Evaluation 1

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

Masthead

This is the masthead for my music magazine. It contains the title of my music magazine in a white font colour. The white font contrasts against the black background which fits the house style of my magazine. My masthead takes up a large amount of the top of my magazine cover. This is a common convention of magazines (such as "KERRANG!"). The letter 'n' in the word "Tune" is a quaver due to the fact that it directly relates my magazine to music.

Sell-line

The sell-line for my music magazine is at the top of the page. A sell-line is another common convention of music magazines to make their band image seem more trustworthy in quality. My magazine uses the phrase "The Greatest pop magazine of all time". The word 'Greatest' is used as a buzz word. This is similar to the sell line of the music magazine 'Q' as its phrase is "The Uk's Biggest Music Magazine", using 'Biggest' as a buzz word.

Headline

Another convention of music magazines that I have used is my headline. I have written in the larger font "Jordan Lloyd" which draws the attention of the audience to this, indicating that it is the main focus of the magazine. It relates to the main image on my cover page. Magazines like "KERRANG!" also use their headine to show the magazine's main feature. I have focused on the same person on my double page spread as I have on my cover. I use the phrase "exclusive interview as 'exclusive' is a very common buzz word throughout many magazines.

Page Numbers

 On both my contents page and double page spread, I use page numbers at the bottom corner of each page. Page numbers are conventions used in all magazines. I presented my page numbers in white font beside the logo of my music magazine within a black rectangle. This suits my black and white house style and the black box contrasts against the white background of the pages.

Mise-en-scene of the images

I took my photographs against a brick wall background on a sunny day. I decided to use natural lighting in my shots as it would make the images look more professional. I removed the background from the images used on both the cover page and double page spread. This ensures that all of the attention is drawn to the model. However, I have decided to leave the background in the image that I use on my contents. This echoes magazines such as "Kerrang!" who remove the background from the image on their cover pages but not on their contents page.

Costume, Props & People

I decided to make my actor wear a white shirt, glasses and black braces to give the impression that his clothing is smart while I also made him wear black trainers too which implies that his clothing is also casual. The costume coveys that the genre of my music magazine is pop as I was inspired by the dress sense of real-life artists such as Bruno Mars and Olly Murs. The white shirt of my actor also contrasts agains the black background of my cover page. I did not implement any props into my shots due to the fact that the expressions of my model already convey that this is a music magazine. The friend I chose to be my model was chosen because he is good at drama and therefore able to effectively convey expressions that give a sense of him being an artist.

Font and Style
The text on my magazine is all either white or black throughout, keeping constancy. The size of the text ensures that it is not only readable from up close both also at quite a far distance. This means that the text would be readable from a store shelf and therefore, would attract potential readers. I use the fonts 'Rockwell Extra Bold', 'Didot' and 'Myrid Pro' throughout my magazine due to the fact that I believe they all compliment each other. The music magazine "NME' also uses different fonts which compliment each other.
Content
I decided to write my double page spread in the style of an interview. On my double page spread, I used a "pull quote" which reads "I never thought I'd get this far". This quote is ambiguous and makes the reader eager to read more while also being relevant to the article as a whole. Other magazines such as 'KERRANG! use pull quotes in their interviews for similar reasons.