Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice?

Across AS and A2, I used my research and planning to analyse real media texts and establish current conventions. Within the two years I have made a music magazine, music video and ancillary products(Poster and Digipak.) From the comparison of established brands I was able to grasps key concepts and elements that were constant across these products of a similar genre, and this provided me with a base for my own work.

For the production of my AS Music magazine I learnt from my analysis, the integral features of magazines. To establish conventions I considered current magazines of the same genre to my own, music magazines of a rock base, and so analysed magazines like NME, Rolling Stone and Kerrang. Some of the conventions I found were; Similar modes of address, typically quite informal and speaking directly to the reader. I try to emulate this in my own work, by having a model on the cover I believe the target audience could relate to, as he was a young male in simple dark clothing, similar clothes the audience would wear. My model was looking directly at the camera in a confident manner. The aim of this was to reflect the bold and confident side to rock and directly attract buyers attention by addressing them directly. Other elements that continued with this bold and eye catching theme was the use of paint effect behind my cover lines, in keeping with a casual messy look and the striking purple colour scheme to represent individuality. I also kept any writing on my cover short and simple, with catchy lines such as 'Top 30 downloads.' My double page spread was laid out like an interview and was based on quotes of the feature band with slang and informal speech. The intent was for the audience to feel they gained a personal perspective and the article was tailored to a young modern reader.

Further conventions I noticed included a similar layout of elements on all the magazine covers, the presents of the golden spiral theory was apparent. Most magazines had their masthead at the top, cover titles down one side, a central title and lower banner. I used this convention on the cover of my magazine because it draws the readers eyes to the important aspects of the issue and once their attention is gained is also hopefully sustained, so they read all the cover and are convinced to purchase. Real media texts informed me greatly in my own creative ideas, as when it came to considering my choice of fonts there was an abundance of options. What I noticed across magazines of a rock genre, is their fonts tended to be unusual, messy and bold. Such as that of 'Kerrang' magazine that has an effect on its masthead almost like shattered glass. This encouraged me to explore in the selection of my own font and download one from DaFont.com after many considerations. My final font fitted with the messy bold design and appeared aged and weathered. I only used a range of three fonts on my cover so it did not appear too disjointed and lose its focused style. Most importantly the details on my cover needed to remain in keeping with conventions, so as to stand up against competition and appeal to my target audience. Kerrang and NME both have very busy covers that reflect the crazy side of rock and appeal to an audience who want lots of info quick and easily. Within my own work I still included cover lines, large title and banner, however kept my cover a little more simplistic, such as a 'Rolling stone.' Although conventions helped me understand how current magazines achieve success, this convention also changed my creative path, as I believed by keeping it slightly more simplistic it would stand apart from current brands.

By A2 I believe my creative abilities had developed and I was able to identify and replicate conventions far quicker and more precisely. Unlike AS, where I feel I attempted to manipulate the conventions to make them my own e.g. with a controversial colour scheme and simplistic look. Over the time I released the necessity of the conventions in establishing genre, and selling a product to an audience who expect a certain type of product. Therefore I tried to more accurately replicate the elements I identified. My competence with the media equipment also greatly improved with time, such as my abilities on Photoshop and photography skills. This increased capability allowed me to recreate the sleek professional style of real media texts, and the comparison to them encouraged me to improve my skills further, such as mastering editing tools on Photoshop (making photos sharper with filters and feather edges with the blur tool.) I created my poster and Digipak based on a pop genre featured around a solo female artist. Within real media texts I noticed that an artist will attempt to achieve continuity across all their products, so their appearance, brand and style is recognisable to the public. This inspired me to use the teddy bear within our video on my Digipak, as a means of creating links between the related elements. For my poster, some of the conventions I noticed on similar products to my own, was a more formal and less direct mode of address, with minimal text and an image that is more sophisticated. Within my own work I tried to achieve this by keeping text informative and to the lower half of the cover and in a simplistic font that connoted more maturity and importance. The font used for my artists name and album title was also intended to appear feminine and sleek, I achieved this with a slightly hand written looking font in a red colour. One convention on all of the posters I analysed was the use of portraying the album cover on the poster so it would be recognisable to an audience. Also the album covers of female solo artists tended to be close ups of their face alone, to form their image. I also used a close up on my album to highlight my artists beauty and youth, her pose is of her looking off to the side, to connote innocence and a shyness. This then formed my poster background. The purpose of an album poster is to promote the artists album, therefore analysis of real texts highlighted crucial conventions, such as the presence of the album name, reviews, a release date and website address. Adhering to this I included these on my own poster, even setting up a twitter account for my fake artist, and including her twitter name at the bottom of my poster. These conventions aided my practice by making my product more true to real life texts and not just creative pieces.

To conclude, the analysis of real media texts inspired me to create my own products by providing guidelines that focused my creation and formed a basis for the elements of my own work. From AS to A2 I gained increased understanding of what conventions were within real media texts and became better at re-creating them. Although all pieces of my work were original and contain my own creative ideas, conventions informed me of how to make creative products that look professional and wouldn't be out of place in the real world.