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

The similarities and differences between these two front covers may or may not be difficult to notice at first glance. However, if you consider the conventions used and the way in which they are used, then you will notice they have more in common then it seems. I will go in to the details on the conventions used on each covers and how they are similar or different to see if my media product uses, develops or challenges the forms and conventions of real media like the example above.



Colour scheme
The colour scheme of my magazine is blue, white and light grey. These colours that I decided to use on my front cover were well considered before hand. I decided to use the colour grey, to reflect the contemporary feel of the artist and magazine. White was chosen for its simplicity, and blue was the colour that I thought would work the best on the cover because of its connection to independence, which has a clear link to the artist and magazine for they are independent. Whilst choosing colours with the positive connotations I had to put in to consideration whether they would work well together as a colour scheme, I was lucky to have found the perfect set of colours for this magazine. In terms of the conventions of colour in the R&B genre I see it tending to vary depending on the artist on the cover of the magazine. In the example, above, Chris Brown is portrayed as a gangster. The gold chains and the dress code is a clear indication of this. I feel that too many artists are told how to look and how to act when in front of the camera. I get that impression with a lot of the real media texts I have seen, as I see the colours used as a false representation of how the artist really is. I personally don't see Chris Brown as a thug or whatever he is represented as in this photograph, I see him as an R&B artist, who's reputation in the industry is huge, he deserves a bit more freedom to select his own range of clothing. I could understand if the artist dressed like a pop star but sang R&B as that would not be how the genre wants to represent itself but for someone that understands the connotations or actually dresses like they are supposed to then there is no need for a change of outfit.



Font
The font used on my magazine conforms to the conventions of the R&B genre as it is bold, modern and simple. You may have noticed that in the R&B genre it is conventional for media products to have an impact on the media products that they are printed on. This is done because the institution that owns the magazine wants to grab the readers attention, often with the main headline in very large sizes to convince the reader that this is a great magazine and it is worth reading because of these major headliners.



Mise en scene
The photograph I chose for the front cover of my magazine was selected specifically because, I knew it would fit not only the conventions of real media products, but the layout of the cover it self. I decided that my model would wear clothes that he would select himself but also clothing that reflected the artist and genre.

Conform	Challenge	Develop
The font style and size	Colour scheme	Location
Layout	Title (Part of layout)	A stronger urban aesthetic
Mise-en-scene	No use of direct address from image of model on my front cover	The portrayal of the artist by letting the model improvise with their chosen expressions.

I may have challenged the conventions of a real media R&B product quite a bit, but I don't regret it as I believe I have developed it in most areas of the page. I will analyse the differences below, by going through the conventions to see how mine challenges or develops the real media products.



Colour scheme
I have kept the house style of my media product the same throughout my media products as it is a convention to keep the colour scheme similar in a magazine. I have however, used different font styles and italics on my text, I will talk about this below.

Font
I have used a variety of fonts on the contents page to show variation of styles that suit the genre. However I might have made a mistake with the choice of font on the editors note but if I have time to fix that then I will.



Mise en scene and layout
The way in which the artist has been positioned was designed purely for the contents page I in visioned. I have used a long shot to show the artists full body as this is a convention for contents pages. An example of this can be seen on the example above.

Conventions that conform to my contents page	Challenge	Develop
The shot of my model	The layout and distribution of image and text	Font size and variation
Colour scheme	Reducing the font size for the feature stories	Layout
Mast head	Graphics like the tape on the side of the image	Addition of editor’s note

Colour scheme
Again I have used the same house style for this double page spread that I produced because it is conventional to use the same set of colours throughout the magazine.



Font
I have used different fonts for the quotes from my model to engage the reader and encourage them to have a look at the article about the main feature story.



Mise en scene
The artist is using direct address to appear more engaging to his audience so that they feel more inclined to find out who he is, and what he does. In terms of the costume I feel I could do more with it for this double page spread but I will only make changes if I can find the time to.