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

To the left is a collage I have created using different elements of my own products. To the right is a collage I made using features from real magazines. I have done this so I can compare parts of my magazine with parts of real ones which I feel are a similar type of publication.

At the top of my collage is the masthead from the front cover of my music magazine. The masthead serves to let the reader know which magazine it is and it gives the reader a feeling of familiarity. Also it gives hints to what the magazine is about. My masthead differs from the masthead at the top of the other collage because it looks more feminine and stylised. I think this because of the colouring and because it isn’t as hard and metallic looking as the ‘Metal Hammer’ masthead. However the masthead from 'Metal Hammer' has rough edges and the word 'Metal' written in a kind of graffiti font which gives the impression it isn't mainstream because its rough and different. This is similar to my masthead because its messy and broken into pieces, which gives the idea the magazine isn't clean and boring but alternative and interesting.

The next picture down is in connection to costumes and props. Costumes and props are used to communicate to the audience straight away who the people are and what they are doing, so they then want to read any information that goes with the photograph. The props I have used for the image are fairly similar to those used in the image from the other collage with the exception that I didn’t just use guitars; I used a bass as well. Also in both collages the people are holding their instruments at almost exactly the same angle. This implies this is the standard way to pose with a guitar/bass because it looks like you're playing it and therefore straight away gives the impression to the people who don't know that you are the guitarist/bassist.

The costumes used in the two collages are quite different. The costumes I have used are much brighter and one of the t-shirts contains a band name. I had my band dress like this because I thought it would appeal more to females and suggest the musical genre my magazine focuses on. The costumes in the other collage are dark and uninteresting; I feel this is a trait of more manly magazines. However it could also be because in a lot of photo shoots the magazine don't get to decide how the band dress but I could so I was able to think about how they should look to give the right message.

The images to the right of these are article headlines from double page spreads. These are used to draw the audiences attention towards the content of the article and so hopefully they stop flicking through the magazine and read the pages. Although the one from the real magazine is more colourful than mine, I feel mine fits with the theme of my magazine much. I think because through use of language and the amp like texture it portrays the musical genres featured in my magazine. Also unlike the real magazine title mine looks quite rough which carries on the effect the masthead was trying to have of looking rough, alternative and interesting.

The images stretching across the page below this are to show the mise-en-scene of images. The mise-en-scene of images is very important because apart from titles images are one of the first things a person sees, so they need to be eye-catching. I have presented my three images fairly similarly to the ones from an actual magazine in that they both use overlapping and coloured borders. However the images from the real magazine are tilted at an angle which may have been a a good idea for me to use because it carries on the rough and messy feel. The photos also differ in the sense that mine aren't posed, they're photo's from an actual gig. Because of this the photographer from the real magazine was able to think about pose and setting and therefore how the photos would look together. Whilst I was unable to do this I still think my photos work well together.

The image under this to the far left represents insets of magazine covers on double page spreads. These are used on magazine contents pages to remind the audience which magazine they are reading. It also gives them a feeling of familiarity if it is a feature of every issue. Including thus shows that I have used a convention that is commonly used in other magazines, including music ones like ‘Kerrang’. This time I have tilted the image as I felt it carried the theme of looking rough and messy better than if I had put it on straight, this also would have looked more boring, which I didn't want.

To the right of this are pull quotes. Pull quotes are used to break up the main body of text and draw attention to something important or amusing. My pull quote is quite different to the other one because it is on white and uses more than one colour in the writing, which follows the magazines house style. Also I have used bold green lines around mine to make it stand out whereas the other one has used a full colour background which presumably made it stand out. I didn't want to use this technique because I felt it would be too much colour. The real example has also used the name of who said it, however I decided that as I was only interviewing one band at the time the reader would easily be able to read the article to see who said it.

Below this is an example of drop caps. Drop caps are used to catch the attention of the audience and show them where the article begins. It again also breaks up a block of text, even if it is just at the start. Mine is different to the real magazine example because it uses a serif font and isn’t as bold. However I feel this fits better with the font I used and as it is the same size it is just as likely to be seen by the reader. I have also kept my drop cap the same colour as the rest of the test whereas it is a different colour to the text of the real magazine example. I decided to keep mine the same colour because just above where the text starts is the standfirst and I made that a different colour instead.

To the right of this is a block of text from the double page spread. Blocks of text have to used sometimes because if not it wouldn't be possible to fit much writing on a page and the page would end up looking messy. Mine is black on white instead of white on black because this follows the style and house colours of the rest of the magazine. Also mine is organised into two narrower columns as oppose to one wider column. I prefer my approach because I think it looks more organised however to an extent the one wider column may be easier to read.

At the bottom of the collages are people featured on the front of magazines. People are used on the front of magazines because it not only catches the eye of the audience better than writing but it also enables them to realise who and what the magazine is about fairly quickly. The people from the example are in black and white, which differs from the people on my front cover as I have used colour and a high contrast. Also although there are the same amount of people the poses are very different. all of my people look very serious and are staring into the camera whereas with the real example only two of the people are looking into the camera and they're all laughing. I feel my photo engages the reader more because the whole band appear ti be looking at them.