Q1: in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?My media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of other media products,Some things that are part of magazines, music ones in particular are:•Headers,•Plugs,•masthead•Barcodes,•Pull Quotes,•Camera Work,•Colour Scheme,•Fonts,How my Final product shows some of these elements against actual forms of media:

Colours• Within my magazine i used to colours blue, black, purple

and white but with side colours green and yellow for plugs and images

• I wanted the blue and purple to be light and dark in order to contrast the colours to show rebellion and clashing of society against different views, same with white and black, although with white and black i could add it to the colours to make them seem more depressing and dark or lighter and cheerful.

• The yellow and green added a different scheme to the magazine, it added some reality with the green screen effect making the artist seem real and not distant from fans, he was just at a plain old green screen, the yellow also added a highlight colour to stand out and grab the readers attention on the shop shelves.

Fonts• Within my magazine i used 2 fonts,

‘assassins dub’ and ‘decibel’ these two fonts were great for my magazine, the masthead (assassins dub) added a sense of anarchy and destruction in the magazine.

• The article title and side headers (decibel) were chosen because the font shows a sense of distortion, fitting in with the amped name but also adding a feeling of widening of society, how rock music is spreading into a wider genre and how its slowly being out casted from society with rock being the wider waves of distortion.

My Cover vs. Kerrang!

The front cover of my issue is very independent in itself; it follows some themes of kerrang! But it follows its own style rather than emulating solely kerrang! My front cover has a very ‘dark’ demeanour about it, I wanted to present the social stereotype of rock in the image but the text however states how it is stereotype, I wanted to prove to the public how the stereotype creates a bad stigma around rock music and that it is ‘satanic’ not only in my magazine did I want this but I also wanted to send the message across that rock isn’t about being evil and screaming and thrashing guitars and drums, I wanted to show that if you read the book by its cover (or the image) you will not understand how rock isn’t the stereotype, it is more about emotions and wanting to play music on real instruments without the help of auto tune.

My Contents vs. Kerrang!

As my final product is displayed against kerrang! I have tried to emulate the general theme of Kerrang! By using highly noticeable colour schemes and fonts I tried to create a theme similar to that of kerrang, I like the look of kerrang and how its laid out, the contents in particular with the picture/competition and subscription ad in the corner, I tried to use the same style within mine but with my own style incorporated, I added elements such as a QR code and a competition code for the IT element and for the customers to discover new elements of media, associated with AMPED.

Band/Name

Quote

Intro/Paragraph

• I also tried to follow the general style of kerrang! Magazine too as my image was centred on one side of the magazine but it left lots of room on the other side for the article, i included a quote from the article that backs up what it is about and i fit in a small paragraph with who the article is about etc. Just like in kerrang!

Portrait photographs (front cover & Contents)Camera work: The images I used for my front cover, Needed to be portrait photographs, this is because the front cover has to be portrait, the A4 style, my photographs that were to be considered were:

I chose these photos as consideration, I believe they are all very professional shots plus they are all portrait, some of the photos are very photo shoot style but some are very naturalistic, in a photo shoot setting, I liked these ones in particular as they have a very ‘real’ feel about them, this is very similar to other forms of media such as kerrang! All the photos seem very natural and not purposely posed. For my front cover I used the third photo, I believe it is the ‘darkest’ photo and I wanted to portray a stereotypical view of rock so that the interview would contradict this view, showing the artists true colours and how he is not ‘emo’

BarcodeAs earlier stated i have tried to follow general conventions in my media magazine such as barcodes, i have used a barcode for my product with the text ‘amped magazine. £2.00 8th Feb 2013’ i believed these were necessary for my magazine but also for the customer to know the price and what they are buying within the barcode area.

Header

• As i developed my header, in my head i wanted the header to follow the general house style but for it to also follow the scheme of clashing colours, just like kerrang! I decided to use my house style colours as it fit best with the magazines cover and the general theme, although my house colours were chosen to be clashing so i had no problem finding the colours, but it was just a problem of blue on purple or purple on blue, in the end i chose the blue on purple as this is the best colour choice as the blue stands out bright on the dark purple.

Masthead

• With my mast head i aimed for a similar selection to kerrang!’s as my font was very distorted and broken, showing a sense of breakdown and rebel against society, but also showing how the stereotype of rock being ‘cool’ in the past to now a shunned area of music, therefore breaking down the music and all it stands for by society. Unlike kerrang! However i have placed the model under the masthead, i did this as my image was a very zoomed photo, i didn't want the model to obscure the masthead, unlike kerrang again i added some effects to my masthead, giving it an emboss and creating the signature backwards P, i did this to give the magazine a professional look and to add depth to the lettering. My backwards P was to give the magazine some identity, i could then use this P in smaller areas, such as in the corner of a poster to let the customers know it is an AMPED poster, just by the ID mark.

contents

• I have again emulated the style of kerrang! I have used the same font as my masthead to keep the theme of rebel and contrast from society, i decided to use a banner for the contents title, it doesn’t touch the top of the page but stretches from side to side with the text spread across, i used the backwards P again to drill in the independency to the audience, my issue date and number are displayed clearly for organisation in the amp box which customers get free to store issues of AMPED!

Free claim/subscription

With my Free claim/subscription offer i have emulated the general style of kerrang with the ad being placed under the competition on the contents page, although I have used my own theme for it with the green box with code and the white on purple, I have kept the style the same as my house style with the colour scheme and text being the distorted, broken style yet unlike kerrang I have not added any images or unnecessary features (banner)

Pull quotes

Just like kerrang i added a pull quote on the dps, this is similar to kerrangs although, i do believe that my pull quote in this instance looks more professional than kerrangs, i had a hard copy of this issue of kerrang and the cut of the text that moves the top part right slightly onto Mark Hoppus’ leg is a fault within this issue, when zoomed out it is harder to make out this glitch in the text although checks were not made with this issue and the end result make it unprofessional, my pull quote follows the house style of the product, although i have outlined the text in black to make it stand out against the gradient of the image, it also adds a feel of rock and roll, a similar style to eye liner on such rock artists as Pete Wentz, it adds a rebellious rock feel to the text.

Plugs

• I have emulated a simlar plug to that of kerrang with the white border and it being a circle, although different to kerrang i have not highlighted the word ‘win’ i have highlighted ‘leeds fest’ i wanted to attract the audience to a well known brand rather than winning and therefore people will enter for the prize not the competition, or as i hope, i also created the yellow leeds fest text as it is the similar colour to the actual leeds fest brand logo and so people will see the yellow and instantly realise its leeds fest they know, it adds to the house style of the leeds fest brand,

• I also created the plug to slightly overlap the mast head, i did this as i wanted the plug to look like a sticker over a printed circle, it would add depths and a feel of reality to the magazines face.