EVALUATION 1. In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

I feel that my indie rock/ singer songwriter music magazine

Encore! For the most part challenges and develops the forms

and conventions of real media products, instead of fully

conforming to the conventions of music magazines. During the

stage of research I analysed various different music magazines

including 'Top Of The Pops', 'NME', 'Q', 'Kerrang!' and 'Billboard'.

I felt that by analysing various different music magazines which

are all different genres and have different target markets, I was

able to get better understanding and knowledge on what the

main conventions are of a music magazine and therefore I was

able to apply these conventions to my own magazine, to ensure

my magazine appealed to my target market as much as

possible, therefore hopefully making my magazine successful.

House style Firstly when doing research

into the different conventions

of music magazines I found

out that the more successful

magazines like 'NME' that

have been around for a long

time and are still going, have

certain house style colours

which are carried out

throughout their front cover,

double page spread and

contents page. I planned on

having the same house style

colours throughout my

magazine too, as it makes the

magazine easier for the

audience to navigate and find

in a shop and if they like what

they see the first time round

when they buy it, they will go

back and they will be able to

easily navigate it when they go

back to purchase it, thus

making the magazine

successful. These images

show that I have kept the

same house style throughout

my production just like ‘NME’

does as it is a conventional

feature of this genre of music

magazine.

House Style When doing a case study on ‘NME’ I found out that their genre of music magazine is ‘indie’ music, just like mine however their house style colours were very different to mine as they were predominantly red, white and black.

I felt that although I wanted my music

magazine to stand out, I wanted it to stand

out because it was different, not because it

was eye-catching. My music magazine

features the colours purple, indigo, lilac and

blue tones therefore standing out because

they’re different and unconventional therefore

this will interest the readers and they will

hopefully want to buy my magazine as it

looks different to other music magazines

which will intrigue them. I also had my house

style colours featuring the colour indigo to

play on the fact, that the genre of my music

magazine is indie and the colour ‘indigo’

sounds like ‘indie’. In addition the fact my

house style colours are different and new

,reflect that the artists featured inside my

music magazine are different and new as my

magazine features new and up and coming

artists.

House Style

• Another unconventional feature to my music magazine in regards to house style is that I have put a border on every page unlike any music magazines I’ve researched into. I think this gives the music magazine a more professional and coherent look which was important as I wanted to suggest that even though the magazine doesn’t feature very famous artists and it only features up and coming/ indie singers, the magazine is still a professional magazine and it is just as worthy as ones with very famous pop singers on it which have a more popular genre. All of this makes my music magazine stand out from the crowd which is what I hoped to achieve when creating my music magazine.

Layout

The layout is a typical layout like most music magazines as the masthead is at the top of the page, I have used different headlines and I have one main image in the middle.

I also placed the image slightly over the masthead, many music magazine which I have researched do this as it means that the magazine already has a big enough following to be easily recognized without having to see the whole masthead, meaning that when the magazine is on the shelf the target audience will already notice the magazine and also the effect of having it at the top of the page means that the audience can see it as soon as they look at the shelf, as it is eyelevel to the reader.

I have put information all around the music artist on the front cover creating interest for the reader and they’re more likely going to read the headlines and want to buy the magazine to see what they’re on about inside.

Layout For my contents page I have used a typical layout with columns showing what’s on each page by using page numbers.

I have also used many different images in order to hint the content inside. This is so the audience knows exactly what they’re getting for their money as my contents page tells the audience everything which is featured inside the magazine.

I would say that the layout for my contents page is similar to the magazine ‘Kerrang!’ as I included more than four images, a review, and a subscription box and also a list of what is included in the music magazine. I did this as I wanted to get as much on the contents page as possible as I believe it gives the contents page a more organised and aesthetically pleasing look and having more images than writing gives the magazine a more visual appeal.

The masthead A conventional masthead usually has a

background colour just like ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ and

‘Kerrang!’ making it stand out, however i felt that

that was not needed on my music magazine

because when creating my masthead in

Photoshop on the inside of each letter I put an

inner shadow which made my masthead stand

out to the reader without having a bold

background colour.

Another unconventional feature of my masthead

is the shape. I did my masthead in the shape of a

sound wave to reflect that the word is something

that is shouted at the end of a gig. This is

purposely done because most music magazines

from the indie genre like ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ are in a

rectangular shape due to the background colour

but my music magazine is called Encore! And

‘Encore’ is a sound that an audience say when

they want to hear more which is a code to the

audience that artists featured inside are that

good that they’re going to want to read and hear

more about them.

Kerrang!’s’ masthead has an exclamation mark

at the end of the word because ‘Kerrang!’ is a

sound and the exclamation mark makes it

appear as if the sound ‘Kerrang’ is louder and

shouted. I have also put an exclamation mark at

the end of ‘Encore!’ as I felt that it reflects that

people were shouting the word ‘Encore’.

Mise en scene

I got the person modelling on the front to look directly at the camera therefore it gives the impression that they’re on the same level as the reader and therefore the reader will feel that they can relate to the artist. When looking at this front cover by ‘Q’ this is a conventional feature of a music magazine.

The image I have on my front cover I would say is unconventional in some ways too in regards to mise en scene because on ‘Q’ their front covers usually have a plain background and the artist's face covering most of the magazine or a plain coloured backdrop and a medium shot of the artist, however this was intentionally done as I wanted my magazine to conform to the genre of indie, therefore I felt my magazine had to be different to others and having a brick wall as the main backdrop for my front cover gave my music magazine a more 'grunge' like feel giving connotations of mystery and leaves the reader interested as it’s something unconventional.

Mise en scene

I wanted the settings in all my photos to reflect the genre of the magazine and the target market, just like on one of ‘NMEs’ contents pages that I did a textual analysis on during my research, the image of the band ‘The Courteeners’ was set in a rural setting which has connotations of festivals and indie music is what usually gets played at festivals suggesting the genre of music magazine is ‘indie’, suggesting that the image of ‘The Courteeners’ set in a rural setting will attract their target market as their target market goes to festivals and listens to indie music. So on my magazine the image of the artist ‘Haley summers’ is set in a rural setting having connotations of festivals and indie singer songwriter music is what gets played at festivals suggesting that the genre is indie and because my target market like that kind of music and attend festivals it will attract them.

Mise en scene

I also got all of the models to pose in a different way to suggest that each one are individuals and different from another, for example one has a sulky yet content look, another is smiling and another is smoking reflecting that even though they are all in the same genre of music their looks are all different and posing different represents them and their music to all be different, creating interest for the reader as each one is interesting.

I dressed my models in 'indie' clothes, for example bowler hats, denim jackets, leather jackets etc. I felt that it was important for my music magazine to have the models dressed in an appropriate way to suggest the genre of music indie. This is because in my research I found out that people who like indie music also get style inspiration from indie music artists.

Another conventional feature of an indie music magazine was that makeup was done quite dark so I’ve done dark eye makeup etc. to keep up with the conventions of the indie style. When referring to dyers star theory i have done this because the artist is not just a singer but they have been constructed to appeal to a particular indie genre.