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

(i.e. of music magazines)

- Title/Masthead:
For the title font of my
magazine I didn’t
try and reproduce one that
already exists, I used my
imagination and
typed in words related to ‘music’ on www.dafont.com. I wanted to use a bold font so that it stood out on
the page, but I also didn’t want it to look boring so I settled for a block font made up of tiny squares. I
added an effect to the font on Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 it made the squares look slightly
embossed so they stood out more on the page.
The title ‘Unplugged’ appears on every page of my work; this represents the consistency of the theme of
my magazine. This is a convention I have copied from many existing magazines, they try to repeat the
magazine title on at least the contents page, this spreads awareness and advertises the name of the
magazine without the reader realising, and this is sometimes referred to as flash advertising.
I decided to use a brick design background from a photograph I had taken for my double page spread
images, this emphasises the slightly urban/country contrasting look that ‘indie/alternative’ has come
across. The coral brick colour causes the black studded title to stand out well against it, the highlights of
the studs are also noticeable which adds a twist to my title that I haven’t seen before in magazines.
The tag-line beneath the title says ‘your new reliable fresh music magazine’, this is simply stating that
it’s new to the market which could cause the audience to pick it up and take a look in a shop. The
colours blend in with the rest of the black and white writing across the front cover so that my theme ties
in.

- Page Layouts: I definitely took inspiration from this NYLON magazine below (left) for the layout of my
magazine, I like the central image with text around the sides of the page; I changed mine slightly though
as the writing is surrounded by black boxes which makes it stand out a lot more. Also I used three
people as my main feature rather than just one - this is only because my ‘band’ consists of three people.
I was originally going to have some brightly coloured writing across the middle of the images like the
NYLON magazine, but it didn’t look right across the image as the colours in it were already bright. The
colour scheme differs hugely from the NYLON existing magazine to my coursework magazine; I chose
to go with colours that fit the season to make the audience notice it more in a shop, however this could
have been a similar idea with the cover featuring Zooey Deschanel as the cool blues and whites look
like winter themed colours. However I specifically chose clothing and models with toning hair colours to
be used on the ‘Unplugged’ magazine cover, I think this worked well as the black and white text boxes
stand out compared to the
bold, bright colours used in
the imagery layout. This is
because I have arranged the
text boxes to be scattered
surrounding the photograph to
keep the attention focused on
the main feature of my
magazine.
- Costumes/Props: My
costumes were not inspired
 by any existing magazines, I simply asked the models to bring their own clothes so that we all looked
slightly different but in the same kind of style. As you can see in the cover image above, we all wore
tights but different tops so this made us all seem as if we have a different edge to each of our styles.
The clothes used are found among real bands in real magazines such as NME or Billboard; they are
casual rather than over-dressed or formal. The only props I used in my photos were a bench outside
and a bench sofa inside; other than that the photos were just taken around the garden and house land.
The costume and hair all linked into the colour scheme of corals and blues, although I used many
different tones of this.

The image above is an example of one of the shots I took on self-timer for my magazine, it shows
clearly the similarity yet differences within the fashion of my photo shoot. I decided to use a consistent
theme of a vintage/grunge look by firstly choosing a sleeveless denim jacket, checkered shirt and
vintage woolly jumper. I then paired each item with a different style of tights; fishnet, grey woollen tights
and black opaque. I think the costumes all work really well together and were well suited for the setting
of my photos as they were outside, around a house in the countryside.

- Camerawork/Image frames: To take my photos I used a Canon EOS 1000D SLR , the layout of my
photos were mainly spontaneous and I only particularly planned the cover photo as I wanted a group
shot all close together – this allowed me to cut around the image and make the background white.
I used different camera angles during my magazine photo shoot, I did a few close-ups but after
producing my draft magazine I decided I no longer wanted a close-up cover image. I took multiple mid
and long shots of photos however, this
meant the image of the band as a whole
could come across clearly to the
audience as it allowed them to see
their clothing, stance and attitude
through the photo. I didn’t do any
low angle shots as the clothing worn
for the shoot was not suitable for that
angle, but also I think a low angle
photo could make the band look as
if they are towering over the
audience reading the magazine, for
example this technique is used in this photo of an existing band, Foals:

I feel as though my photos should have been taken from an eye-level or slightly above; this was also
easier to set up as I used a tripod with self-timer for all of the group photos. I like the idea of this
Paramore (existing band) photograph and tried to take some inspiration from the angle and structure of
this image:
- Title, article, header, font, and style: This refers mostly to my double page spread, the layout was
divided between two pages but the theme and style meant they still link together and look like a pair.
The header is large as it needs to be the main focal point of the page, the article is all in a small font
except for various quotes around the page; the three columns on the right hand page at the top match
the three images below, this was done on purpose to allow the reader to know what is going on. I then
put a strip of six photos down the right hand side to show other clips from the photo shoot of the ‘band’.
My title ‘Unplugged’ was simply a word I thought of related to music, and because my magazine mostly
focuses on acoustic music, the sound would always been unplugged.

I made the decision to use different effects on the individual tag-lines of text because it makes them
 stand out a lot more on the page, for example I have given many pieces of writing a shadow or
embossed effect so it looks as though it stands out on the page. I used Photoshop to create these
effects, and I learnt this skill in school so it is something I have had experience of developing; the effects
of the font is definitely something I have improved on since my final draft, I have changed the style of
writing and layout since then to make my magazine have a slightly warmer vibe to it.

- Genre: My magazine shows the genre of ‘indie/alternative/acoustic’

firstly because of the style of clothes the ‘band’ are wearing, also the
name ‘Unplugged’ as previously explained shows that acoustic music is
unplugged. Another factor is that the pages mentioned with existing
artists are all of a similar genre and as people know about the existing
bands it is obvious what style of music it’s aimed at. The double page
spread talks about the genre in the article and the layout is spacious and
looks as if it’s designed for a folk/alternative/acoustic style of magazine
reader, you would not see a double page spread like that in a magazine
such as Vibe.
My genre can be called by different names; ‘indie’, ‘alternative’ or ‘folk’.
It ties in multiple types of music but is all within the same acoustic
heading, I decided to include the three genres because they all add a
different twist to my magazine. Unlike NME and Kerrang! Existing
magazines, I haven’t included a ‘rock’ music genre within my magazine,
this is because the acoustic idea suggests a calm, relaxed style of
music; from The XX to The Maccabees to Ellie Goulding to the powerful
voice of Jessie J, no matter what the band is the music is still strong and has ability to
make a statement.

- How the ‘band’ is represented: The band is portrayed through the cover image as being three girls who
are all quite close, this is read simply from the way they are standing. They are then perceived fully on
the double page spread as the two pages are devoted purely to their band, the article explains where
they came from, what they are interested in and some other facts and quotes mentioned by themselves
during an interview. I came up with the profiles of each band member by actually taking the persons’
real life and changing a few key points so they were all interested in music.
The genre of my band, as previously defined, is mentioned throughout the article and explains the
inspiration for the creation of the band. The conventions of the band that I have taken from other bands
was previously talked about on my blog including analysed existing artists’ work and existing magazine
covers featuring bands (these links can be found on my ‘links’ tab on the right hand side of my blog web
page). I looked into the style of Ellie Goulding, Laura Marling, Dum Dum Girls, Maccabees,
YeahYeahYeahs, Foals, The XX, Jessie J, Katy B, Marina Diamandis and many more well known
bands of the present day.
- Colour Scheme: The colours used on the front cover are mainly neutral apart from the image of the
band as they need to stand out on the page more than anything else. I chose for
the title and the boxes surrounding other text to be black to make them sharp and
appealing to the eye. On my contents page the colours are similar as this and the
cover must go together to some degree; the double page spread widens the colour
variety a little but still sticks to mainly dark writing and bright photographs. The
general overall colour palette would consist of black, brick (coral/orange), white and
blue; the colours all vary in brightness but all blend into these main colours.
I used www.colourlovers.com which I only came across once I had joined the AS
Media Studies course at Lutterworth, I like this website as it is simple to use and I
could pick exactly what colours I wanted to use through a scale of colour tones. My
colour research has been posted previously on my blog and I looked into many
different palette colours, however this was the colour selection that I settled on. I
posted this on my blog roughly a week before taking my final magazine photos so I
was prepared. The colours all contrast and compliment each other at the same
time; they all stand out brightly for the season as well which is exactly what I was looking for.

Jess Pardoe