In this evaluation of my final double page spread I will be answering the following questions:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Who would be the audience for your media product?
How did you attract address your audience?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?
This is my double page spread which features the indie rock band Trip Hazard- you can find them on http://www.myspace.com/
My article starts off in drop capitals, one of the common aspects of all magazine articles, not just music ones. This is so the reader is immediately drawn to the article and the lead paragraph, also a convention of music magazine articles. My article does not challenge this in any way, i feel as though it fits with the normal codes and conventions as i had wanted it to. I have chosen to compare it to the Q magazine double page spread of shakira. As you can see both the articles have a bold headline, mine is in yellow to co-ordinate with yellow the text whereas Q's is in white to match the white text, keeping to a main colour scheme, this is a common convention of music magazine's.
I have noticed that magazine's try not to use too much text and always display a clear picture, this is important to get across the clear anchorage between the text and the picture. My magazine has clear ideology and anchorage as the text discusses four famous teenagers and the picture of them performing live shows this. The same is true of the Q article, the image shows Shakira, the famous singer/artist working in a busy studio/office and the headline reads "danger shakira at work!" and the article also discusses her being hard at work, the image and the text must always co ordinate, so there is no confusion for the reader.
My headline saying "Trip Hazard"! differs to the layout on the Q double page spread as it is placed on the bottom, rather than on the top before the article, this challenges the conventions of music magazine's, as i wanted it to look different and appealing. My article includes a quote which is separate from the main text, this is placed in the gutters. As you can see Q magazine also does this so the article is more eye catching, this is a code and convention of modern music magazines. My article does still match the front cover as mention "Trip Hazard" on one of the puffs, most magazine's always mention the artist/band on the front cover before the article on the double page spread.
Obviously the most important convention is the centre image, mine is a long shot whereas the picture of Shakira is more of a medium close-up. I wanted this effect as so to include the image of the whole band, particularly the female singer as this can be linked to Laura Mulvey's theory of feminism, women are no longer subordinate to males, the female is the dominant lead singer, this shows how things have progressed in the media since the 1960's. I will discuss how i decided on this picture and how i took it later on in my blogging.
The text i have used is in the form of an interview, taking inspiration from articles such as the doves one, and Q magazine's article on Shakira. The interview starts of discussing the band "Trip Hazard", it is in an informal tone just like the articles in Q. The first lead paragraph introduces the band using words such as "one million pound record deal", this explains the fame they have gained and draws the reader in. The article then goes in to an interview, with me being the inerviewer. I use alliteration such as "softly smile" to portray the down to earth nature of the band. The band then get asked a number of questions, by me as the interviewer. This differs to the style of Q as the article is mostly written, with just a few quotes added in to personalise it. This is how magazine's differ in their styles. Mine takes the style of an interview form, i use colloqiual langauage such as "yeah", to give an informal tone. In the gutters between the text i have included two quotes from the band (as mentioned earlier), just as Q magazine does, to personalise the article, this is often a convention of articles, i chose the colour red as this connote "danger" and "warning" this could be portraying what they are saying is important and lair the audience into reading this, i also placed this in a circle to highlight this even more.
Obviously the most important convention is the centre image, mine is a long shot whereas the picture of Shakira is more of a medium close-up. I wanted this effect as so to include the image of the whole band, particularly the female singer as this can be linked to Laura Mulvey's theory of feminism, women are no longer subordinate to males, the female is the dominant lead singer, this shows how things have progressed in the media since the 1960's. I will discuss how i decided on this picture and how i took it later on in my blogging.
The text i have used is in the form of an interview, taking inspiration from articles such as the doves one, and Q magazine's article on Shakira. The interview starts of discussing the band "Trip Hazard", it is in an informal tone just like the articles in Q. The first lead paragraph introduces the band using words such as "one million pound record deal", this explains the fame they have gained and draws the reader in. The article then goes in to an interview, with me being the inerviewer. I use alliteration such as "softly smile" to portray the down to earth nature of the band. The band then get asked a number of questions, by me as the interviewer. This differs to the style of Q as the article is mostly written, with just a few quotes added in to personalise it. This is how magazine's differ in their styles. Mine takes the style of an interview form, i use colloqiual langauage such as "yeah", to give an informal tone. In the gutters between the text i have included two quotes from the band (as mentioned earlier), just as Q magazine does, to personalise the article, this is often a convention of articles, i chose the colour red as this connote "danger" and "warning" this could be portraying what they are saying is important and lair the audience into reading this, i also placed this in a circle to highlight this even more.
I have noticed how the style of language differs in different music magazine's the doves article uses much harder words such as "pound" whereas mine is more relaxed using words such as "softly smile" and "I and Paul had always dreamed of forming a successful band" this draws in the demographic which is mainly young people. Mine portrays the band as being just like typical teenagers. perhaps even representing teenagers. Whereas the doves article is more "hard" and "Manly", with the band being all male, representing that "rugid" look.
The magazine article I have produced requires no prior knowledge as i tell the audience who the band are and what the current situation is. However I suppose you could say this is true as prior knowledge of the artists is always needed as you would not really read about them if you were unaware of who they are, this is common for music magazine's and could be classed as a convention.
As mentioned earlier, this article and picture could be said to be representing teenagers as a whole, throughout the article they are friendly and lively and people may associate teenagers with this, which is a positive image which I feel is always best to get from an article. The colours used are bright and the title of the band is also in bright colours- I wanted this to represent that teenagers and young people have bright personalities and they should not always be compared to "thugs" as this is the image given to them by the media these days.This also represents indie bands/culture as the band performing are an indie band i used a lot of research about indie bands from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_rockIn the process of making my double page spread I have learnt how to actually make it on photoshop. I discovered that the page must be set to A3 landscape, so the full image and text can be seen, this can be chosen by using the settings at the top of the page and by changing the pixels. The text was easy to do as I just typed it into the text box and then chose the font I wanted, which was myraid pro, as I had previously used it on the front cover.
From my preliminary task i discovered the things i have talked about earlier. I will post another blog showing this.
The demographic here has to be indie/rock music lovers! the band is an indie/rock band and the article is an interview with them so it is aiming to mainly appeal to them, using all the conventions and techniques i have discussed, which you can also see i have used!!
The demographic here has to be indie/rock music lovers! the band is an indie/rock band and the article is an interview with them so it is aiming to mainly appeal to them, using all the conventions and techniques i have discussed, which you can also see i have used!!
I have placed pictures at the top of the article showing where i got my inspiration from for the article, hope you like them!!
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