1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are many different conventions in a magazine that help a magazine sell, here are the coventions and why they help to sell the magazine. The most noticable item on a magazine cover itself is the masthead. This is the title of the magazine or company of the magazine. The mast head is normally set out in a way so that it will attract different types of viewers, depending on who the target audience for that particular magazine is. The masthead is noramlly presented in a bold brightly coloured way so that you can get over the importance of the title of the magazine as it influnces regular buyers or even new buyers to purchase the magazine. The other main item on a magazine that attracts most of the buyers is the main image on the front cover. This helps the viewer of potential buyer of the magazine have knowledge in what that magazine is going to be about and what kind of area that it is focused on. The main cover image is normally a close up this helps the image be more defined in itself and also helps it be more eye catchy to different audiences. Another covention on the front cover of a magazine is the date line, this is important to a magazine company as people need to know if they are buying the lastest product. Also there is normally a little caption near the main imagen on the front cover of a magazine so that the person modeling get credit for taking her time to do a photo shoot for that magazine. Having cover lines on a magazine really helps the buyer understand what is going to be in the magazine to see if they will be interested in reading the magazine. The main front cover line of the magazine really helps get over what the main article presented in the magazine is going to be about as they really presented it in a bold way but not bigger than the masthead as this needs to be more noticable. A noticable bar code on the magazines front cover is also important as is almost telling people that they need to buy it as it is easier to access. Lastly on the front cover of a magazine the selling line is important because it tells the reader if the magazine is read by a lot of viewers, as well as this it tells them whether it is worth buying the product. There are also many coventions presented with the double page spread. The main coventions within the double page spread is the title as it refers to the article itself and what the article is about. This helps the reader understand what they are going to read and what to expect out of the article. Pullquotes are also very common in dounle page spreads as it highlights a certain section of the article, so that the reader can almost be drawn in by the catching line that is the pullquote itself. Sidebars are not always used in double page spreads, but when they are they normally present some important information whether its tour dates, to single releases and many other pieces of information related to the article itself. The body text within the double page spread is the main section of text that holds all the information to do with the the title that the article is based on. This text is normally broken up into sections so that people dont see the huge section of writing and dont bother to read it. The main caption is really important to a double page spread as this helps you feel for the person that the article is about and see what type of lifestyle that they are living or going through. Subheaders within an article are used to break up the large amount of text so that people think that it is easier to read then just a huge block of text. A drop cap is always used at the beginning of an article to give the magazine an important effect and to show you where all the text begins itself. A kicker is always used on a double page spread as this sums up what the text is going to refer to, this is almost like a blurb on the back of a book. Gutters are used on a double page spread so that you can see the different sections of the article clearly and understand where each one begins and ends. 

My magazine Genre was a Pop glossy kind as i felt that this would be more convincing to a younger type of audience. My magazine was originally aimed at young women and men, but as my magazine turned out to look more girlish i decided to aim my magazine at young girls aged between 13-15 as i think that this is a sutible age range for the type of magazine that i have created. These are a few of magazines that have influenced me in the making of my own magazine as i really liked the colours and the style used. I think that i have gotten over the syle and my set theme of colours really well. I chose to use the 'Dolly' pop magazine layout as i thought that this would really link to my target audience of young adults really well. I used colours from both of the magazines i used the pink colour from dolly but made it look more bright a defined, then i used the blue colour from vibe and made it look more rich and bright. I used the style of the coverlines on the left of vibe as i thought that this would really give a nice effect to my magazine as i chose a mixture from the to. 


Analysis

 

 

My Masthead of really fits in well with the music magazine idea, as the level of sound that you want to hear music at is 'Maximum'. So i thought of a play on words because you turn your music 'to the max'. The font i have used for my masthead really relates to my target audience as its not boring and bold. The colours i have used are bold and have quite of a fun feel about them this again makes it link to my target audience of 13-15 year olds.

Before:                              After:

The main front cover image has really changed from its original image shown above, as i edited it to make it look more glamourous then it seemed. First i enlaged the section of the image around her face area. Then i used the burn tool in photoshop to draken the image itself. Then i began adding more of a red tint to her lips to give her more of a pop star look. I think that the edited look helps the magazine look more like the target audience range that i was trying to get across. 
Before:                                               After:

This is another image on my front cover, i have shown the before and after edit shots as i feel that there is a very noticable difference between the two. First i began editing the size so i zoomed in around her face as i felt that it was the main focal point within the image. the i rotated the image so that the medium close up looked straight instead of on the side. Then i began rubbing out around the image so that i could change the background so that the main image would be more defined. Next i began to used the burn tool in photoshop so that the image appeared to be darker than the original. This made the image look better in itself as it had a more powerful colour statement to it.

I used the date of January 2011 for my magazine as i felt that people will be starting off fresh in January as it is the start of the new year. This also might be a reason for purchasing the magazine as it will be new like the new year. for this i used quite a serious font so that it would standout and be shown. I used black colouring so that people would know that is is important due to the seriousness off the bold colour.

These are some of the coverlines that are on my magazine. As shown i used the same colour as my masthead to keep the theme going. These colours also add to the direct target audience. I chose this font so that a similar font was used thoughout the magazine. I used language aged at my target audience of 13-25 as i feel that this helps them understand what is in the magazine and almost what to expect out of the magazine. 

For my contents page i used different colours as i thought that this would give the magazine more character to it. i used these colours and used the same font as the masthead but just not i a bold way. This is an example of the colours that i have chosen to use for the title of the contents page as these colours were already presented on the contents page images.

After: 

These are the images that i chose to use on my content page, i feel that the images looked alot better once i edited them and used a colour background as this linked them better with my target audience. i like the way that all the colours link in with the colours on the page itself. i also think that the way they were presented was in a way that made them also look really unique and almost 'fun'.  

    Before:

This is the page number and what features on what page, with this i kept with the front cover theme of colours as i feel that this would give it a nice link. i also kept the same font as the mast head as i felt that this would really help link to the masthead and aim it at the same type of target audience.

This is the title that i used for my double page spread. I have used the same colours as my masthead but i have used them in different ways. The differance is that i have used one set colour for the text and the other colour for the background. i used the same effect for this title as i did for the masthead as i wanted to keep the same theme going on thoughtout the front cover, contents and double page spread. i like the way that the blue background really helps emphasis the bright pink text.

This is the main layout of my article for my double page spread. In the top left hand corner of the text i start off the article with a kicker. A kicker is used to introduce what the article is going to be about. I think that my kicker really helps do this. i have used the same font i have used for all the little picees of text thoughout the magazine as i wanted to keep that little link thoughtout the magazine itself. i also have used the same colour for large amount of texts. Another thing about the article is that i used the same colour thoughout for the questions being asked as then the reader will know which is the question and which is the answer, i also have done the same for the answers but used a different colour. Between the text i have used little gutters this helps determine where one text ends and another begins. i think that this section of the double page spread looks really effective. 

This is the pull quote that i have decided to use as i felt that line was the most effective in my text. i have used a rectangular box to desplay my pull quote in so that people would notice that it is a different section of text. i have also used the same colours as the Header but used them in the opposite way round this helps the audience get over that this is important but because it is smaller then the header its not important as the header itself.

I have used many images thoughout my magazine, the main image i used for my double page spread i made into a poster as i feel that this links in well with my target audience. on this poster i have added the title of the artist so they know who it is. i have also added the masthead from the front cover as then you know which magazine it is from. i have also added a pink border this helps relate it to the targeted audience.

Before:                                   After:

 


Then i used to more images on the page so people would know who the article on the double page spread was. i cut around the images so that they would fit better on the page and standout more. i fell that these images do really link to my target audience.

Before:                                    After:           

Overall i think that my magazine front cover, content page and double page spread went well as they really linked together. Also that they really related to the main target audience. i really like the way that i got over the theme thoughout. i think that if i had more time to work on the magazine that i could improve some little parts but other than that i really like the way that it has turned out.