Question 1 magazine

Question 1

In what ways did your media project develop, challenge or use conventions of real media products?

Magazine

Evaluation

What are the conventions of my genre of magazine?

I looked at EMPIRE film magazine when researching film magazines.


Masthead – The EMPIRE masthead is always the same; red, bold, in the same font and always in capitals. By doing this, the EMPIRE brand is instantly recognisable when the audience see the front cover in shops.


Another common convention of EMPIRE film magazine are the unique selling point (USP’s). These are generally puffs advertising something that is in the magazine in this issue or something that the reader could win. Examples of USP’s on the Harry Potter edition are ’10 must see movie exclusives!’ and ‘Our best preview issue ever!’. On both The Golden Compass and Tintin editions, there are USP’s in coloured circles.


The main focus of each cover is the film they are advertising. The picture is of the main characters of the film, and it normally overlaps the mast head. The title character, such as Tintin or Harry Potter, or the main character Lyra Belacqua in The Golden Compass, are made to stand out compared to the other characters. I think this is done so that the audience realise who the main character is, or because the audience want to see the title character.


The name of the focus film is always printed with the picture. The name is the largest piece of text on the cover other than the masthead. By doing this, the audience can connect the picture and the name of the film. On each of these editions, the title of the film is accompanied by a tag line, such as ‘The end begins’ on the Harry Potter edition.


The genre of film is reflected by the mise en scene created by the picture (what the character’s are doing) and the back ground. For example, the Harry Potter edition of EMPIRE is conveyed as fantasy and adventure on this cover. By picturing Harry with a wand reflects the fantasy genre and the shattered glass with pictures of the other characters, including the non-human-like character Voldermort, emphasises the adventure genre. The dark back ground and shattered glass add to both the fantasy and adventure mise en scene.

In what ways did I go along with conventions and why?

The masthead… I chose the word KINGDOM as the title of my magazine as it is a synonym of the word EMPIRE. I feel that it has as big a impact as that of the word EMPIRE, as it suggests something huge. The word also stands out on the magazine in the font that I chose (Napa Heavy SF…). By giving the masthead a drop shadow, I think I have given it more emphasis. I think my masthead is effective, stands out and will be appealing to the audience. If I got chance to go back and adjust my cover, I would make the masthead bigger.


As on the EMPIRE film magazines, I have included USP’s. Mine are ‘Our best preview issue ever’ and in the orange circle in the bottom right hand corner ‘A chance to win 100 DVD’s’. By including these USP’s I hope that my magazine will be more appealing to the audience when they are deciding which magazine to buy in the shops. I have tried to make my USP’s stand out by using the stroke function on photoshop around the words ‘preview issue’ and the numbers ‘100’. I did this on these particular words/numbers as they are the things that I want the audience to notice, and by using the stroke function, it makes the words stand out.


Similarly to the EMPIRE film magazines, the name of my film ‘To my twin?’ is also the main focus of my magazine cover. It is also accompanied by part of the tag line ‘a tale of two sisters’. I tried to emphasise the word twin, again by using the stroke function on photoshop. To add to this, the title of the film is the largest piece of text on the magazine cover, other than the masthead. By choosing paler colours compared to the masthead colour, I hope that the audiences eye is drawn to the masthead first, so they know what magazine they are looking at. I think the paler colours work effectively on the magazine as it creates contrast and it makes it obvious that it is the name of the film.


I also followed the convention of the mise en scene reflecting the genre of the film. My intended genre for my trailer was romance, so I tried to create this on my magazine cover by asking the actresses to do a girly pose which also suggests their closeness. The romance genre is also created by the pale pink background and the baby-pink writing as the colour pink is associated with love and romance. I think by creating this mise en scene I have effectively made the genre of the featured film and other articles in the magazine clear to the audience. To add to this idea, the article on the left hand side, ‘top 10 romcoms’ further adds to the audience that the magazine has a lot of articles on romance/romantic comedy films.


I followed the convention of the name of the film being a big eye catcher on the cover as it is the second largest piece of text. I used this convention as I thought it would help the audience connect with the film and make it more memorable. I used the stroke function on photoshop around the word twin, to emphasise the title even more. I chose the different colours from the colours of the girls coats, and I thought the two different colours would suggest that they’re two different people living different lives but they’re about to be brought together.

In what ways did I subvert these conventions and why?

A way I subverted a convention is the photo. Normally the main character is emphasised in the shot on a magazine cover, but as the film is about both girls, and they are both equal, I wanted this to reflect on the cover. I wanted to create a sense of equality. I think I have created equality well and hope by doing this the audience will realise that they’re both the main characters.

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