Magazine
- 2. EMPIRE In the magazine cover to the left, you can see EMPIRE is advertising a big hit JAMES BOND blockbuster. The layout of the cover shows a main image close up of the actor Daniel Craig posing in a way in which he is acting as his character ‘BOND’. His eyes are the central part to the image and they are squinting and staring uncomfortably down the lense, creating a theme of tension to make the audience feel threatened. Alongside this with the help of mise en scene, a prop of a gun is seen covering part of his face and although we can not see the whole prop in full, it helps connote a sense of action to the movie and build questions in the magazine reader’s mind. Also the idea he is hiding behind it and also how it looks like the character is hiding behind the title ‘EMPIRE’ as it is printed in front of the image, connotes the idea of ‘spies’ which is a key theme within the movie. The colour scheme in black and white which matches the film’s theme and comes across as very striking. This shows how EMPIRE adapt there cover to suit the genre of the film. The black background helps the actor Daniel Craig’s face stand out as the central image and helps draw in any of the actor’s fans, also this shows how they are trying to sell the film on him and the character a lone. There is not much text used on this magazine other than a catchy tag-line/ slogan ‘Bond is back!’. This makes the magazine cover hold an element of simplicity to it, it’s not revealing much. Alongside this some small print text is used but it’s hard to distinguish, indicating the important information is made in a bigger and bolder font for marketing purposes. The James Bond recognisable logo of ‘007’ is also used as iconography in between the ‘M’ of empire showing once again how the magazine adapts its layout and information given based upon the film. The logo is recognisable so this helps establish to the audience a new Bond film is being released. Nothing else is being advertised which helps draw the audience straight to the film without any distractions. This is similar in most other EMPIRE covers. The magazine cover to the left is of the same company but is a lot different from the James Bond one seen above. This magazine cover is very bright and bold in contrast to the one above, and uses a lot of bright colours such as orange, red and black to create a ‘fire’ look. This magazine actually includes a background which appears to be very busy and hectic showing a fire of some sort in the background which of course connotes the idea of action to an audience, this of course would interest the male dominant readers of EMPIRE’s audience. Also it makes an audience curious as to what is going on as no explanation is given. The central image however is an image of famous actor Will Smith whom is posing in a way his character would intentionally pose, in an action shot holding a prop of a gun. This shows how the magazine cover tends to capture the characters in action to help promote the film and make it look interesting rather than showing an actor as their normal self. It has the title of the film in very big font at the bottom as the cover line and includes a selling line and slogan of ‘Psychos. Killers. Freaks. Here to save the world’. This line gives a short insight into the film and makes it appear as interesting for audience members, determining whether they will continue reading about the film. It also includes a pug/articles trailed promoting what else the magazine contains. Other text used is the headline/strapline ‘MEET DEADSHOT’ this is shown in capital letters so it will stand out to an audience and help establish a connection with them. Short words and phrases tend to be used on this magazine cover to help grab an audience’s attention. The central character is also placed in front of the title making it look like he is coming after the audience, creating a threatening look. Once again EMPIRE is changing their layout Masthead Selling line/cover line Central imageIconography
- 3. TOTAL FILM On this total film cover to the left it initially appears to be filled with more information than EMPIRE magazine cover. Firstly it includes information about other films on the front cover rather than focusing on just the one, stating ‘plus iron man 2 transformers 3..’ at the bottom of the magazine cover. This loads the audience with a lot of new information making them want to find out more in the magazine if the central film didn’t already interest them. I feel this in terms of marketing can be bad as it can take away the attention from the main film being advertised as other things are being shown. This may be a reason as to why I might not use total film for my magazine cover. The masthead similar to the previous post is very striking and is the biggest title on the page. The text and font for the cover line however used is very bold and the font creates a ‘scary’ feel to it, different from the other fonts used helping it stand out. The cover has a theme of red re-occurring which helps it stand out to an audience. This shows how the magazine copies the theme of the film to help match the film’s genre, in this case being thriller. This is good in terms of making an audience aware of the genre of the film, bringing in any thriller-loving fans. As well as this the misty background used helps create a sense of mystery also helping establish the genre of the film, this is indicates the film is dark and the dark background also helps contrast with the red text, helping it stand out more. As well as this the magazine uses pronouns such as ‘lets’ in ‘lets take over the asylum!’ to engage with the audience and give a clue into what the movie is about, this acts as a selling line, it’s short sharp and grabs an audience’s attention. This magazine cover noticeably doesn’t use the actor’s name to sell the film as much as his name appears in a small font, so has a different marketing strategy than EMPIRE, although it seems to be selling the film at the mystery behind the main character who is the central image. Masthead Left third (where all the information is) Other information- articles trailed Selling Line Main cover line- re-occuring themes of red Main image Dateline
- 4. SIGHT AND SOUND The sight and sound magazine to the left seems to take upon a more simple look in terms of it’s magazine layout. The font is not very striking, it seems quite basic although it can be argued the colour pink associates with the film’s theme of sweets and chocolates. The title of the film is seen in really small font on this cover and is hardly noticeable which is unusual as usually it tends to be the cover line. This suggests that the magazine company are trying to pull the audience’s attention elsewhere, to the cover line instead. The masthead however is the most striking part, the bright colour of yellow makes it stand out and it has the biggest font, this is common in the other magazines. Because I found out in my research that sight and sound don’t tend to advertise big block-buster films, there films appear to a smaller audience, this may be bad in terms of marketing and trying to connect with an audience. The magazine cover also seems to be attempting on selling the film on it’s actor ‘JOHNNY DEPP’ due to the large headshot of him as the central image in character. The magazine cover doesn’t include much more information to the film which in my opinion makes the film come across as boring. There is no background only a plain colour of grey, which doesn’t helps us establish the theme of the film, the only thing that is interesting is the character’s choice of clothing, which may create some curiosity as it seems dated. Overall I think I wont be resulting in using this magazine’s cover design, the style is too bland for our thriller-romance film. Also similar to total film, the magazine cover focuses on other topics too which can be distracting for an audience. The other topics are just as big in font size as the title of the film, which I feel defeats the purpose of Main cover line/selling line Left third (where all the information is) Mast head Articles trailed Central image Cover lines