Creating my magazine front cover

Because I have already looked at Film magazine codes and conventions , I am now going to be doing a small bit of research to create my own, following the codes and convetions I have previously researched while also challenging them to create my own.

I will also show evidence to how I created my own film magazine cover.

HERE

My ideaMy first instinct when creating my own film magazine front cover was to look at existing covers for the films I’ve used as my inspiration.

Black Swan was featured on the front of the film magazine Little White Lies, where their covers are usually art interpretations of films and not official images. The Donnie Darko poster is a special from the film magazine Empire, which featured it in their ‘greatest movies of all time’ special edition covers. My other inspiration, The Machinist, never appeared on the front cover of film magazines, so Shutter Island, another psychological thriller, is my other inspiration as it was on the front of Total Film magazine.

Film magazinesEmpireEmpire is a UK published, monthly film magazine, which features news, reviews, on set interviews, features as well as a small section dedicated to TV, games and entertainment. The magazine cover almost always features big budget films and the main articles are mainstream films, but they do mention independent and art house films. It is the biggest selling film magazine in the UK

Total FilmTotal Film is another UK magazine, published every 4 weeks (13 editions a year) and is the secondbiggest selling film magazine in the UK. The magazine features film, DVD, blu ray reviews as wellnews and features.

Little White LiesLittle White Lies is a bi-monthly film magazine, which is independent andincludes reviews, news and film art in relation to film and cinema. WhileTotal Film and Empire are sold outside the UK, Little White Lies is onlysold in the UK. It focuses mostly on art house films, however most frontcovers and main reviews are for the more mainstream, prestigious films.

Sight & SoundSight & Sound is published by the British Film Institution (BFI) and has been sold since 1934. The magazine focuses on reviewing all released films, include art house films which have a limited release. The magazine is quite prestigious and they feature a top 10 Best Film List every 12 years, where critics and film directors (such as Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese) vote for the best film.

Creating my own film magazineI need an eye catching and film related title for my magazine if it is to capture the eyes of film fans.

I could go two ways about creating a film magazine title. I could have a two or three worded title like Total Film or Little White Lies or one word that stands out like Empire.

I like the idea of having something to do with the production of film such as Celluloid, film reel, multiplex, cinema, cine, talkie, etc…

Out of these words, my favourites that stand out for me are Talkie, Celluloid and Cinema.

When films moved from the silent era to sound in 1920s, they were known as The Talkies, talking picture with synchronised sound.

Celluloid is transparent flammable plastic made in sheets from camphor and nitrocellulose, formerly used for cinematographic film. (Google definition)

The cinema is where films are distributed to and shown.

I am going to stick with my favourite of The Talkies and work on this as a title.

The Talkie Talkie Talkies

Out of the different variations of the word, my favourite is Talkies.

TALKIESTALKIES

TALKIESTALKIES

FontsI wanted a font that was similar to other film magazines, so that is it readable, simple and quite bold to be easily recognised as the magazine titled.

Basic Sans Heavy SF

Estelle Black SF

Arial Black Georgia

I asked 10 different people from school, 5 teachers 5 students which font they thought worked best for a film magazine title and logo.

Despite Basic Sans winning the very close vote, my favourite is Estella Black SF because I like how the tall letters (T-l-k and even the i) are very long and the smaller letters (a-e-s) are half the size. It’s also very neat, readable and bold.

Basic Sans Heavy 4

Estelle Black 3

Arial Black 3

Georgia 1

I put the text behind my image layer so that it is part of the magazine with the image over it. This follows the magazine codes and conventions.

Obviously I had to put the rest of my text over the top layer or else audiences would not be able to see the text

ImagesIn my research of magazine covers, I found that film magazines and entertainment magazines that feature film’s on their covers either have the actor as the character for the said film or as an themselves but still promoting the film.

HERE

In character The majority of covers with the actor on front are mainstream, recognisable films because people are able to identify the characters as the film’s generate a lot of publicity before the film is actually released. Even if people are not able to straight away connect the character to the film, then the character’s are usually played by famous actors or have distinguishing features to lead them to find out more about the film.

Out of character/as themselves

Whereas small art house films or indie flicks have the actor on front (if the actor is very famous) or the director, producer, composer, etc...because usually they are very famous for their style of filming. The examples on the left are both of famous directors. The top shows the director having his makeup done (like actors do) and the bottom cover is in the style of the director’s films.

Because my film is not a mainstream film, I am going to have my magazine front cover as the actress from the film as her self, not her character.

ImagesHere are a selection of some of the different images I took for my magazine front cover photoshoot.

This is the image I liked most and wanted to use for my film magazine cover.

Feature stories

Titles to features in the magazine followed by a small heading to what the feature is about

Here are just recognisable names that have either big or small features in the magazine

A big header for a tribute to a big name who recently died. Because of the big header, there will be a big feature. Here is one feature title,

followed by a brief description to what it is (photo gallery) with recognisable names of people who feature.

A small button at the bottom of the page to show a feature for this magazine.

In relation to the film cover’s film and theme, the headlines surrounding the image fit the theme by being slanted and at a different angle. The stories have headings of the film followed by a brief summary and teaser for the feature.

There are different headings and small buttons around the cover to show what features are in the magazine. This one has a small image to tease.

At the bottom there are a few bullet points to describe what other features and stories are in the magazine.

My Feature storyFor my own feature, I needed a story to link with my main film.

The headline will be my film’s title, because I think the film’s titled accurately describes, or at least hints to, what the main story is about while also grabbing people’s attentions because of the connotations of ‘Masked’.

The info for my magazine had to be short, but detailed enough so that people would want to buy the magazine.

MASKED

Louise Bedford’s past comes back to haunt her in Nadine Shambrook’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Novel

I used the actor and director’s name, because the interview and feature inside will look at them as people, not as characters. I also showed that the film is an adaptation of a book by famous author Stephen King. Even though it is not true, for a film magazine it looks absorbing for audiences who like Stephen King books and films.

My other featuresFor my film magazine cover, I am only going to feature two parts of the magazine with extra features. One bullet list at the bottom as well as an article tease on the side of the image. Eg.

I’m going to have the side feature be about a new film and an exclusive chat with the director

My bullet list is going to feature names of new films and recognisable names, to attract people to the bullet list of headers however it will not provide details to the film’s they are about.

TARANTINO EXCLUSIVEIs the director’s new movie set in space?!

PLUS-Jennifer Lawrence talks animation -Avatar 6 latest -Justice League review -Brad Bird’s new flick-Affleck and Damon reunion -Countdown to The Hobbit: There and Back Again

Extras

Magazine date and price

Barcode,Date,Volume number, issue number and price. BFI logo as magazine made by BFI.

Barcode

My ExtrasExtras are pretty simple.

I will need a barcode so that stores can scan it

I will have an issue number and provide the date of the magazine, so people who collect the magazines can keep a record and people known when the magazine was made and therefore the contents are relevant to that date.

http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php

June 2014£3

Making my barcode:

My month and price: