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

Title of the magazine

For my masthead I chose a title that would relate to the genre of the magazine. I used the ‘Levi Brush’ as my font for the title ‘Indie Kicks’. I wanted my title to show the rebellious side to the indie rock genre. I had my masthead in black because I wanted my title to be eye-catching and I felt it would be a classic colour associated with the indie genre of my magazine. I feel my masthead reaches the conventions you need to make a successful magazine. I feel I share the rebellious styled masthead with ‘Kerrang!’ in the sense our masthead’s aren’t as neat as other music magazines.

Comparing my masthead to other existing music magazines I feel my masthead challenges the code and conventions. Most music magazines have their masthead fitted into boxes to allow the title to be more eye catching to the reader. As I wanted my magazine to show a rebellious side I felt by allowing my title to not be boarded it would challenge the code and conventions existing magazines stick to. By challenging the code and conventions it allows my magazine to show a unique side and therefore to look more exciting.

Layout

My layout throughout the magazine is conventional, as I have analysed other existing magazines to help me create professional looking layouts. I feel my front cover displays the key ingredients to a music magazine by surrounding the central image with cover lines and by keeping the masthead at the top of the page. In addition I have displayed a website address and the date of the issue was released at the top of the page. My double page spread shows the conventional terms a double spread page features. I have spilt the page into half allowing the portion of the image and the text to be equally spread out. To keep the code and conventions I displayed the interview in columns like a typical double page spread interview.

Contents page

When designing my contents page I followed the codes and conventions of existing music magazines to help me create a professional looking contents page. For example I have featured an ‘Indie Kicks Review’ in the bottom right corner which I got the inspiration from ‘Q magazine’.

I created a neat basic layout which contains the elements that follow the codes and conventions of existing music magazines. However compared to other existing contents page I only used one image which is slightly unconventional. By having one large image on the contents page it allowed me to push the boundaries and challenge the code and conventions.

Written Content

My written content of my magazine uses informal language which follows the code and conventions of a real music magazine. By using informal language it allows me to have a friendly and chatty vibe allowing it to appeal to my target audience. My double page spread written content uses the key ingredients that an existing magazine uses. For example I asked what artists inspired her, how’s it feel it make it this far, filming videos etc. All of the questions I asked are the questions I came across when researching double page spreads. My double page spread written content has a chatty and friendly vibe feel to it.

Images

My images I took follow the codes and conventions of magazines. I took a series of photographs in one location allowing me to use different styled poses for each photograph. I wanted to use one location because I wanted to focus on the ‘Indie’ style poses instead of the background. The location fit in well with the theme of my magazine because it reflected the laid back feel to Indie style. The images display the artist as relaxed and friendly allowing the audience to have a good feel towards the artist. This was captured by the artist’s direct mode of address as she is looking directly at the camera.

Text font and style

I created the title ‘Caitlin Ingram’ by downloading a font from Dafont.com and manipulating it in Photoshop. My title is conventional as most music magazine has the artist/bands name positioned across the central image. I positioned the text straight across the image because I wanted to follow the key ingredients of a Music Magazine. I followed the code and conventions as I made the title in a large font making it bold and appealing to the audience. In addition to this the title is simple and bold which reflects the Indie theme.

Music Genre

My genre of my music magazine was Indie rock/pop. I made the genre clear throughout my front cover, contents and double page spread. An example of this would be the colour scheme on the front cover. I used the colours purple, white and black to represent the chilled and relaxed atmosphere. The images I used emphasized the Indie genre of the magazine. Existing music magazines reveal their genre through their images and colour scheme. Therefore my magazine has used the codes and conventions.