Evaluation, question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

By the use of conventional elements of my magazine (outlined in text below) i have allowed my magazine to have fluent continuity. 


























For my Front cover I have used similar conventions as to Q magazine for example, the plug splash in the bottom right of Q magazine is advertising an article inside, I on the other hand have used the top of the page for this and placed the slogan on the T of my mast head. I did this so that my magazine would have its elements in a conventional place but slightly different to original magazines. 

I have used white text for my main cover line like Q magazine as i like their use of house style colours as they are bright, stand out to me as i'm consumer of this magazine and looks professional. Q magazine have used red text to separate different cover lines when I on the other hand have used red lines. This is keeping my use of house style present in my work. Another conventional aspect to my front cover is the footer bar as it is playing a similar role to my header bar but just stating what other bands are featured in my magazine - looks better than another cover line. When creating this product i thought of how to draw attention to my audience  with just a quick glimpse of the cover. I decided to edit logos of bands and put them into my product. As with all magazine, they have a bar code, usually in the bottom right of the cover, so i placed mine along with my price in pounds and euros and issue number. 
When i was planning my front cover image, i wanted to use mise-en-scene to elaborate the house style colours; i used red lighting to match the mast head of my magazine. I decided to do this as i was inspired by a photograph of artist Jay-Z in Q magazine photographed with the used of red lighting. 

I wanted to create a double paged contents page for my product as i am a big fan of Q magazine and i like the used of page numbers in the corner of different images. Like my example, i have included an issue number, date and title ("This month" for my contents and "contents" for Q magazine). Unlike the example, i have included my magazine name and mast head from my front cover and place it at the top left of the page in grey next to the title of my page"This month" in red to make it recognizable to my audience that this is my contents page and my magazine is published once a month. I wanted my photographs in my contents page to be different sizes to look quirky and look creative to my audience as i am aiming it at young students aged 15-24.

My double page spread took a while to create so that i was including conventions of a professional magazine. I have used the house style from my front cover, contents to my double page spread to make my magazine look professional. Like Q magazine, i have used a little logo next to my page number to establish a clear reminder to the audience of what magazine they are reading which is complimented by the use of red in the text and subject title of my double page spread. I thought if i used a symbolic photograph this will make the audience stop and read the article even if they were just 'flicking' through. The examples round my product have a strong photograph to draw in the audience to read their article so i took on that when researching into existing magazine's double page spreads. Like the examples of double page spreads, i have also placed my photograph on the left page unlike my drafts as i believe it challenged the conventions of professional magazine double page spreads as it is unlikely to come across a double page spread with the image on the right page.