Question 1

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

My magazine takes plenty of inspiration from my style models, merging elements from each as well as incorporating different features to make it unique.

Front Cover layout and conventions

For my front cover, i largely took influence from Q magazine, in several ways.Firstly, the magazine as a whole has a distinct house style of red,white and black, which is based of Q's own. This allowed me to make my text and shapes very distinct from the main image and meant that i did not have to remove the background in order to actually see my text. I also used masthead in a similar way, putting the large, red font text over a white background at the top of the page. This draws obvious parallels to Q's, however, my masthead covers the entire top fifth of the page from left to right, whereas Q's is generally in the top left corner with the single letter name. Furthermore, the magazine's shot is one inspired by Q's common use of close ups on the artists on the cover, which serves to further align my magazine with my style models. The image used has a brick wall as the background, and this is in order to give the rockstar look to not only my actor, but the entire cover as a whole. Furthermore, my cover incorporates a slogan which is inspired by my other style model Mojo. I chose to incorporate this in order to suggest the class and high standards of the magazine, and it is in a white font in order to contrast the background and masthead font. There are also elements that are similar to Mojo, such as the lists on the side for the other artists featured. For this, i chose to select a wide range of different artists from bands and solo musicians. This ranged from the likes of Paul McCartney and Elton John, who are generally aiming their music at the late 30's and 40's, which is at the top end of my target audience's age demographic. On the other hand, i also incorporated more recent rockstars such as Philip Selway, mixed in with some of my original artists such as Zhao and Navarro. These are aimed at the mid 20's age demographic in my target audience, this is in order to have a wide range of musicians within my magazine genre, making it more accessible and it is more likely that the numerous fan bases for each artist will be interested in s anything regarding them. Additionally, i decided to add anchorage text,(featuring the artists), which would be advertised to the reader with the large bold text saying,"Plus!", and,"Also!". This is in a bold white font in order to stand out from the background, making it easier to spot for a reader, as it lets them know that there is more content that they may like. I also decided to add a few minor details, which makes it feel more like it fits in the genre alongside Q and Mojo. These included the barcode, which is a necessity on a magazine, as it is how the issue is sold. Without a barcode, not only would the magazine be unable to purchase by conventional means at the shop, the potential reader would doubt it's credibility as the magazine is lacking its own sort of id in the shop and amongst the other magazines. Another minor convention that i added was the date and price to the cover. The date is needed so that the readers know that the magazine is up to date and some would value this as crucial when buying a magazine. The price was also required as it is important for the readers to know the price of the magazine when coming round to buying it.  The price itself is based of Q's and Mojo's price range of £4-£5, further aligning my magazine in the genre alongside my style models. This price is typical of the genre as the magazine has formal and class elements to it, such as the language and organised  conventions. 

Contents page layout and conventions
On my contents page, i once again took heavy inspiration from my style models, especially Q magazine. The gridded images is meant to be reminiscent of Q's style of contents page, with smaller features like the numbered images and the main article having the largest picture. Each image is representing the article it is numbered, for example, the image of queen represents the queen article. I have also added convergent links at the base of the page, linking to the magazine's social media accounts on both Facebook and Twitter respectively. This helps to attract the readers to other platforms that many other magazines, including my style models, are capitalising on. I also decided to add a paragraph, separate from the rest of the contents, discussing a subscription service, with potential rewards if the reader subscribes. The rewards i selected was a i tunes gift card and a entry into a £10,000 lottery amongst subscribers. I feel that the gift card is appropriate as it allows the readers to download more music, likely to be made by artists featured in my magazine. This would keep the reader and target audience invested in the magazine as they would see the artist they have downloaded music from appear and promote new music giving the audience a chance to  learn more about them by buying the magazine. The contents also adds the issue number, which allows for the reader to keep track of how long the magazine has been running. I chose not to add this to the front cover due to the lack of a place where it would fit well. A convention that i felt was integral was the addition of the page number at the bottom corner of the page, which is seen in pretty much every magazine, regardless of genre. I also included a large title for the page, named Contents, and this is the most obvious and stand out text, in order to attract the reader, and to inform them very easily of the pages purpose. the individual images of my own artists have been designed to fit the aesthetic of my magazine especially, and can be seen in the primary image of the contents page. The image shows my actor wearing very casual clothes, which is meant to represent the genre well, and reflect  his casual attitude, which in turn would appeal to the target audience for my magazine, as this casual attitude is a common look for rock stars.

For my double page spread, i used a shot of the artist looking across to the other page. This is in order to connect the two pages easier and is very common in all music magazine genres and not just rock. I chose to make the headline large and bold in order to stand out in the middle of the page, as well as placing a pull quote directly beneath it. This gives the reader a impression of what he will be discussing in the article. Pull quotes are extremely common in music magazines and both of my style models use them to great effect, as they give the reader insight into the discussion and goes as far as to reveal aspects about their personality. In this instance, it tells the reader that the interview is going to be positive and that the interview will go into the artists life specifically. I made sure to measure the three columns correctly in terms of width, in order to create a accurate reflection of the typical rock magazine's double page spread. I added a credit for myself as the writer of the article and interviewer, a convention which is common, and i added appropriate font to align with this. The font is meant to evoke a writing style, which not only distinguishes itself from the other text on the page, but gives the text a personal, hand written feel. I also incorporated the page number onto the page in order to maintain a sense of direction within my magazine for my reader, and works in conjunction with the contents page. I made sure to make the page numbers align with what i had previously labeled them in the contents, in order to maintain a continuity in my magazine. So to follow this, i made sure to give the page numbers 22 and 23, which aligns with the page as it is specified in the contents.