spread is white, black and lilac. It has been used throughout the article in different ways; for example, the page background is white and the writing is black but they added in colour of lilac when it comes to the pull quote that is on the main image of the page and also the drop cap that is at the beginning of the article.

The writing is laid out in columns and between there are two images, both related to two different things, one for his music video and the other from one of his performances which is probably inserted throughout the writing to give to the audience a visual image to look at depending on what they where writing about.

The main image is of the artist looking through a fence looking out into the distance which also anchors with the front cover because he was also doing the same thing on the front cover image but just located somewhere different. The article is about the artist and his accomplishments and recent events/performances and video releases. The language and tone of the writing is sophisticated and upbeat.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD: NMEFor NME, the article has a lot going on for it and has different elements which gives its own style to the article. On both of the pages they have images from the same camera shots that is on the front cover but different camera shots such as long shots and mid shots, but with the artist doing different things such as dancing etc. In the left side of the page at the bottom there is a collage of images of the artist performances and behind the scene images of the concert which links with the article itself because it is about her concert experience and how she feels about it.

It isn’t a Q&A but the article is written in a way that makes you feel as you are there, it is a strip down of the reality of the artist concert on stage and off. The drop quote right at the beginning is bigger than the rest of the article and is in the colour or pattern of the jacket that the artist is wearing and this pattern is also distributed throughout the page as you can see on the right side page. This was probably done because there was too much space there and they wanted to fill it with something so that side wasn’t empty.

The article is laid out in columns and has pull quote between them that is in red so that it pops out on the page and doesn’t blend into the rest of the writing. The other features that are also on the double page spread was a red bar that ran down the middle of the page that had little facts about the artist and facts about her music and even personal facts about the artist. On the other page it had a box that had images of different artist and a comment what they think about the artist and her music.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD: SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCES

From looking at both of these double page spreads I was able to add the elements that was needed to have a professional double page spread. My layout didn’t follow the two magazines but was really close to the XXL double page spread of the artist Kendrick Lamar. I decided to do one page of the long shot image of my artist but dressed a little bit different because this shot was taken with her jacket off which could give a strip down impression of the artist being more down to earth and opening up about her new album.

The layout for the article itself is in columns and is a Q&A about the title of the article which is the new album of the artist. I did a pull quote and put it on the page with the image and next the head of the artist because I wanted it to seem as if they were saying it out of their own mouth. I did a drop cap at the beginning of the article to add the conventional elements that a double page spread has. And then because the top right corner of the page was bare and empty ,I made a little album cover of what it would look like using the other images that I took I the studio and using that as the front cover of the artist and adding the name of the album.

This was something that I added in later because I did get feedback telling me that I should put something in that corner. Lastly, I made the question for the Q&A bold so that it stood out and that reader knew the difference from the question and the answer.