Q1.In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

Masthead

Here is three examples of different music magazines that all show the conventions of a masthead. From researching and looking at different magazines I have learnt that the main image covers part of the masthead, however you are still able to see what the name of the magazine.

This is the design of my front cover. Here you are able to see that I have followed the convention of a magazine masthead and I have placed it at the top of the page and the main images is covering part of the masthead. I have placed my main image over the masthead in a similar way to the three other music magazines.

FontsI have decided to use the three same examples of mastheads to show how they all use similar style of font. For each example shown here you are able to see that they all have used a bold font which stands out on the page. They have done this so that the magazines target audience will see it and it will grab there attention. A bold font will also contrast from the other fonts that are going to be used through out the rest of the magazine.

This is the masthead that I have decided to use for my magazine. While I was looking at different fonts I kept in mind the conventions of a typical masthead on a magazine as well as thinking of the genre of music that I am doing and how the mast head font will link to that genre. Also I had to think about what my target audience would like and what will grab there attention.

This was the original masthead that I had chosen to use. However this was before I had taken the images and finished designing the layout of my front cover. When I was using photo shop to create my front cover I discover that this font was not bold enough to be a masthead and did not stand out on the page.

Fonts Here is an example of where I have used a similar font style for the same word, this is win. I have done this so that it will stand out on the page. It will do this because the font is completely different from the other fonts that I have used.Kerrang magazine has also done this in a similar way by getting the audiences attention by making the font completely different

Drop caps

In all three of these examples of double page spreads they have used drop caps. Drop caps are a convention of a double page spread.

A Drop cap can be used to make the page look more interesting as well as being able to clearly show where the article for the double page spread starts.

Pull Quotes

Using a pull quote is another example of a convention of a double page spread. A pull quote is when something that the artist being interviewed has said that maybe will make the audience feel differently about the artist or create an impact to the audience. In the three magazines that I am using as examples they have all used a pull cap on there double page spread. They have kept to the conventions of a double page spread because they know that the audience will be expecting to see one on this page.

Style of photography

In both of these example magazines you are able to see that they have placed the artist in the centre on the page as well as using medium shots. Both of these images have been taken for different magazines but have been taken in very similar ways meaning that this is a convention of the style of photography in a magazine.

This is my magazine front cover. I have decided to follow the conventions of theses two examples by taken the photo of the artist at a medium shot and placing it directly in the middle.

Page Numbers

In this example of a contents page Kerrang magazine have placed there page numbers on some of the images. Kerrang has done this so that the page looks more interesting to look at as well as making it easy for the readers to find what page to go to for the main stories.

Using the page numbers like this is a convention of a contents page in a magazine. I have decided to use this convention on my contents page. This will allow my readers to find the pages easily.

Colour scheme

I have research different magazines that are based around a similar genre to mine to see what colour scheme they use. Here I have shown two different brands of magazine. Both of these examples have used the same colours, these are red, black, white and yellow. These four colours have been use because they will appeal to the audience.

Barcode

Another convention of a magazine is a barcode. As I was researching front covers I found out that every magazine that I was analysing had a barcode on the front cover. I also realised that they have placed it at the bottom of the magazine, this is so that it will not distract the audience from the main image and stories.

I have decided to use a barcode on my magazine to keep to this convention.