Evaluation

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

THE FRONT COVER

The cover line of the magazine is behind the main model. This shows that the mast head in part of the magazine whilst the artist is always changing, so Is in the foreground and main focus of the magazine

• A head and shoulders shot of the model, puts all view on the main artist for the cover. There is also a small gap between the top of the head and the top of the magazine to show that the image does not fill the page but is instead centred. The artists are also looking down the camera.

• The image is also broken up into thirds. The eyes are always on a centre point of the image.

• The cover lines appear as a border around the artist, to again show focus on the artist. In neither one of these pictures is the text on the artists face.

• The title of the text which sometimes includes a pun or just the artists name appears in a larger font than the information.

• The writing stay minimalistic so therefore the focus again is on the image.

• A small barcode sits in the bottom left corner. This means that all other information is away from the other text and images.

• The size on my barcode is also similar to the Q barcode, all the takes up less space due to there not being a white border around it

• On my cover there is a red bar including more information about who is in the magazine, similar to this is a bar at the bottom of the Q magazine, which talks also about the magazine

The largest writing on the front cover is always the artist or bands name to draw in all attention to the name, so can be spotted by everyone. Followed by the cover story's which are both smaller, and also in a different colour and font

The artists posture and clothing all represent how the artist wants to be perceived.

In the smiths cover, the band are in black and white connoting the classic style of music they use. They are also hugging showing the relationship of the members along with the quote “We were one of the greatest bands ever”

In Adele's cover, she is very feminine, in her purple clothes and her similar matching eye colour. The posture she uses her fingers to touch her lips in a flirty mannerism.

Alex turners cover shows him in his parker coats with his long hair, also similar to his genre of brit pop/rock music.

Finally my cover includes a pop/rocker from the late 90’s and 00’s. With his ‘born again’ acid wash jeans and low cut tops and aviator sun glasses. The hair is also similar to this, made re famous through David Beckham in the early 00’s, but also through the punk era of the 90’s. The black colours also represent dark punk and rock.

There is usually a quote or strap line which will appear below the logo or name of the magazine. The strapline often refers to the magazine or type of music it covers. Q’s strap line is ‘Discover Great Music’; This means that the magazine covers the great music and that it the best place to find it.Rewinds strap line is ‘The Music That Matters.’ this means similar to Q that the great music that ‘matters’ is in this magazine.

CONTENTS PAGE

• Similar to the front cover, the contents pages are also all split into thirds

• In the left third, there should be at least one photo that takes up a third. But also a photo that takes up 2 thirds across.

• In the far right third is usually the table of contents.

The mast head of the contents page, should follow the same house style as that on the front page, but also include the logo of the magazine and the issue number or the word contents to help introduce the page.

• There are a range of different images in the mainstream magazines. They often include a band and an image from a live performance.

• The page numbers appear with a black border upon the pictures.

• There is also added information at the bottom of the page, like the date and websites to visit.

• Often, like in Q , there are breakers, to break up the different pages on the contents page.

A review section is likely to appear at the bottom of the page. In Q the review section lists a bulk of singers and bands who are appearing. Like wise with some similarities, the Rewind review lists a few in a vertical line, with the page numbers appearing next to them

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

The idea from the letter appearing behind the text came from Q and represents a kicker.

The colour is to fit the house style colour and stand out from the rest of the magazine, from the black and white.

The letter usually acts as a kicker or drop letter, but I have used it as the letter of his name, as an added extra stylised image to use to develop the magazines house style.

The artists name or pull quote appears in a large text on the opposing page to grab attention for people to know what the article is about. This is also the most important information so should appear to be the largest font on the page

Featuring somewhere on the image is often a caption referencing to the photographer, the reason it was taken and what the photo is called. This is conventional in most music magazines as it explains the photo and why it was taken

Other conventions include:• There is usually text at the bottom referring To the name of the magazine, the issue number and the date.• There are often thin line breakers through

out the page which separates the page up through the title and article and the bottom of the page.

• The imagery always dominates one page, depending on the magazine and who it is depends on what page. People like Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Jay Z usually dominate the left hand side page as it is the first page you look at and also goes against conventions, so they stand out and can be seen as different and powerful.