In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The title of the magazine
I wanted the title of my magazine to be something to grab the audience's attention straight away and that is how I came up with the name 'MOTION'. Like the majority of music magazines, it's a one-word title but has impact. From my research, I found that some music magazines such as 'Q' and 'NME' have the masthead in the left hand corner of the cover, however, I wanted my model to be right in the centre of the page and so I chose to have my masthead right across the top of the page. I have seen this convention in other magazines, though; namely, 'Kerrang!'
Mise-En-Scéne of the images
Images are a big part of my magazine because until the magazine becomes established, they are going to be one of the main things which attract the audience. The image on the front cover is by far the most important image so it was vital I got the look right. I had to find a model for my front cover who acted as a sort of representative for the magazine and immediately portrayed the genre and style and what people could expect; I think my model does this perfectly. I instructed him to wear the typical things that we associate with a rock star: there is the black leather jacket which fits in well with the colour scheme but also gives an idea of the type of artists he is and what his style is. There is gold jewellery that he is wearing, which again says a lot about his style. The cigarette in the mouth is quite controversial and I was in two minds about whether to include it but I think that it suits his style and gives him that rebel quality that rock stars are best known for. The pose does challenge the typical conventions of music magazines but I think that that's a good thing. Yes, I do need to have the common conventions but I also want my magazine to be that little bit different. I want it to have that something which differentiates it from competitors. If all the conventions were the same, my magazine would not be unique. I really like the black and white contrast in the image because because it says a lot about the model it could imply that he is a dark character but has a light side but because he is standing in front of the white and blocking it out, it could reverse the common concept that good will always triumph over evil. One thing I am really happy regarding this image is the lighting. I did not have to edit the image at all before putting it onto the cover because I think it looked quite professional to start with. The model's skin look bright and emphasized because of the lighting and I have noticed this as a common convention on other magazines. I thought it was important to have an ambiguous setting, not only is this also a common convention, but I think it can be difficult to show sub-headings clearly on the cover if the image background is busy and has too much happening in it. I knew that with a white background, I would not have an issue displaying other text on the cover. The image below of NME illustrates what I mean as its conventions with regard mise-en-scéne are very similar to my own and it works really well on both covers I think.
This image (left) is the main image on my double page spread. The mise-en-scéne in this image does link to the image on the cover. Although now this image is in grayscale, before I changed it, the model was wearing all dark colours and the background was white. He was able to contrast the white background with his dark hair and the black stripes on his hoodie. Like with the cover image, the lighting here was good to begin with. I did not want to lighten the image too much because I wanted the grayscale to contrast the two opposite colours better. This picture is also a good representation of what the magazine is about. The model's clothes and hair illustrate his music style and I think the fact the image is grayscale emphasizes this even more. I kept the background plain and the setting ambiguous here because the article is completely about this new artist and I did not want any distractions that would take the spotlight away from him. With a plain background, you can't help but look solely at the artist and so that it why used one. All images on the double page spread, bar one, have a plain background and that one image is the image to the right. I used a different setting here because in the article, I mention on more than one occasion that this artist came from nowhere, that he was living a normal life and was an ordinary boy and so I felt I needed to show this in some way. I wanted to show this artist in a normal environment so that the readers can relate to him and see that he's like them. From my experience, that is what readers want, to some extent, they want to see that normality. I found a image with similar convention on the contents page of Q magazine which shows a boy band outdoors, on a hill. Yes, we don't know where the place is but they are in our environment. I can see that it is a convention of a real media product therefore I am happy with my idea. I liked the idea of using a prop here as well because I had not used any in my other photos. I think it acts as a representation of the artist's style but also a representation of the magazine genre.
People
The choice of people to use in my shoot was vital for me because they had to look the part in order for the magazine to be believable. I think the two models I did use were perfect because they really fitted into the role they were meant to play; the older of the models (bottom right) had to be a rock rebel with attitude and as you can see from the photo on the cover, he fitted this really well. My second model (below) had to fit the genre of the music, but he had to look believable as this 17-year-old who had shot to fame from nowhere. As I said, images are one of the most important aspect of any magazine and so I had to get them right and I feel that I did. I made sure that all the poses they did represented the characters that they were trying to portray and from the pictures, I completely believe their story. I found this copy of Q magazine (right) with Lady Gaga on the cover and I really think that the image acts as a representation of her style and personality. She is very controversial and is probably best known for her crazy dress sense and so the magazine was true to her and her style and showed he in the way that everyone best knows her. This is how I realised that I has to use the images to express the personalities of the artists.
Font and Style
The font of the copy was given a lot of thought when creating the magazine. The main thing I wanted, above anything else, was for all the writing to be readable. I decided that it was better for the writing to be simple and readable as to opposed to fancy and unreadable. I discussed the masthead before and my reasons for the choice of the 'Elephant' font but I did not discuss the reason for the format of the magazine slogan: Due to the magazine being called 'Motion', I felt it was important to illustrate that movement. My initial idea was to have the masthead itself in italics, but after changing the font, I realised that idea just didn't work as it did not represent the magazine genre. Instead, I settled for having the slogan in the same font as the masthead but in italics instead and I think it works well. The rest of the magazine is in the same font - Lucinda Sans. It is a clear font and does not affect the type of image I am trying to put across to the audience about the magazine. I looked at other magazines and saw that they were opting for the same theory as me. An example is this issue of NME magazine in which all text is clear and easy for the readers to see.
Written Content
The written content is a huge part of my magazine and so that was a key area to get right. I had to ensure that I used language that the readers could relate to, particularly for my editorial on the contents page. For the rest of the content page, I wanted to make the article headings clear and brief so the audience know what the stories are. I also included a brief one-line summary beneath some headings, which I have seen done in other magazines, to expand a little on what the article will include. The double page spread, I found, was quite easy to write because I am effectively my own target audience and I know what I want to see and how i would want to be addressed in an article. I tried to make the article as informal as possible and give it a relaxed feel; after all, the interview is supposed to be about a 17-year-old. I made sure that I added in all the typical conventions that a double page spread has; i.e. The drop capital, the brief summary before the article begins and any information about the artists such as tour information/album release information. I found an article with similar conventions from Q magazine. As you can see, the person whom the article is about is highlighted in the summary, like on my own, and the heading is much larger than the rest of the copy and is the most noticeable thing on the page. It also has the running black, white and red colour scheme like mine does.
Music Genre and how my magazine suggests it
I have mentioned numerous times throughout this question how different elements represent the genre of my magazine but I will now group them together. Costume and pose plays a big part because the way the models are behaving represents their personalities and so in turn, shows what the genre of my magazine is if these people are featured.Colour is important also, because I think the combination of black, white and red perfectly exposes the genre. I found a double page spread article from Kerrang! magazine, a similar genre to my magazine, which uses the same 3 colours and the genre is put across really well because of the strength of the colours and the connotations they represent i.e. red: danger. I think the genre is put across through certain words and band names as well, this is particularly evident on the cover. As you can see, one of the articles on the cover says 'Top 50 Rock Songs of the Noughties' and I think that article heading itself says much about the genre. Also the quote, 'There's been some pretty crazy parties illustrates the magazine genre because we normally class wild parties with rock stars. There is also the band names which suggest the genre of my magazine. At the bottom of the cover, there are names such as 'Intoxic8d' and 'Slink' and I think that simple band names can clearly show the genre of the magazine because you would not look at those names and think this was any other genre than rock.
Layout
The layout was an important factor for me because it's something that you either get right or you don't. The danger for me was that I didn't want the page to look over-crowded and therefore messy and unprofessional. This is the reason why I did slightly subvert the common convention of the front cover: the masthead in the top left and the artist(s) placed slightly to the right (an example of this is the copy NME I referred to earlier, the picture is further up the page). I chose to have my masthead going across the top and my artist right in the middle of the page because I did not want to take any attention away from him as he is what will sell the magazine. I found a copy of a real magazine which did have a similar layout to my own cover (right). As you can see, the layout bears some similarity to my own. The artist is directly in the centre of the page and the other articles are arranged around him. I personally think that this type of layout works much better than the other type. One of the main things for me was to set up the layout up in such a way so that all the features were clearly visible to the audience, both on the cover and on the contents page.
I kept the contents page layout relatively simple because from my research, I have found that simple works best. Organisation was important to me and I wanted to use the rule of thirds strictly. I found this example of Kerrang! magazine (left) in which the contents page was clearly organised and that's where I got the inspiration for mine. I liked the idea of splitting the pictures into boxes so it looks as if they fit together. One other key convention which I found in every magazine I looked in was sub-headings. These are vitally important because they act as a navigation tool for the readers. I wanted to make these bold and clear for the readers to see and have them in a clear and logical structure. There is a lot of things to fit onto a contents page and I needed to make sure that it was layed out correctly. I wanted the actual contents to be down the left hand side because we do read from left to right and so it seemed to flow and look better there. I set up the images the way I did to show the readers which ones are the most important. The big image needed to be the same model as the one on the cover because he is the main feature of my magazine and he is the big story. The two smaller images are of some significance but I feel that they are shown as slightly less important because of their position on the page; this same technique is evident on the Kerrang! contents page. I placed the editorial at the bottom of the page which slightly subverts the common music magazine convention but I did it for a reason. I felt that at the top of the page, it would have looked to crowded and I would have then had issue regarding the positioning of the images so it was really about finding a place where it fitted in well. I feel that the actual contents is more important than the editorial but the editorial is still of a lot of importance, particularly because this is a new magazine and it is my first point of contact with the audience. For this reason, I made the box the editorial is in red to make it stand out to the readers. I wanted the masthead of the contents page to stand out well so I made sure it took up a good chunk of the page; after all, this page is probably the second most important page in any magazine. Overall, I think that the layout of the contents page does use and develop the conventions of real music magazines because I have used my research as inspiration for the design. I have put my own stamp on things to some extent but not enough to obscure all the typical music magazine conventions.
I kept changing the layout of the double page spread because I was trying to make it look as spacious and professional as possible. One thing I was certain that I wanted was the 'film reel' which contained different images of the artists. I thought this was really interesting and developed typical music magazine conventions because I have seen images in a row, but I have never seen anything like what I have done and I think that gives it a USP. I stayed with the typical music magazine layout regarding copy because it is incredibly important and I have seen it done so many times. I used the rule of thirds to organise my pictures and my copy and used guidelines on PhotoShop to make them as accurate as possible. As you can see, I have article heading at the top, the summary/introduction to the article and then the main copy. I chose to have one full side of the double page spread dedicated to the main image because I felt that otherwise, there would be too much text and not enough images, and also this was a convention I came across in my research. For example, I found this article, which I used an example earlier (below). As you can see, it has the article heading, the introduction and one big picture taking up one side of the page with the smaller pictures included beneath the article. The one difference here is that the copy is not split into 3 clear sections but I think that the white strip acts as a column as well. I think that I got the layout right for my double page spread because it doesn't feel overcrowded at all, and this is what I was aiming for. I can see many similarities between my own double page spread and real-life ones and this is what makes me feel that I have got it right.
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