1. Masthead/title: I think that my masthead is quite unique as the font style is very different from what I have seen in my research. I think that the colour really stands out against the background and the extra shadow I put around the text as made it stand out even more so to the audience. This is what I wanted in a masthead, something that can appeal and attract to the audience. I realised in my research that a big bold title can really appeal to people, so I thought I would create a masthead which will be big and bold too. I went on a website called “DaFont”, which is a website that has different font types on it. I went on this site to see if I could find an unusual font for my masthead to make it stand out. I chose a font and I thought it was very funky and should appeal to my target audience as it was big, bold and unique.<br /> Mise en scene of images: I decided that the Flackwell Heath golf course would be a good place to take my photo shoot. I thought it would be a good place because the main story line on my double page spread is about a teenager who plays country songs. The location really fits in well with the prop that I was using for my model to hold, which was an old guitar. This gave it a more country effect due to the old guitar and the green field. The lighting was very natural as we were outside at around 5 o’clock when the sun was setting. This meant that the colour sky was a bit unusual as it was blue and in some images there was a bit of orange. Even though it was quite late in the day there as a lot of light which made the image of the model and the prop stand out. The high contrast of the green grass was very strong which made the images stand out very nicely. There were a variety of shot types in my photo shoot so that I could choose the best image for my magazine. Most of my shots were in medium or long shots. I chose these shots because when I was doing my researched I realised that most of the images were taken in these shot types. I then realised that these are the best types as it shows most of the model and puts more interest into the image. Showing the whole of the model can also show the prop more and the location which is good as it makes the image more interesting and gives it more character. I also experimented with the angle. I found out that in my research some magazine showed a low angle shot of a person to give them a sense of importance. I decided to take some low angle shows of my model to give the same effect. I also thought I would take some eye level shot as, again, my researched showed me images of people looking directly into the camera to give eye contact to the reader. This is a good effect that I wanted to use ion my magazine, especially the front cover. So I decided to take some eye level shots with the model looking into the camera so that she engages with the readers. I manipulated some of the images as I wanted to take the background away from the image for the front cover and the contents page. I did this because I decided I wanted a plain background when I was looking at the research. I found out that text and images look much better on a plain background as it draws the attention of the readers to the more important things. I used Photoshop to edit the photo and used different tools to make the photo look nice. It was really hard to take 3104515121158000away the background due to the location, but has improved my Photoshop skills hugely. <br />-647701905000<br />Costumes and Props: I didn’t focus on the costume as much as the model in the image was around the same age as the teenager in my article. I decided to let her wear her own clothes but make sure that they are sticking to the fashion of this day and age. I wanted her to wear fashionable clothes as I wanted it to attract the target audience as my target audience would around the same age and could relate to what she is wearing. Another thing that I didn’t want her to wear was anything with a brand logo on it as I did not want the image to look like an advert and did not want to go through the brand regulations for advertising. Magazines with the same genre have the same costume style as my product this is because they are targeting the same audience. I used one prop in my photo shoot which was the guitar. I used this guitar as my article was about the guitar and I learnt from my research that props in the images on the double page spreads was a good way of getting the readers to read the article as they would already know the theme of the article. In music magazines, guitars are often used in images as they are a symbol of fashionable music. <br />People: I chose my friend to be in the photo shoot and to be the main focus around the magazine as I couldn’t get a famous music artist to be on the front cover and to be really close up. So I thought I would make up that my friend is famous to compete with other music products. The friend I chose is the same age as the target audience for my product so it should be very easy to attract readers. This is going against conventions as most magazines will have celebrities that vary in age. I also said that the magazine features interviews with The Script and Rihanna as they are very famous and suite the genre of my product. Also they would be very popular with the target audience of my magazine. Other music products would also have the same kind of celebrities as they would also want to attract their target audience to their product. I don’t think that gender will matter in my magazine although I have added one female artist and one male band so that it suites both male and female readers and should engage them into the product. Some music magazines have a boy band on the cover so that it attracts the opposite sex but I think that my model will attract both sexes. <br />Font and Styles: I wanted my masthead to have a unique font style so that it would catch the reader’s attention. I went on Dafont website and chose a font that would stand out by being big, bold and unique. Once I chose the font I need to manipulate it in paint by changing the colour of it to suite my colour scheme. Once I done that I could put it on my magazine pages. For the main body txt and sub heading I chose Century Gothic as the text was very clear and readers would be able to read it very well. By looking at my research I could see that the most of the main body text was smaller than the subheading but was mostly the same font, so I decided to do the same. I didn’t want the text to be to unique as I wanted most attention on the main heading, plus it would be very hard to read. <br />261493089027000I made sure that I kept these fonts consistent throughout my magazine by copying the fonts from each page into the other pages. I wanted the font to have a big impact to the style of the magazine and wanted it to make the magazine look unique but still fit in to the style of the target audience. <br />101603556000<br />Copy/written content: From my research I found out that most magazines will have a different style of language depending on their target audience and there genre. I decided to have informal language in my magazine as I want the magazine to seem more relax and I want it to fit in well with my target audience. I also decided to use numbers instead of letters as I think this is a more visual way to attract readers. I also used a few explanation marks in my text as I want to give the impression of shouting and give a more jokey effect. I think the genre, RNB & Pop, fit well with this kind of language as they like to use slang and in my text I did use slang to fit in with the genre. Both Billboard and Vibe magazines use the same style of language that I use and they also have the same target audience.<br />Genre: I have featured up to date music artists which are well known at this current time in my magazine as they are in the same genre as my music product. The people that I used will hopefully attract the readers with the same genre taste and my magazine. I have also used very neutral colours with one vibrant colour as I don’t want to give the impression that it is a certain genre. I want it to seem very open so that audiences of a different genre my look at my product. The mise en scene and props are quite different to the genre I want to portray as it seems like a more country/folk genre. Although it seems like a different genre, by manipulating the images for the front cover it changes the look of the magazine making it fit into the Pop genre. The use of the language and contents also suites the type of genre that I want to create as the informal language such as slang and explanation marks address the audience in a way that is more commonly used. <br />Layout of front cover: Some features from the layout of my magazine follow conventions such as the use of a sky line at the top of the magazine. This idea came from my research when Q magazine used a skyline to get the readers to read that part first before anything else. Magazine such as Vibe magazine put their mastheads at the top center of the page to make sure that it is looked at first. I placed my masthead at the top center of the magazine for the same reason. I also followed the same way that magazines show their content on the front cover, which is by having sell lines at both sides of the page to get the readers interested in the contents of the magazine. It is typically used by existing magazine products and is very effective when it comes to selling the product. I have used this in my product to get the same effect. I have challenged other magazine products by not making my image overlap the masthead. I noticed that in my research, images from magazines have overlapped to show some form of depth in the front cover. I did not choose to follow this as I wanted the audience to see my entire masthead and did not want it to be covered up by the image. I showed depth in another way by added shadows to text and to the main image. There is a lot more text that there is of images as I wanted to get more information about the contents of the magazine across to the readers so that they would want to read the magazine. I also wanted to focus on one image particular so that most of the focus was on that one image. In some ways existing magazines do focus on only one image but the image is a lot bigger than mine making the proportion of the image bigger than the text. <br />Contents page: I think that there are a lot of features from my contents page that follow conventions such as the layout of my text. I have done a straight column of the contents in my magazine with the numbers of the pages on the left of the text. I found out from my research that a lot of music magazines use this approach and like to separate the text from the image by putting it into a column. Most magazines also put their page number on the left of the text, such as Q and XXL magazine. I have also made a section where there is information of a subscription to the magazine and the ways to contact the magazine. This is a typical feature of a magazine product but is not always seen on the contents page. NRT magazine, however, has this section on their contents page, which is where I got the idea from. I did this because I thought it was the perfect space to have it, without using up a whole page in the magazine. Also I realised that the contents page is one of the pages that is looked at the most so it should get the attention of the readers. Some magazines have only one image on their contents page to get the focus on it. I have chosen to follow that idea and have one large image myself. A magazine that does this the most is XXL magazine. I have challenged the existing music magazines by the layout of my heading. I have places a large header saying “Contents” over the section of the contents on the right. This large header should make it stand out and attract the readers to it. I have then also added the masthead from the front cover in to the contents page in the top right. I did this to show the readers that it is a like a logo for the magazine that to should that I can keep the masthead consistent. The masthead from the front cover was made much smaller so that is doesn’t get all of the attention on it. The proportion of the text is also much larger than the images as I wanted to cram as much contents into the contents page as it could so that it would attract the audience. From my research I can see that some magazines would follow this while others would challenge this. Billboard magazines have more text that images while Blender magazines have a large image that is in bigger proportion to the text.<br />Double page spread: In my double page spread, I think that I have challenged convention due to the layout being very different to all existing magazines I have looked at in my research. I have a large image covering up most of the two pages with text on top of it. I have not seen this in my research but I think that it is a good idea to do. I did this because I wanted the readers to see the full image and I thought that the background was very bright and may stand out to the audience if they were to flick through the pages. The problem that I could have had, which is why some magazines probably won’t follow this idea, is that it was hard to see the text at first due to the busy background but when I edited the image to make it have les detail, the text stood out more. Another feature where I have challenged the conventions is with the heading. My heading is located at the bottom of the page, where it is very large and bold. I have not seen this in a magazine from my research and think that is makes the page very unique. I have put my article into columns to make it easier for the audience to read plus it splits up the text a bit to make the readers want to read it. This would be one feature where I have followed conventions as I think that it makes the page look much neater. A magazine that splits their text into columns is Vibe magazine.<br />Conclusion: I think that I have followed conventions because I think that the way magazine present different features of the magazine are very effective and I think they are there with a purpose. I think that I am their target audience and if it appeals to me that I should do the same in my magazine so that it appeals to my target audience, which in this case are aimed at around the same people. I also want my magazine to live up to audiences expectations of magazines and want them to feel familiar with magazine products such as mine. I also think that in some ways I have challenged conventions as there are some features in my magazine which I have done to make my magazine stand out from existing magazines. I feel that I want my magazine to be a bit different so that by challenging conventions I will have a different product that may appeal to my audience. <br />