Evaluation Draft: Task 1

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

The genre of music I decided on was 'punk rock', and so I made my cover, contents page and double page spread look messy by scribbling words and making the images look like they had been cut out and stuck on, so as to get the point across that punk is about doing what you want and how you want to do it, and that it doesn't have to be perfect. By doing this, I tried to convey the cheap style of an 80s punk fanzine, although the fact that I used Photoshop and made it into a full blown magazine suggests that my creation would convey a slightly higher prestige than previous works sold for 20-30p, whilst still attracting those who are familiar with punk fanzines and like what they stand for.
The title of my magazine was inspired by Green Day's song 'Jaded' from the punk rock album 'American Idiot', as this band fit the chosen genre I wanted to focus on; the meaning of the word being 'dulled or satiated/worn out or wearied', also indicating to my target audience what kind of attitude my magazine would have. This fits in with the 'worn out' and scruffy style I have created, whilst making the point that my magazine would be refreshing to an audience who felt like this. I liked this name because it was short and catchy whilst conveying a kind of message summing up the theme of my magazine. I researched into the style of punk fanzines from the 80s as I was interested in punk music but unaware of how to create a magazine which fulfilled this style, and found some amazing zines such as 'Ripped & Torn' and 'Chainsaw' which I have based my ideas on, and I think that my title certainly conforms to this style. When compared to current magazines, however, I think the title of my magazine challenges conventions, mainly, as most 'successful' and mainstream magazines fall under the genre of pop or indie music, and so have titles such as 'NME', 'Q', 'Vibe', 'Smash Hits', etc.

The graphology of my magazine is also similar to those of 80s punk fanzines, particularly Sniffin' Glue with regards to the cover, in that I have drawn squiggly boxes and written headlines almost everywhere - this challenges conventions of traditional and current magazines, once again, as I ignored the golden rule concept and abandoned the rule of three, as my magazine was supposed to convey a 'punk' theme, which connotes that things can be done however you want them to.
The costumes I asked my models to wear were not specifically planned, in effect, as I told them to dress 'punk' and then came in their ordinary, every day clothes, as the people I asked already conveyed the kind of 'unkempt' and 'ratty' style I was going for, and so came to photoshoots dressed in scruffy jeans and hoodies, of both bright and dark colours, so as to match the punk look. I issued them to bring instruments, as my magazine was strictly going to feature bands, and so the instruments were as vital to the images as the models were.
First of all, I decided to take pictures in front of a graffitied wall, as I thought this would portray the certain 'hardcore' rock image I was going for, however when it came to editing, these images were hard to cut around, and due to it being winter, the weather was not always ideal to work with, and so I decided to use the AV studio for my next few photoshoots, and placed my models in front of a plain backdrop and used proper lighting instead. The fanzines I had looked at later on were very plain anyway (see image below), and so I knew this would work and decided to use this in my own product, although two of the cover images are from my first shoot and do contain a slight glimpse of the outdoor backdrop, which makes the cover seem a little more thought out than the rest of my magazine.

I decided to use the Bamboo Pen tablet when constructing my piece, so as to convey the handmade punk style fanzines once again, as the people creating these pieces in the 80s would have written on their zines by hand or used a cut and stick method and taken words or letters from other magazines to create something new, rather than using a computer/keyboard and different fonts to type headlines etc. Fanzines such as Sniffin' Glue seemed to type articles out, however, using a typewriter, so as to conform to a newspaper style, and so I developed this idea by typing my article in a typewriter font I had found on dafont.com.
My artists are represented as bold and 'hard looking', as I edited the photos I took and made them very dark, and some of the poses used are very strong. However, some of the poses used are that of a more 'fun' vibe, linking into the meaning behind punk, 'We just wanna do what we want'.
The colour scheme I used was primarily black and white, which is conventional of punk fanzines, although maybe challenges exisiting products. I added a green tint to the images on the front cover, however, to make it look grungey, so as to attract the eye and appeal more to my target audience. Although my magazine is meant to be of a higher prestige than that of a fanzine, the idea was to make the inside pages black and white, so as to convey the idea that colour ink was too expensive for the rest of the magazine, or that colour just didn't matter once the reader was hooked, and so things were done in a more dishevelled way inside, once the audience had been attracted to the front cover.