Draft Evaluation 1

 EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

Name of the magazine

The title of ‘AURA’ is very different and compared to other music magazine names already on the market which are less memorable and creative, such 'Sounds' and 'Melody Maker.' This is because ‘AURA’ is more creative and unique like other titles on the market that are more memorable like 'Clash' and 'Mojo.' However, the meaning of 'AURA' is a distinctive atmosphere or mood that is generated from a person, thing or music so this means it is not a title purely related to music like 'Clash', 'Mojo’ and ‘Kerrange’ as well as such 'Sounds' and 'Melody Maker. So this means I have developed this form of convention of having a music magazine title purely related to music as an aura can be created from anything with a sound. The font I used for my masthead of ‘AURA’ challenges the norms for music magazine titles, as usually and commonly the font for magazine names are very basic and block like which ‘AURA’ is the opposite as the lines for it are very thin and straight with adds an artistic element to the masthead which fits in with my magazines art inspired design.

Graphology/page layouts

The layout of my magazine is very different and unique compared to other magazines on the market, my magazine is very art inspired in terms of the design of it such as the backgrounds and colours I have used are very creative and innovated. For the design of ‘AURA’ I have used very textured and coloured backgrounds with simplistic text over the top for every page of my magazine. The background images are very creative as they are unusual textures and colours which adds an artistic design to my magazine as a whole. This makes my magazine stand out and different as other music magazines already on the market have very basic and monochrome designs so my magazine challenges this form of convention as my magazine isn’t in a simple design style like other existing magazines are. This attracts the audience’s attention as ‘AURA’ would be very colourful as well as having creative textured backgrounds so my magazine would stand out more than existing magazines on a magazine stand.  

Iconography used to reflect genre

My magazine uses a form of convention successfully as the styling and costumes of the artists and bands in my magazine attract and appeal to my target audience. The target audience for ‘AURA’ are males and females in the age range 16-25 who like ready about and listening to indie rock/pop music. Stereotypically people who listen these genera are fond of or have adapted the ‘indie’ style of clothing to their everyday style choices. Stereotypically the males and females who are fond of this style would wear ripped or destressed jeans, leather jackets, Doc Martins, studded embellishments, dark colours, band merchandise and anything with creative and different patterns and textures. I know this style very well as myself and my friends wear this style of clothing and are a part of this social and fashion style group. I dressed all my musicians for my magazine in this style of clothing with a number of these fashion items so this appealed to my target audience as they could relate to owning these clothing items and it also made it clear what style of music my magazine is about as the ‘indie’ style of dress is extremely recognisable and associated to indie rock/pop music. This means I successfully used the convention of dressing the musicians in the style of clothing that relates the most to the music genera of my magazine as the target audience for a magazine would be more attracted to the magazine that displays their style of clothing as well as their style of music. The styling of my musicians also make it clear what music genera the magazine is without the audience knowing what it is about straight away.

 Camerawork and framing of images

I challenged real magazine conventions as commonly on real magazines in the music market, the framing of the images is either median close-up or a median shot, I challenged this as I took a greater variety of shot types and angles which includes, median shot, medium close up, long shot, very long shot, big close-up with a tilted angle, two-shot and a median side-angle long shot. This was successful as the framing looked very stylised and artistic compared to other magazines on the market so this makes my magazine stand out. It also adds to the artistic design of ‘AURA.’

Font and style of text within magazine

I used the convention of having text in block like styled paragraphs effectively for my contents page and my double page spread as it makes the text easier on the eye and easier to read as it looks neater and clearer on the page. However, I have developed this convention for my contents page for the interview as I used a separate paragraph for each question with the question title on the top row of each paragraph. This is effective as it clearly makes the reader see the different questions on the page so it is easier to read and follow. The coloured and textured background also contrasts against the minimalistic text style so this adds a design element to the page.

Genre and how the magazine as a whole suggests it

‘Aura’ follows the convention of using styling of the indie rock/pop genera within photos in my magazine however it challenges the convention of how my magazine presents the genera in the layout of my magazine as the layout and design I have used is very artistic and different compared to what is already on the market in terms of a music magazine. However, the artistic design and colours of the backgrounds and images throughout ‘AURA’ still appeals to my target audience as stereotypically people who like the ‘indie’ style and indie rock/pop music, also have a taste for design and anything that is unique and doesn’t conform to the norms. So, this means it appeals to the audience as they would appreciate that ‘AURA’