In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products

1) Masthead
For my masthead I used the font "quantum". I chose this font because I felt it was modern and interested and went well with the pop theme of my magazine. For the play button I used a seperate font called pointers, I felt this was a unique part of my masthead as it hadn't been done before. I stuck to bright, bold colours, using black and green for my title as I noticed these were the colours often used in other existing pop magazines. The type face of my masthead follows codes and conventions of some existing magazines. For example, it could be compared to the Blender masthead in that the font is bold and rounded with a modern feel:

And the Billboard magazine masthead in that it is black with hints of colour. The rounded, bold, modern font is also similar:

However, the masthead for my magazine does challenge the codes and conventions of magazines. I have used a play button to replace the "a" which magazines dont tend to do as they keep their masthead all one type face. However, I think this worked well because it was individual and made my magazine identifiable as a music magazine. It also fitted well with the name "play" for my magazine and in my opinion, made the magazine memorable.

2) Mise-en-scene of Images
I think the mis-en-scene of my images follow the codes and conventions of magazines. This is because the images used in other magazines tended to have a blank background to draw more attention to the artist. My images were very studio like, which potrays that the "artists" in my photos were professional. I also used a sunny scene in Italy for one of my contents page images, which gave a happy, fun, feel to the image, which fitted in well with the genre of my magazine. I had my models pose confidently, like they were enjoying themselves. This is portrayed by their mode of adress and they're looking directly at the camera in the images.

3)Costumes and props
The costumes and props used throughout Play are conventional and unconventional. I didn't use any props, which was unconventional as images in magazine do tend to use props. If I were to take my images again, I would have taken this in to consideration. My models were wearing casual yet fashionable clothing, which I think worked well with the genre and my mode of adress. However, the costumes could have been more interesting and given my artists a more fun and interesting image.

4)Models
The people used in my magazine are quite unconventional. This is because they are slightly younger then artists usually featured and not as extreme in the way they are dressed. The use of females was conventional, as a lot of female artists to tend to be placed in pop genre magazines. However, my magazine could be veiwed as biased as I didnt use any male models. If I were to make my magazine again, I would have definatley used some males to equal out the sexuality in my magazine.

5)Title font and style of double page spread
I decided to follow the codes and conventions of a blender double page spread I previosuly looked at for my double page spread:

I stuck magazine codes and conventions in that my quotes were very large to attract the audiences attention, but the title "sarah ashcroft" was much smaller, although is was highlighted in blue. This stuck to blender's codes and conventions, but perhpaps not other magazines. I used the same type face "quantum" for my title to keep a house style throughout my product.

6)Written Content
My magazine sticks to codes and conventions of music magazines by covering similar topics in the questions asked in the interview. For example I asked the artist about upcoming albums, gigs, parties and so on which are commonly found in existing music magazine interviews. The stand first also keeps to codes and conventions by introducing the artist at the beggining of the interview. I also included some artists that were supposed to be reccomended by the artist. I noticed that some other music magazines had done this and I felt it was a nice addition to the interview. The language I used was chatty and casual which I felt teenagers could relate to.

7)Music genre and how your magazine suggests it
The chosen music genre of my magazine was pop/mainstream music. I intended to aim my magazine at a variety of music that appeal commonly to teenagers. This is clear throughout my magazine because of the look of my models and the bright, modern style of my product. For example, I have used the colour scheme of black, pink, green with hints of blue which I found to commonly used in magazines of the same genre, such as Billboard and Blender. I also included the music charts in my contents page which clearly identifies my genre. This is also visible in my double page spread, where I have included my artists recomendations. Existing music magazines suggest their genre through colour scheme, images and featured artists meaning I therefore kept to magazine codes and conventions.

8)Layout
The layout of my magazine was quite conventional. My cover has a classic layout of the image taking up the entire page, the artist covering part of the title, the sell lines displayed around the edges and the masthead at the top. A conventional layout is also evident in my contents page, where I have the heading "contents" across the top and the page organised in to sections. My double page spread also sticks to magazine codes and conventions in that the interview is organised in to columns on one side, and the main image is on the other.

9)Contents Page
My contents page contains elements that follow the codes and conventions of existing music magazines. For example, it includes feature articles and some other main articles which I found existing magazines often did. I have also included an image from the main article paired with a quote and page number which attracts the reader. I have also included a subscription which is commonly used in music magazines. My contents page follows the codes and conventions mainly of the Billboard contents pages in the way it is laid out and how I have included the charts: