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

In the first stages of creating my music magazine I had no idea on what masthead design I wanted to use. The masthead seemed to me to be one of the most important aspects of a magazine as it’s arguably the most looked at and most remembered image. I had done a huge amount of research from looking in magazine shops to searching online to get an idea of how to construct and layout a masthead. In the end I made a final decision and based my masthead design on one that is very similar to ‘Classic Rock’.

The reasons I decided on using this masthead as a template was because it is simple and simple stands out. The boldness of the letters gives it that ‘look at me’ effect and jumps out to its reader. Below is my final design of my masthead and what was used to go on my front page.

Another important aspect of creating a music magazine is the central image, in other words to main image on the front cover. I also styled the framing of this picture and pose of my model similar to ‘Classic rock’.

As you can see the central images are very similar. One reason in particular I chose to do a central image like this is because it looks like the model in the picture is directly looking at the reader. The way this is effective is because they reader feels like they are directly being looked at, the model engages with the reader, the pose is also interesting as it doesn’t reveal a lot about the magazine. It’s quite a simple pose; to me when I look at it reads to me ‘’take a look inside, there’s more behind this serious face’’.

My chosen layout of my double page spread also resembles fairly similar layout to one of Classic Rocks issued

magazines back in 2012. Throughout my entire magazine I have tried where possible to keep it simple and basic as I believe this comes across very effective to the readers, a magazine reader does not want to be thrown 40 paragraphs on one double page spread to read, it needs to be evened out. On my double page spread I used the majority of the pages with just 1 image.

As you can see the layout of both double page spreads aren’t identical but have similar features, as in the way the picture itself is laid out. It takes almost three quarters of the page up. In the left hand top corner I have erased some of the picture, which is very similar to the Classic Rock edition.

My house colours, which I had originally chosen, were the colours of Classic Rock, black and white. But I took the time to think it through and soon realised I had taken 1 too many already existing features from Classic Rock. I then changed my house colours to dark marl and a darkened sky blue. Once this was on my front cover, I could see that the two

colours contrasted really well and stood out.

The lettering on my contents page took me a while too choose, I wanted a thick lettering that was evenly spaced out so to the reader it made it easier for them to read. Readers do not want to be pulling the magazine towards their face; they want to be able to read from a respectable distance. In the end my chosen font was ‘Cambria (Body)’.

Again I used forms and conventions of real media products with the type of camera shots/angles chosen for my magazine. It was very simple, using the outline of the magazine Classic Rock, I was able to demonstrate and mirror the way they set out their magazine. For my first shot type I used a medium shot, I thought this was effective because the shot does not reveal the models entire body, leaving the readers mind thinking. The model is directly looking at the reader which gives the impression that he is talking directly to them.

On my double page spread I illustrated forms and convention of real media products; I used a low angled and deep focus shot to capture Taz emotional state. It really focuses on his face and with the perfect lighting and simple backdrop; it really gives off that feel of Taz telling an emotional/personal story.

My choice of costume wasn’t a factor I really focused on but, I still have time to think about what and who I should pick for the shoot. It was clear to me that Taz naturally had that edgy/rocky look so I went with him as my model. I simply told him, ‘’dress casually and look cool’’. He ended up wearing a tie dye t shirt which went really well with his hair and wore black ripped skinny trousers with vans. You can’t really see the jeans but in some of the pictures and on set, it really felt like Taz belonged in a rock band.