EvaluationJayde Gamble

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

real media products?To produce a successful front cover I realised I would have to conform to some of the conventions of a music magazine front cover in order for the potential consumer to relate/recognise the genre of the magazine itself. However, the conventions also need to be challenged or developed in order to create a product that isn't already on the shelves.

Photography: The photography was the main part of my front cover, as I personally see this as what attracts the consumer. There are two main aspects that I took into mind when taking my photographs- the first thing being eye contact with the audience. This particular feature is incredibly important as it creates an immediate connection between the consumer and the model, moreover the magazine brand. The second is one main splash image taking up the majority of the front cover. Although my image did this, I think my proportions when photographing were off and the image took up too much space and limited the amount of cover story lines I could feature on my front cover. This is the reason for the single words of what can be seen within the magazine as opposed to full stories.

However, the actual image itself, I think challenged the usual conventions of a music magazine's splash image. As my double page spread featured a subarticle on the history of house music- I wanted to reflect the old style of the genre by using black and white image, yet keeping the edgy style House Music presents with the mise-en-scene within the photograph. I challenged the convention of a studio image by using an on location shot of somewhere in particular that featured brick walls and such, in order to create an 'underground' feel to the magazine- which again, contextually, is where House Music first started to make an appearance.

Text and language:

My title was chosen as it is a term that is related to the House Music genre, the sound of ''Breakbeat'' is one that is rememberable and in turn, the consumer doesn't forget the magazine. As this term is topic shift and no use of ''House Music'' is featured on the first cover, it limits the consumer to those who know the genre enough to make the connection between the title and the music genre in question. The text used on the front cover is minimal and not much is said about each of the articles featured. By doing so, I originally wanted to create a sense of unknowing and in turn create more of an intrigued buyer. However, the lack of extensive text on my front cover could potentially be a down side to my magazine. If the information on the cover is not striking enough and isn't explanatory, then the consumer may just pass it off and it will not produce sales. The necessary text such as the price and issue number/date is featured on the front cover alongside the barcode. I think these conventions are particularly important for subscription purposes. If a consumer wishes to subscribe to the magazine they need to know the issue number in case they ever want to backlog other magazines and also the price, in order to know they are getting a good deal with the subscription route,

My contents page layout is based on that of 'Billboard'. I wanted to create a page that had a lot of information featured on it, yet look organised and clean using the shapes to section off different parts of texts. Unlike 'Q' who choose to use a lot of images and little text, I chose to challenge their particular convention and use very few images to support a mass of text featured on my content page. My content page is where I decided to feature all of my social links such as Twitter and Instagram, in order to create multiple different entry points for the different types of consumer- those who prefer print based media and those who choose to download or use the internet to view the magazine's main content. Featured on my content page is also the subscription box with the deal price of subscription. I decided to feature this particular aspect of the

magazine here as it features all the content of my music magazine therefore the potential buyer can see what kind of articles they can look forward to if they choose to subscribe to the magazine. The images featured on my content page are a mix of studio and on location shots. This demonstrates that the magazine features upcoming music from busking artists on the streets as well as the interviews/articles featuring the well known artists of that genre. The content page's layout is similar to that of 'Mixmag' which is also a dance/house music magazine. Therefore the consumers of mixmag will see a link between the two and will possibly create more purchases for my music magazine.

I think my Double Page Spread is the page that follows the most conventions of this particular aspect of the magazine. In terms of layout, the page doesn't challenge any conventions, with most magazines opting to use one half for text and the other for a main image. Again, the text is written in columns which again is expected. I didn't want to change this convention as I think it presents a clean cut and easy readable article for the consumer. I decided to put my pull quote on the left hand side of my page, as I thought alone- the image looked bare and wasn't very appealing. The left hand side of the page is what the consumer will

look at first,

meaning they will see the pull quote, in turn drawing them in for the main article. The image I took was on location (as with all the photographs of my main article character 'Emily Chambers') which can be seen a challenging the conventions of the usual music magazine who- from my research- opt more for studio shots in order to create an one colour background which is easier to work with when constructing the article. I wanted to keep the running theme of a rural more 'underground' looking scene- especially on my Double Page Spread as that is where my article about the History of House music features. I used various fonts to create my page, differing from my previous planning due to aesthetics. I tried to create a voice within my interview which is a convention of magazines in itself. Adding the information about the album at the bottom of the interview to promote the artist is also a typical convention and one I decided to follow within my own article. Most magazines use different colour schemes throughout their magazine for different articles. However, throughout my Front Cover, Content Page and Double Page Spread I decided to use different shades of blue to create a tie-in throughout the magazine.