1. In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?
Titles and Masthead
For my front cover i decided to follow conventions of real music magazines. I created a masthead in which i was inspired by Q magazine. I have used a red box and i have initalised the name of my front cover. I initalised it and put it in a red box because I was following coventions of Q magazine. I used http://www.dafont.com/ to chose my font. The font I chose links in with the genre of music my magazine is based on. My genre is indie and I chose a quite random and kwirky font to represent this which is white because this is also a Q magazine feature. I also placed my masthead in the top left hand corner of my magazine, just underneath my skyline, like Q magazine. This is my masthead. I followed the conventions by using a red box and by using a white font.
And this is the Q music magazine masthead....
Mise en scene of my images The mise-en-scene of my images also follows conventions because i took them on a white background so that they would fit in better on my front cover. Magazine front cover images tend to have white backgrounds so that the main focus is the person. I used a white wall in my house to produce my images, and got my models to wear the appropriate clothes for the genre of my magazine. I used two females and they were the pull of my magazine, they were the 'new band' that would make people want to read my magazine. They were also on my double-page spread. I edited it slightly on photoshop to improve the colour and i changed the lighting and brightened it to make the background really white.I also sharpened my image to improve the quality. The lighting is quite bright and the image is a long shot because I wanted full body shots with the guitar.I made sure that the models were looking straight ahead at the camera because that is a typical convention for many magazines. I positioned one member of the band at the back stood up and the other crouching down holding a guitar, this composition was not conventional or inspired by a magazine i just felt it worked.
Costumes and Props
The props i used were;costumes, make-up and a guitar to make them seem like a more realistic band. By following conventions it was easy to make it look more like a real magazine.
This is a magazine that follows the conventions of a white background...
People
I chose to use these models because I thought that they fitted in well with my genre of my magazine. They are conventional for Indie because they are quite young girls, with a kwirky dress style and they are up for anything crazy.
Style and Fonts
I also followed the convention of over-lapping text and images which many (nearly all) magazines do. I used different font types and different sizes and colours which made it look more realistic. I used some of my fonts from the website http://www.dafont.com/ which had loads of different styles to represent different genres, feelings and personalities. I wanted a range of different fonts on my front cover because this is a typical convention for magazines and it looks more interesting and is more interesting for my audience to look at. Other fonts I used were just on adobe INdesign font chooser. I mainly stuck to black, white and red font throughout as that is my theme colour for magazine.
Copy/written content
The text that i used was in informal language and friendly language but I didn't use any slang because that could offend some of my audience. I think that a good representation of this is my main masthead/name of my magazine. I called it 'inD' because this is initalised for Indie, its more of a play on words and it represents my genre well. My magazine is aimed at younger people and they will appriciate this.
How is my genre represented in my magazine?
Genre is shown in my magazine through use of images and text. I have chosen special fonts to show the Indie style. The way my models are dressed and the photoshoot also represents an Indie style. From the results of findyourtribe.com being materialistic is a major aspect, and therefore my social group can relate. Readers of my magazine can appriciate this because they will have the same interests and matters.
Layout of Front Cover, Contents page and Double page spread
Front Cover
I changed my front cover from my first draft slightly because it was too 'busy' and I didn't need the smaller image on the front. I kept the layout pretty similar and deleted some text. I chose to follow conventions because it would then look more realistic. My image has a white background so that it fits in with the whole background of my magazine. I wanted my magazine to look and represent a real music magazine, and one that the audience can relate to. I included things that were happening at the time, Brit awards, and bands that were popular ie. Biffy Clyro CD. I also kept a theme of black, white and red which keeps it more sophisticated and simple.
Contents Page
I am a lot happier with it and it follows conventions now.
Double-Page Spread
I decided to follow conventions but to also challenge them slightly to give it my own twist. I used two images from my photoshoot that and I put one on each page in the corner, this is typical convention to have images on a double page spread, but I challenged it by including more text than images, i did this because I thought it was important to show the interveiw, but looking back at my reaseach, my audience are far more likely to want to see images. This is why I slightly changed it to get my final double-page spread. I had chosen a specific magazine double-page spread to inspire me and I tried to follow that more.
As you can see I have been inspired by sime aspects of this double-page spread. I have adapted it to fit in with my magazine by having two images, one large image on the left page and one smaller image on the right. I have used the big lettering that my research has used, i also followed the theme of using part of the word/sententce in a very large font and the rest smaller. I also made use of text and images over-lapping. I also made it similar by just having three columns of text on the right hand page.
Conclusion
Overall I feel I have followed conventions for my front cover, contents page and my double-page spread. I have done this because I want my magazine to look realistic and appeal to a mass audience. I related my genre to what my audience said they preferred back in my reseach audience questionnaire so they should be able to relate well to the genre. I used images and text according to other magazines that inspired me, ie. Q magazine masthead inspired my masthead. I am pleased with my magazine and I put a lot of effort into it and making it look realistic and make it appropiate for a mass audience so I hope that is the effect it would have.
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