Q1 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For my media coursework, I was asked to create a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for an original music magazine. I chose to create an indie music magazine because from personal experiences from talking to people of the ages 16, ranging to 25, prefer indie music to any other. I picked NME as my magazine influence, simply because the front covers are always so eye-catching and inviting.

My media product uses a variety of conventions seen on real music magazines, such as a masthead, a continued colour scheme, a plug, date of issue, a barcode and price. In addition to this, I made sure that the main image on the front of the cover was central on the page, because the consumer would want to be able to see exactly who the feature artist is and what the article is all about, rather than having to flick through the magazine to find out what is featured in that issue. I also made sure that the title that went with the main story was dominant to the rest of the text on the cover. I took influence from several NME front covers and contents pages, which can be seen through the colour scheme of the front cover, and several other things such as the plug and the masthead. NME influence can also be seen through the layout of the contents page.

My media product develops forms and conventions seen on real music magazines, such as the layout of my double page spread. I looked at several magazine issues from NME and Q, and found that the majority of the double page spreads had the main image as the focus point of one page (usually the image filled one full page). I thought that this was a good idea, as the consumer would see exactly who they are reading about. The indie genre is usually associated with vintage looking things such as clothing and therefore I wanted to give my images an 'indie' feel to them. I found a website which created polaroid's by simply uploading your image and adding an effect to them. (The website I used was polaroin.com)  

On these print screens it is clear to see that I took influence from NME, especially this issue. I liked the colour scheme red, yellow, blue and white, and I really liked the way the blue backgrounds behind each feature made the white text stand out so much, making sure the consumer know they are the main features. In addition to this, I kept thinking of plug ideas for my front cover, and kept coming back to this one simply because I wanted to carry on the conventions of a genuine music magazine. It was good that the colour scheme of the real NME plug was exactly what I wanted, however the yellow on the real one looked too pale for what I wanted, as I wanted it to match the 'Stagg'. 

Here is a print screen to show the influence I took from an NME contents page. Although I didn't lay out my contents page exactly the same as NME, it is easy to see there has been some ideas used and altered. For example, I used the idea of a subscription box, and added a front cover on it. 
Another thing I did was I used the same page number layout as what was used on NME because I thought it made the pages stand out more. I originally wanted it to be red like it is on NME, but after making the '6 STRINGS' red like it is on the front cover I thought it would be too much to have even more red on there. 

Above is my double page spread. I used the title from the front cover on my double page spread because then the consumer can see that the article is going to be about 'Bryn Stagg'. Furthermore, I also used the same thing as I did on the front cover with the pull-out quote looking like the headlines on the front cover. This was used to reinforce the colour scheme and layout being continuous on each part of my product. Lastly, from the two polaroid images in the bottom right hand corner of my double page, it is easy to recognise effects have been used to manipulate both of my pictures of the artist, I used this to give the images a vintage look to them, to reinforce the type of style associated with the indie genre.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For my preliminary portfolio, I was asked to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread for an original music magazine. I researched into different existing music magazines and I chose to create and indie music magazine. I decided to do a music magazine specifically targeted at an audience interested in indie music, because from personal experiences of talking to people of the ages of 16 to about 25, they preferred indie music to any other. I researched into the NME and Q magazines, as they were both focusing mostly on indie music. In particular, I was influenced by the NME magazine, simply because the front covers were always so eye catching and inviting. 

My media product uses a variety of conventions seen on real indie music magazines, such as a masthead, a continued colour scheme, a plug, date of issue, a barcode and a price. In addition to this, I made sure that the main image on the front cover was central to the page. I did this because the consumer would want to know at first glance who the feature artist was, and what the article was all about. I also made sure that the title that went with the main story was dominant to the rest of the text on the cover. I took influence from several NME front covers and contents pages, which can be seen through the colour scheme of the front cover, and several other things such as the plug and the masthead. NME's influence can also be seen through the layout I had created on my contents page. 

From these print screens above, it is clear to see that I took influence from the NME magazine, especially this issue. I liked the colour scheme; red, yellow, blue and white. I also really liked the way the blue backgrounds behind each feature made the white text stand out so much, making sure that the reader know what the main features of that issue were. In addition to this, I kept thinking of plug ideas for my front cover, and kept coming back to this one simply because I wanted to carry on the conventions of a genuine music magazine. It was good that the colour scheme of the real NME plug was exactly what I wanted, however, the yellow on the professional one looked too pale for my front cover, and for what I wanted, as I wanted it to match the 'Stagg' on the main feature text. 

Above is another print screen, but this time it shows how I took influence from an NME contents page. Although I didn't lay out my contents page exactly the same as the NME one, it is easy to see there has been some conventions followed on my version. For example, I used the idea of a subscription box, and added a front cover on it, to show another issue will be available to be delivered to them if they subscribe. 

Another thing I did was that I used the same page number layout as what was used on NME because I thought it made the pages stand out more. I originally wanted the colour of each page number to be red like it is on the existing NME contents page, but after making the '6 STRINGS' red like it is on the front cover, I thought it would be too much to have even more red on the same page. In the end I decided on using the same blue that I had used on the backgrounds of the features, as the numbers for the pages. 

Finally, above is my double page spread. I used the title from the front cover on my double page spread, to show continuity between the three parts of my music magazine. Furthermore, I also used the same way of displaying the pull-out quote, as I did to make the features in the magazine stand out. This was also good because the blue stood out a lot on the black background, and also it shows the continuous colour scheme used on the three parts of my magazine.

Lastly, from the two polaroid images in the bottom right hand corner of my double page spread, it is easy to recognise effects have been used to manipulate both of my original images. I used this to give the images a vintage look to them, making them look like realistic polaroid images, and to also reinforce the type of style associated with the indie genre.