Evaluation Question 1

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

My product does look like a typical music magazine because I have included some of the key magazine conventions that should be on a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread such as a masthead which is 'FLOW', the lead which is shown on my double page spread under the main headline. I have also included sell lines on my front cover so that when people see it they know straight away that it is a front cover of a music magazine because I mention certain music artists related to the my genre which is R&B. Moreover, I have tried to use a colour scheme of black, red and white because by putting the colour red next to plain colours such as black and white it will help the sell lines to stand out and catch the audiences attention as they walk past. Another reason why I have done this is because it will help separate other pieces of texts on my contents page and double page spread so that they will not look like it is all in one because it will make both pages untidy and unorganised.

I have analysed existing professional products such as 'VIBE', 'Q' and 'XXL' magazines. I have analysed these existing products on my blog because they cover a similar type of music genre I have chosen and by doing this it will help me to get ideas from them so that I can add them to my own product. Not only do they cover a similar type of music genre in their magazines but I have chosen these specific magazines because they caught my eye straight away and this made me realise that I should do something similar to what these magazines have done so that people will know what type of magazine it is. Also, by doing this then I will be able to challenge real media products and this will allow me to get more people interested in my magazine even though it is similar but in a way it is different as it will feature a variation of music artists instead of the main ones in the R&B genre.

Furthermore, I think that my product clearly fits into the music genre because not only do I mention artists such as Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj and R.Kelly who can all be put into this genre, but I have also included my own models and I think that they are perfect for this genre because of the type of clothing they are wearing. The clothing of my models are so typical to what an R&B artist would wear for example in the contents page my models are wearing a hat, hoodies and a green belt that is showing and on the front cover my model is wearing a black baseball jacket and jeans (not clearly shown) and I think that I chose the perfect model for the front cover because he naturally suits the genre I have chosen to do.

Even though my photography skills are not usually good I think that I have done quite a good job at taking my pictures especially for the front cover because I did not want to show the whole of his body so instead I used a close up shot as it would allow my models face to be clear and his jacket was my favourite piece of clothing. I also chose the location of this photo shoot carefully because I wanted to make my model look like he was from the urban part of London but then I changed my mind and I wanted the background to be plain with a bit of contrast and that's what I went for.