1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)
Title
The title of the magazine: For the title of my magazine I chose a word that related to music. I chose the name Replay because I thought it worked really well for a music magazine and the magazine would want to be replayed (re-read) over and over again. I got my font of DaFont.com which was called 'A okay'. The font was really bold and stood out as other R&B magazines do, so I wanted it to link in with other Hip hop and R&B magazines. The replay logo originally looked like the image below but I added an arrow onto the A on paint. I wanted to keep the arrow idea that I had in my draft because I thought that it looked really individual and it made the magazine more memorable and would make it stand out more and the word replay reminds me of an arrow and replaying something so I thought it worked well. I added the arrow and it came to the final title. This develops real media products because it has the usual block capital letters that are genuinely used on magazines but its develops them by have a unique feature on it. This is sort of like I Love fake magazine which has a heart on the title of the image which makes it stand out a lot more that a normal boring masthead. I wanted my masthead to have a unique point to it and I think that it works. I love fake has a heart for the love and Replay has an arrow for replay, both of the symbols represent the name. This masthead challenges other magazines for example Vibe magazine, because it has a unique point to it, this could be it's Unique selling point. The arrow challenges other magazines which have really boring simple mastheads which won't catch your eye. This masthead challenges other real media products because they are all simple and bold, so having my masthead may look a little different from them and make people think it's a bit weird, but examples like I love fake show that it works with a little symbol to make it stand out.
Graphology/ Page layouts
The layout of the magazine was symmetrical because I wanted it to be like VIBE magazine. The picture was quite symmetrical so I thought I should have writing on both sides of the picture and on either side of it. I wanted the layout of the magazine to be simple but not too simplistic and to look neat and not cramped. I think I achieved this by making it set out neat. I made sure the pictures were all R&B style pictures. I also made sure that the contents was really neat and no too cluttered like some magazine contents are for example NME magazine which has a very cluttered contents page. I wanted to keep the contents page quite simple as most R&B contents pages are, so I wanted it to fit in with other R&B contents pages. The graphology of the magazine develops normal media magazines because in the double page spread normally there is one picture on one side and the writing on the other, I chose not to do this as I wanted mine to look more visual and stand out more. This layout worked better than on one page with my images so I stuck to the way that I did it. The cover was pretty simple with the layouts because I wanted the main focus to be the image as it would be the thing drawing people to read it. The contents page was a simple format and it was easy to understand. Every part of my magazine was really simple which made it more like a real magazine so it won't stand out. My magazine challenges other magazines for example NME which is more in your face whereas in comparison mine is more simple and less in your face so it challenges magazines like NME. Vibe magazine is my main inspiration and this meant that the magazine needed to be simple like this magazine, as this magazine is the same genre as my magazine. It develops the conventions of a real magazine because it has more than one picture on the double page spread
Costumes, props, iconography used to reflect genre
The costumes on the model were quite simple images, I wanted the dress to be simplistic as it would put more emphasis on the title and the makeup of the model. I made sure that the makeup was flawless and I wanted the makeup to be really dark around the eyes so I made sure that the eyeshadow was dark around the edges and that she was wearing fake eyelashes. I thought the jacket worked really well because it suited my genre really well and also it made my model look as if she had more attitude. The clothing was quite simple on the covers on VIBE magazine so I kept to that theme. I used the clock necklace as a prop as I wanted more to be going on in the photo so I thought the model having something near her mouth would look really good and I think it works well, it is like the VIBE magazine which has a finger over the mouth of the model and that too works really well so I thought something near the mouth of my model for the cover would look really good and draw you to look at the magazine rather than just being a picture of the model. The props of my model develops normal magazines because normal magazines don't tend to have props on them. The costume on my model isn't really abstract like the ones in Vibe magazine and this challenges normal magazines in this way because it show more the simplistic R&B than Vibe. I think that the use of the prop on the front (The watch necklace) means that people focus on it which makes people curious to read because it is an unusual pose. I was contemplating whether to use a microphone/ headphones as a prop but I looked at many magazines and noticed that none of them used these as props so I thought that it wouldn't fit in with the music magazines if I used it. The costumes in Vibe magazine seem to be quite plain when there are props involved and also seems to focus more on the model rather than the clothing which is the effect that I wanted to achieve too.
Camerawork and framing of images
The cover used a mid shot on it and I think this worked really well as most magazines have mid shots on the cover. The contents page is more of a long shot and I chose not to do a long shot as you can't really see the expressions and attitude of the model as much as the mid shots. I think that the different camera work sizes worked well in my magazine, I did a really big image for the cover of the magazine and this worked well, but it was a mid shot. I think that the contents page picture worked well and it was more of a mid long shot as it was took from quite far away but I think it worked well as it was quite a simple image and the black and white imagery made you focus more on the attitude of the model which worked better than if the image was in colour, I decided to make the image black and white because I liked the use of having a black and white image for the contents and I was mostly inspired to have a black and white image for my contents from V magazine and the Cheryl Cole edition. After I took my pictures I made sure that the skin was flawless by editing it on Iphoto and this made sure that my photo had no spots so it looked more professional. The images developed the ones on normals magazines because it consisted of the models hair being up which is quite unusual for a magazine but it is done occasionally for example on VIBE magazine. The images were placed on a grey background which made them stand out more and on the black and white images I left the background on them. The images challenge other magazines because the image is quite quirky and individual and it stands out. I made sure that my model showed attitude through the images because it meant it would look like a real magazine as all magazines make sure the images show attitude.
Title, Article, header etc, font and style
All of my fonts were downloaded of www.DaFont.com. The title of the magazine used the font which was called 'A okay' which I thought worked well as it was really bold and stood out. The rest of the fonts used were, 'Middle Woman' 'English Essay' these fonts all worked really well together as Middle Woman made things stand out and English Essay made things look more feminine, the fonts worked well together. The fonts made it easier to see what style of magazine it was as the bold fonts made it obvious that it was a R&B/ Hip Hop magazine. I think that these fonts work really well together because they have contrasts of bold, handwritten and the square writing all work well together and the bold means that this writing will stand out so it means I could highlight key points. I chose this font because it was really bold and stood out. My writing develops magazines because most magazines have standard fonts which are quite similar but mine doesn't have similar fonts as they are all quite different. My magazine challenges magazines because the writing will stand out more as they are all very different fonts whereas normal magazines have similar fonts throughout.
Genre and how the magazine cover, contents suggests it
The genre of the magazine was R&B and I chose to do an R&B magazine because I love R&B/ Hip Hop music and I can relate to the genre as I know more about it than a different genre of magazine which I may not be able to relate to. I think that the cover suggests that it is and R&B magazine by the use of the really dark eye makeup as R&B artists have really bold makeup. I think that it is obvious that it is an R&B/ Hip Hop magazine because it shows attitude through the photo of the magazine and also the title of the magazine is quite harsh and bold which most R&B/ Hip Hop magazine titles are. I think that the contents page suggests that it is an R&B magazine because it is very simplistic with one image, as most R&B/ Hip Hop magazines only have one image on them as it has a main image rather than lots of little images which other genres of magazines have, for example a Indie magazine. I think that the contents suggests that it is an R&B magazine because it uses bold writing and the stance that the model is holding is an image which shows attitude and the images on R&B magazines show a lot of attitude. My magazine challenges normal magazines because it doesn't have a recognised person on the front of the magazine which means people may not want to look at it as they don't recognise the person on the cover but it also develops the magazines because people will be intrigued and want to know more about the new artist.
How your artist is represented
The artist is represented as an R&B artist, this is shown through the images throughout my magazine. On the cover the Artist is show side/face on which a bend head. The artist is looking at the camera straight in the eye so that it captures the readers attention and this makes it much more like a magazine. The jacket worn on the contents is an R&B type of jacket and this means that the audience know what genre the magazine is. The quotes on the cover, contents and double page spread show the Artist's feeling and her personality so the reader knows the artists personality. The artist is represented as being really excited about becoming a singer and also annoyed at the haters, and it shows her attitude through the quotes and also through the article. My artist is represented on the front page which challenges other magazines which have artists which are well known and people may want to buy it because they will be intrigued by the new artist.
Colour scheme
The colour scheme of my magazine is baby pink, dark purple and black. It also involves a bit of white in it. I chose to do this colours scheme as my model was wearing pink lipstick so I wanted the colours to be the same as what my model was wearing. I used the eyedropper tool on photoshop and got the same colour as my models lips so I could get the same pink colour, I also did the same with the purple top she was wearing, this meant that all the colours linked in and this is what I had planned to do when I was planning and researching. The pink and purple colours clash, but I think that they work really well together as it makes the magazine more girly and makes all the black points stand out. The colour scheme develops magazines because most magazines used 2 colours whereas my magazine uses 3 colours. My magazine colour scheme challenge real magazines because they are quite contrasting colours which stand out whereas normal magazines use complementing colours. I think that the colours are really girly and target mainly a female audience which challenges other magazines which target both males and females.
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