Evaluation Task 1 Final

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

 

The title of the magazine

Graphology/page layouts

Costumes, props, iconography used to reflect genre

Camerawork and framing of images

Title, article, header etc font and style

Genre and how the magazine cover, contents and spread suggests it

How your artist(s) are represented

Colour scheme

Above is an image of a Q magazine, when looking and comparing this to the magazine that I created, you can see some noticeable similarities and differences. The main similarity of the magazines is the masthead, they both consist of having a square box with 'Q' inside for this magazine and 'V' on my magazine. I did not set out to copy this masthead but I believe that I had the same view and imagery ideas as Q. After experimenting with a red 'V' and a white 'V' inside a red box, I concluded to find that the latter stood out more, and looked more aesthetically pleasing, because without the box surrounding the 'V' it looked slightly plain and generic. So I believe having the masthead inside the box, gave the magazine more promise of selling on the shop windows. We also both have one letter as the masthead, this is because people would know what magazine they're buying by just seeing one letter, so by using the first letter, I am not blocking up the page with unneeded features which would help sell the magazine.

My magazine differs from Q magazine in the fact that my magazine has it's issues special features based on the left hand side of the page, whereas Q magazine has it's features and plugs listed down both the left and right hand side of the page. I belive this was done due to the size of the cover image, my image is bigger than Q's image, therefore if it was avoidable, I didn't want my plugs and cover features to hide the cover image too much.

Also this magazines cover star (Liam Gallagher) has a lot of influence on my cover star, they both make similar music, the indie genre and also they both have a similar dress style, although on this particular image the dress does look mildly different, but in that the both these cover images are set out I believe it's fair to say you could suggest that 'Renaissance' could go on to have the success that Liam Gallagher had with Oasis.

The title of the magazine 'Vinyl' suggests that my magazine will have articles and features based around music from different generations, since Vinyl's have been involved in many generations and today seen as quite a cultual and iconic item which is a value I'd quite like my magazine to have in the future. This differs in Q's name because they take inspiration for their name from the verb, 'to cue' a record, when you are about to buy it. So my name is based upon the the impact and meaning that the magazine would have to people. Rather than Q magazine, who base the title on their magazine, from when you cue a record as you play it.
I believe the genre of my magazine (Indie) can be represented, by seeing the cover image, because straight away you you can tell what sort of music this man is going to create, because he doesn't not fit the typical bill for somebody from a Hip Hop scene. Also by looking at the bands recognised on the front cover you can this Indie genre will be running throughout the magazine, therefore making it a definite buy Indie, whereas you have accept that Hip Hop or Garage fans etc. would not be intrigued to buy this magazine. Also straight away from reading the article on the double page spread you can tell Liam Lennon is an individual who makes the music he likes, and is independent, also you can that fans of Hip Hop won't be very interested in his article whereas Indie may read heavily into the article, and I belive that he speaks on behalf of the Indie genre and agrees that they need more artists coming through, and is infact a good ambassador for the Indie genre of music.

The artist on my front cover, Liam Lennon from the band Renaissance, is represented as your typical frontman man of an Indie, he volumes of arrogance but also intelligence, although the crucial thing about Lennon, is that he is one of a dying breed, and music that Lennon creates, proper guitar riffed music, has fallen out of place, but now Lennon is on the scene, he is considered as the last hope to keep Vinyls opinion of 'real' music alive, and maybe go on to become one of musics icons for future generations.

Finally the colour scheme of my magazine is red, white and black, predominantly with the main writing texts in black, the backgrounds being white and red was often used to border the fonts, or if not to stand the writning stand out, with exception to the 'Renaissance' banners. This follows the same convention as Q magazine, and the reason for this is because I believe the colours work well together, they do not contrast badly, nor do they overshadow each other. Also I was aware of the similarities that my colour scheme had to Q magazine, but when I substituted the red for other colours, it didn't have the same impact, and i believed that by having red as part of the colour scheme it increased the chances of selling from shop shelves, therefore I kept red as part of the colour scheme.