NAME: HENRY TREVOR BEES MONKS CANDIDATE NUMBER: CENTER NUMBER:

QUESTION 4 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

FRONT COVER My Music Magazine front cover, firstly uses a very similar layout to NME Magazine in the way that the Masthead and Issue number are right at the top in big bold writing, to immediately let the reader know which magazine their reading and the number issue of the magazine as well. Both mine and NME’s magazine features a quote from the selected band for the front cover, NME’S band was Biffy Clyros band and my magazine Mass Effect featured the new band Retrofied. The front cover should always feature many images to keep the reader engaged, I tried to develop Kerrangs front cover image style by creating one large precise image embodying the magazine. I chose Both Kerrang and NME to base my magazine on because I am creating an indie rock themed magazine, it is also the sort of magazine layout I preferred. Moving on to my font scheme, I decided to use a light red and blue coloured font with a large white and black masthead to create a sense of both being serious but also being interesting, I tried to challenge NME with this font choice because they usually use red and black and I wanted to build on that even more. The font type itself was a very urban and rough type of font to put the indie rock/rough looking feel in perspective, I felt this developed Kerrangs use of the rough types of font by using different colours to bring a bit of life to the magazine. My Magazine also featured a prize giveaway which was very similar to Q’s magazine but I also tried to develop this by showing that the band The Subways were giving the prizes to keep the reader interested. Finally my barcode was featured at the bottom with my date at the top, this is the same as Kerrang and Q.

CONTENTS PAGE Moving on to my contents page which tried to keep to the same format as NME because I liked the way the pictures and text were mixed together and organised. I used the same rough type of font, which I think slightly challenges NME’s regular text by creating a more urban rock type of feel. I used the same colour coding as i did on my front cover to show the reader that it is the same type of layout as my front cover for my magazine. I used pictures from my summer task mixing some graffiti and band arena signs developing NME’s way of putting the pictures to the side or under the text by putting them inbetween two different type of text boxes. My page number were on the pictures themselves letting the reader know exactly what page the selected picture was developing NME’s layout of the number being at the side of the pictures. My Magazine badge was in the top right corner in the iconic black and white with my issue number right below immediately reminding the reader which magazine they are reading, developing Q’s badge being next to contents, I made it stand out on its own. My masthead had contents in big bold writing with page slightly smaller showing that contents was what this page was all about. This developed Q’s contents being the same size as page, so that mine made the word contents sound more important. Finally I used a background of dark navy blue bringing out the bright text and my magazines badge similar to Q’s white background in bringing out the text. It also bring out the pictures making sure the reader see’s them clearly enough to notice.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD Finally my double page spread features the same layout as NME with my picture covering the left hand side of the page and all of my text covering the right hand side of the page. My picture featured the new band Retrofied with a white background with a slight grey tint to bring out the picture, much like NME’s background but developing on their all white background with Florence the machine on it. The title was the band name Retrofied in big bold writing again in black and white which was now the iconic colours of all my titles, this is again similar to NME’s title with the band name standing out from the text. Now on to the text which i structured into three columns to keep all the text organised and easy to understand by the reader. I developed on Q’s double page spread of Lana del Rey where they had put the text into three columns as well, however i used different font and colours to make the text seem more interesting and vibrant. Also my stand first which was also a blocked capitol was at the start of the text drawing the readers eye, this technique is the same as Q’s but instead of using regular black I used a bright blue to draw the reader in even more. Last but definitely not least my page number were in the bottom left and right hand corners, the same as NME’s but again I challenged them by using both different font and colours to make the double page spread come to life a bit more. My text involved an interview with the new band Retrofied keeping all the important information and putting it into three columns similar to NME’s article on Lana del Rey, however mine featured more quotes from the band getting their perspective on their career. In conclusion in my magazine I have tried to both develop and challenge some of the layouts and techniques used by some of the most famous magazines in the world. I mainly tried to use different fonts, more colour and bigger titles to draw the reader in and keep them interested rather than writing more and more text that simply stops them from buying any type of magazine. Finally i used lots of enlarged and detailed pictures because everyone love to see some interesting, vibrant and colourful pictures in magazines.