Evaluation q1

Evaluation q1

• 1.
  Evaluation
• 2.
  In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I have looked at the music magazines Q and NME as they were the most popular in my audience research surveys and the conventions they use. Due to this I knew I wanted my masthead to appear in one corner of the magazine rather than taking up the whole width of the page. This is a common convention that both Q and NME use. Having my masthead in capital letters is also a common convention because it allows it to stand out and appear bold on the front cover. I also added a 3D effect to make it stand out of the page. I have aimed the colours of my masthead to the female market as they are the people I am wanting to attract so therefore I have used the convention of appealing to a specific audience.
• 3.
  I used thecommon convention of using puff words on my magazine front cover. I knew this would entice my audience to buying the magazine, especially because I aimed these puff’s towards their likes and interests. In my interviews I found that my target audience liked festivals and liked listening to their music on Spotify. Therefore I used words like FREE Spotify subscription and EXCLUSIVES on my contents page ‘V festival line up revealed’. In my market analysis I found puff words to be used often and a good way to draw your reader in. This is why I used this convention in my music magazine.
• 4.
  One convention Ifollowed was only having one image on my front cover. Most music magazines have one main image and then sub images to appear more visual. However, I wanted one main focus on one artist as this would take up the whole background off the magazine. This is why I looked at magazines with this feature. Also, the artist is the main selling point of my magazine so I wanted her to stand out. I wanted my magazine cover to be simple and lots of images add clutter to a magazine cover. Top of the Pops magazine have lots of images on their front cover however, mine is aimed at the older age bracket of teenagers therefore, they don’t need lots of images to explain things to them. However, the size of the image makes it look dominant and so therefore other images aren’t missed. My contents page also follows the common convention of having a few images on the page. This broke up the text and made the contents look interesting and visually pleasing.
• 5.
  A common conventionI used was the use of a colour scheme. This allows my magazine to have a continuous flow and allows the reader to have another way of remembering the magazine. I aimed my colour scheme at my target audience. Older female teenagers. Therefore used pinks and purples as well as black because in my interviews the girls said they liked to keep it plain and simple. The bright pink borders allow cover lines to stand out. The colour scheme was quite simple and repetitive because I wanted the audience to be able to associate the dark purple, light pink and grey with my magazine just like readers associate with red and NME with red and white. I kept the article text black because it’s simple and easy to read on most background colours. It’s a common convention because people are used to text being black and don’t like change. For example when analysing magazines people liked the simple layout and colours of the NME double page spread but they didn't like the big L on the Q double page spread as it clashed with the ease of reading the article. People like to easily read articles and that is why I kept this common convention. I changed the female’s lip colour on photo shop to match the pink in the colour scheme. I also chose the live image to match the purple in my colour scheme.
• 6.
  Nearly all popmagazines have studio photos running through out especially top of the pops. I challenged this common convention of pop magazines because my audience wanted a range of images. However, the majority are studio images because I couldn’t take lots of live images. I included studio and live images. This adds interest to the magazine as it’s not all the same. The majority of images used were taken in a studio however taking away the background of two images made them appear more natural on the page. Most magazines only have one image on their double page spread and the majority of the time this image is taken in a studio. I followed this common convention because it is simple and liked by most people. For example the most liked layout from my survey was the NME double page spread where a whole page is taken up by the image. This also is the case with the Q magazine. This convention makes the page look organised and very easy to understand. This is why I used inspiration from the NME double page spread for my magazine. Studio photos provide a professional feel to a magazine and therefore is a common convention to all music magazines.
• 7.
  Finally, another commonconvention I used was headlines. They are used on all music magazines as they organise the page and make it easy for the reader to view the information they’re wanting. I had one main headline taken up in the centre of my front cover, which again is a common convention used by most music magazines. I made cover line heading bold with pink borders in order for them to stand out. I used headlines as the name of artists. For example my main headline was ‘BEYONCE’ and the cover lines were names of other artists. This is also a common convention used, especially by MOJO and NME magazine. I felt this would be a good way of enticing in my readers because they ultimately buy the magazine to read about their favourite artists. I also used the heading ‘Contents’ on my contents page. Which from my magazine analysis wasn’t a common convention. Instead words normally used are ‘This week in…’ or ‘Inside this mag’. I decided to use the word contents as it tells the reader exactly what type of page it is and doesn’t make them think about where they have to get the information from. Also, I used the masthead on the contents which is a common convention. It makes the reader more brand aware as they are repeatedly seeing the masthead.