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

Magazine Title
I titled my magazine HAVOC as it can be interpreted in many different ways, which allow the audiences to create their own connotations for the word and relate the word to the Indie/Alternative genre. The word HAVOC develops conventions seen in pre-existing music magazines such as CLASH as both titles use fonts that are in block capitals and consist of five letters, which will therefore stand out clearly on a magazine shelf. However, the placement of the title at the top of the magazine differs from CLASH and is based more around the conventions used in magazines such as NME and Q. I believe this title placement in the top left hand corner works well as there the artists on the cover can be seen in full and the target audience can relate to clothing and other elements of mise en scene presented on the front cover, which will draw them into making a purchase of the magazine.

I have tried to develop conventions seen in both of these pre-existing music magazines in my final piece by using a bold, clear font with the use of block capitals. I have also developed the convention of placing the title in the top left hand corner of the front cover but I as my title is longer than the three letters of NME it stretches out further over the top of the front cover. I would consider my title to be a mixture of both CLASH and NME in terms of font style, font size and positioning.

Graphology/Page Layout
My aim was to keep the layout of my magazine relatively simple with only a couple of cover lines and then maintain this layout throughout all pages to create a consistent house style that will be easily recognised as pages from Havoc magazine due to its easily distinguishable colour scheme and fonts. I have attempted to follow and develop conventions found in existing music magazine in my final piece to try and achieve a professional looking end product that looks realistic. I aimed to follow the convention of placing the majority of the cover lines on the left hand side of the front cover so they consume the majority of the left third whilst the image takes up the majority of the centre and right third. In my research and planning stage, when researching and analysing front covers of music magazines, I noticed this to be a common but effective technique adopted frequently by many music magazines such as the likes of NME, Clash, Complex and Vibe. I found this convention to be more aesthetically pleasing than placing cover lines over the images as I believe that the image should not be covered as the audience should be able to see the image fully in order to appreciate it fully.

Furthermore, I also adopted the convention of placing several names of bands that are featured inside of the magazine across the bottom of the front cover. This can be seen in magazines such as NME and Q. I decided to develop this convention as it does not take up a lot of room on the front cover but can attract people into purchasing the magazine if they see a band that they like within the bands mentioned. This is likely to be the case for members of the target audience for see the bands mentioned as the bands are all from the genre that they enjoy the most and listen to most frequently.

Placing the date and price of the magazine just above the first letter of the title was a convention I learnt through evaluating NME covers. I adopted this convention in my final product as the information (date and price) is vital for the magazine and this is a convenient place to put them where it can be seen easily by the customer when holding the magazine but does not divert attention away from the main aspect of the front cover. I also developed conventions in order to create my double page spread and make the pages look professional, well laid out and structured. The convention I followed the convention of using a drop capital to start the article. This convention is very common and is used throughout many magazines, as it is so effective.

Costumes/Props/Iconography used to represent genre

I styled my models to represent and suit the genre I chose for my magazine (Indie//Alternative) by using button up shirts and skinny jeans, which are very common amongst bands in the Indie/Alternative genre. This shows that the artists are conforming to the stereotypes of the Indie/Alternative genre and are being represented correctly. The target audience would then relate to the band and artists as they are wearing similar clothes to what they would wear which would further persuade them to buy the magazine. I also made sure that one of my models was wearing a festival band, which was visible on the photos taken. This would also let the audience relate the artists further and make it seem like the artists are down to earth and normal people who have similar interests to the target audience.

Camera Work and Framing

For my final pictures, I used a selection of both mid and long shots, which together, allowed the audience to see the entire outfits of the artists to show how they represent the genre of Indie/Alternative through their clothing. (e.g. button up shirts and skinny jeans) Mid shots are conventional in music magazines and can be found in practically every magazine that exists today. However, long shots are not as conventional as mid shots and by using a long shot on both my double page spread and subscribers cover I have not conformed to the biggest convention and have made my magazine slightly less conventional.

Font Styles
The fonts used throughout a magazine are arguably the most import thing aesthetically so it is important that I chose the right fonts for all sections of my magazine. The most important thing I considered when choosing my fonts was whether or not they are suited to the genre of my magazine and if they would be appealing to my target audience. In particular, the fonts on the front cover have to be especially appropriate as this what is seen first so the fonts chosen must be unique, distinctive and aesthetically pleasing whilst remaining conventional. The font I chose for the masthead of my magazine was a display font oppose to a body font, as display fonts are designed to be glanced at quickly and not read at length, whilst body fonts are the opposite. I did not use an overly decorative font as I wanted to keep my magazine fairly simplistic but I wanted the font to stand out from all the

other text on the page. I used a bold font with tight spacing between the letters and edges that aren't too straight and with slight curves. This font is called Coolvetica and I downloaded this from the DaFonts website. Furthermore, the fonts I used both on the contents page and double page spread were less unique and distinctive and were more practical with readability being the most important feature. If I had used a decorative font for the body of the text, the audience would struggle to read the text and their minds would start to focus more on the font than the actual text and the text would be overlooked. Therefore, for the main body of the text I used a standard, simple font so that the text in the magazine can be absorbed easily by the audience. As I was not overly impressed with the fonts available on Photoshop, I decided to research more into this on various websites and found a several downloadable fonts that such as Apple Garmond (the font I used for the article) but in particular I really liked the font for the masthead called "Coolvetica". This font was professionally designed from scratch and is a twist on the sans serif font Helvetica and is similar to fonts used throughout American chain stores in the 1970's. I like the font because of the slightly curved nature of it and also its tight spacing. I think this font will work really well as my masthead font.

How my magazine represents the Indie/Alternative genre

My magazine represents the Indie/Alternative genre in multiple different ways on all pages I have created. I have purposely included many features that the target audience will notice and then realise that the magazine is based around the Indie/Alternative genre. Firstly, the cover lines on the front cover will instantly inform the audience that the magazine is of the Indie/Alternative genre as the cover lines concern artists that fall into the Indie/Alternative genre so it is therefore obvious that the magazine is of this genre as well. Artists such as Foals, Passion Pit and The Maccabees are mentioned on the front cover in the form of cover lines and they all fall into the Indie/Alternative genre and will attract the target audience. The mise en scene I created throughout the pictures featured in my magazine also represents the Indie/Alternative genre with items such as button up shits, skinny jeans and festival bands. Furthermore, in my research and planning I have noticed that many members of bands tend to have facial hair. I have complied with this stereotype by using a model that has facial hair. This will therefore represent the Indie/Alternative genre.

Artist Representation
The artists I have used on both the front cover and double page spread (The Genesis) are represented as positive as they have succeeded in their dreams and became a reputable band. They could inspire new artists to continue in pursuing their musical careers as they have seen that success can be achieved. The style and clothing of the artists is vital for this genre as a lot of the genre is based around appearance and if the artists arent dressed appropriately, the audience will not think they fit the genre and will not want to read about them in the magazine and will therefore not purchase the magazine. It is for this reason why I did extensive research into artists of the genre and also the audience of the genre to be able to determine the trends with clothing in the Indie/Alternative genre.

Colour Scheme
I have developed the very conventional red/white/black colour scheme for my magazine and added a slight twist by changing the red within the colour scheme to a pastel blue. This gave the colour scheme a new edge and would make my magazine stand out from all of the conventional, commercial magazines with similar colour schemes. Whilst still complying with a conventional three colour palette, I have been slightly unconventional by using a pastel colour.