In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

The Magazine

Eden Taylor

Typical Film Poster Conventions

As I am doing the front cover of a mainstream magazine, advertising my film as the main feature; I did some research into the main conventions of these and found out that they appear to be ; Main Title/Masthead of the magazine, tag lines, cover stories , actor’s/actress’s names, main image/ other images, issue numbers/date/barcode/price, a unique selling point, website and other promotional offers.

Research Into Existing Posters

Here is a few magazine covers that I researched into made by a variety of different companies that are advertising their magazines using the latest films released at the time. I have researched into the magazine cover designs of some of the main films company covers that had influence on much of my trailer work to see if they could also provide a good base to work upon and gather. These include that Empire, Total Film and of Entertainment Weekly!I used the idea of placing each magazine into Microsoft Publisher just like that of my poster research where I was able to create a thought process and an analysis of the posters in text boxes surround the poster. Using arrows you can also see exactly what I am discussing and where exactly it is on the magazine covers themselves. I will then try to explain my thoughts and the process of creating my own cover using these ideas influenced by my research.

Empire

Total Film

Entertainment Weekly

Starting My Poster and the Conventions I took from my

Research

Fonts to considerFor my inspiration when I comes to designing my font cover I felt that from my research I really felt that the ‘Entertainment weekly’ magazine stood out the most to me personally in the way that the cover was neatly presented with minimal but essential information presented to its audience and is very simplistic within its own style. I felt that the simplicity of it, including the neutral colours in contrast to the text really brought forward the importance of the coloured text and the especially the photography of the main actress in this case. In my design I felt that I could perhaps set my theme as if I were working for ‘Entertainment weekly’ and design another front cover with previous stars and films but with my film being the main focus of the cover and the ‘red carpet’ as it wereI wanted to try and mimic the idea of the title of the ‘Entertainment weekly’ as to keep it as close to the real thing as possible so I suck to simplistic and bold block writing where it needed to be thick enough for the weekly to be able to fit within the lettering. Her are just a few styles that I have tried out to gain a look into just how close I could get the title to be to the real thing.

Masthead Problem?After trying out different styles of fonts the overall thickness of the font just wouldn’t allow me enough room to incorporate the idea of adding the ‘weekly’ with the lettering of the ‘Entertainment’ title. This was one of the main features that stood out for me within this magazine from the others as I felt the title was simplistic, yet definitely memorable in the way the titles merge together and are seen written within one another, so I had to find a way of working around this problem.Problem Solved?This is where I then got some advice by a fellow class mate that I could simply Google the magazines title by itself and take it into Photoshop where I could then use the magic want tool to delete the background just leaving me the font to work with and manipulate. This seemed to really do the job as I could then edit and transform my font into any size format I wished to fit the header of my magazine.

Background IdeasAfter looking at how simplistic the backgrounds of the magazines in my research appeared to be seemed within this magazine style I felt that this was perhaps why I felt it worked so well as it allowed it audience to focus on the main information and photography of the cover rather than being distracted by fancy background images, colours or even patterns. This is why I have decided to stick to this idea and have come up with a few ideas of an off white suggestion as well as white as I still want my cover to work together rather than appear on top of a blank canvas but at the same time I didn’t want bold dramatic colours like within my trailer as I thought about my progress and felt that I could incorporate this idea within the colouring of my text to show the importance of some text and titles than other and also try to capture the idea that I found from many of the research on the covers have done by colour co-ordinating the text with the main headings or photography to suggest a connection.

Main Cover Story My title ‘THE DWEEB’ is used as the main feature heading and made it slightly large in font size and red to emphasise its importance to my viewers. My chosen slogan is ‘SCHOOLS OUT THIS SUMMER’ as I felt that this summed up my trailer at its best in what I wished to give away to my audience. This was also suggest and supported through the song choice ‘Alice Cooper- Schools out for summer’ which emphasises the idea of an end of a school year and the mayhem that will follow. This also follows nicely and ties in with what I used in both my poster design and trailer as I decided that the best time to choose a release date for my trailer would be during the school summer period where most teenagers and students are out of school and will spend their money at the cinema in groups of friends of even as a family. This slogan only enhances the idea of the genre, storyline, target audience and the release date all in one as well as simply catching my viewer’s eyes. The slogan is very simple, short but catchy and I think ties everything nicely together and sums up all three of my designs together.

Main Cover Story Here you can also see that I have experimented within using my Title of the film itself that I produced for my poster design, this was try and see if I could relate both the poster and magazine design together in a more obvious way for my audience to see this relation between the two. I also felt that this would show a connection to that of my Trailer itself as it appears within my ending sequence, therefore my audience would initially recognise the ‘logo’ and graphic style of font and instantly be brought back the vision of the trailer.I also noticed that the red within the ‘Dweeb’ would again fit within the colour combination and theme that I have decided to go within, therefore showing this relation from the title to the other connected text. Although the font appeared to work well within the trailer and the poster, within this space the font appeared to small and drowned out the title compare to the space that I was able to bring the font to it largest on the poster. This is where I decided that I should stick to the simplistic yet bold and large font previously experimented with and discussed.

One of the Main Cover Stories Extended

You can see that I started to experiment with adding text layers and also including this idea of colour combinations that will work around the cover to direct my audience to certain aspects and main headings but at the same time can also show a relation from one text to the other. This is where I thought carefully about this idea and what colour text to use against a bold and pretty standard font. I decided to try and tie both my trailer and poster to this magazine and discovered that I have incorporated the idea of red and associated red to my film as a main colour theme that my audience would directly associate this theme to my film within my trailer. I also felt that the red works nicely within the idea of exaggerating the importance of the MTV movie awards on the RED carpet would also work as the colour red would be shown in red. I decided to use the idea of a red carpet base topic as right now in present time the MTV movie awards Oscars are particularly front page new at the moment for my audience and appears to be very popular and splashed across all the main headlines of newspapers and magazine. So I felt that I would tie in with current events happening around us in the real word

Film Strip- Introducing other Cover Stories and Photographs

I felt that the use of a film strip gives my magazine that younger vibe and feel suggesting that this magazine is targeted towards my younger generation of audience just like trailer as well as exaggerating that this is a film magazine. Looking at some of the designs within my research into magazines that are already available out there I found one in particular ( the second Empire Magazine cover advertising Iron Man) plays on the idea of advertising different films that are also on release around the same time. To show this connection to theirs, along the bottom is a sort of strip being processed across the bottom. This is where I adopted this idea and made it my own by simply using the space and idea of the film strip of using the individual square spacing to advertise some of the other trailers that I felt related to my own work and supported my outcome result such as animated comedies such as Juno which is my main focus and inspiration. My next stage would be to try and include some of these feature trailers and to add some more text and photography to my poster

My Experiment

My Research- Empire Magazine

Film Strip- Introducing other Cover Stories and Photographs

I added some photography into my magazine that included and supported my idea of an animated comedy. I felt that the best way to do so would be into include some already existing trailers that I felt influenced me the most throughout my design stages and research and planning. These included such films as JUNO, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Avatar. I then also included some snappy and attractive slogans for each film that would be catchy and stick with my audience and also sums up that particular film and their progress within one line such as ‘Dairy of a Wimpy Kid- the ultimate survival guide’ as the films appears to be about a young boy starting in a fresh new school and just trying to fit in and it is narrated through the idea of a diary by himself so he is basically suggesting to his audience some of the techniques in surviving his first school year. I also placed the film title alongside with its slogan to suggest the relevance and connection between the two which I also found appeared in my research of Empire Magazine. I also decided that the title for each film should also be placed in my chosen colour theme of red as it also suggests this link between my animation and others of the similar genres and designs.

Film Strip- Introducing other Cover Stories and Photographs

The first experiment was the idea of making ‘Lewis Murphy’ also another main feature and cover story which was suggested by that of the ‘Entertainment Weekly Magazine’. This emphasises that he is the new and exciting main character and actor in my trailer and I felt that I could perhaps emphasise this by giving him his own space and feature behind the set of my trailer. This only entices my audience to want to read more and to feel involved backstage and getting all the inside knowledge into the latest craze of film. I also decided to use this technique to show that I have a characters within my film, as by simply watching the trailer or looking at the poster this idea of animation does give much away to my audience in the sense of a stereotypical and conventional narrative appearing as well as showing actors and real footage. This gave me the chance to show my audience that there are actors and voices behind the story and the animation which excited my target audiences into knowing more about him working on set and as a new young actor.

Mine

Entertainment Weekly’s

Cover Stories- AlterationsYou can now seen where I have begun to add additional information down the left hand side of my magazine know again as feature articles and stories. I used the idea of using influences from my research into magazines, poster and trailer. I found that they seem to advertise each other’s trailers and you can see previously placed these influences into the film strip but due to copyright reasons and my own personal self-reflectiveness reasons I felt it would give me more motive and would work well if I used some of my class mates trailers and images that I can manipulate later. You can see I have started placing the titles of my class mates trailers back into the empty film strip. I didn’t want to loose this idea of showing my influences so, the feature articles are produced with the information I experimented with in the film strip previously. I also added their slogans as well as replacing the film strip with some of my class mates trailer titles and their slogans . I felt this idea would also supported my idea of gaining information and response from my class mates and their audiences and comments as well as advertising my work as well as theirs. The aliment of the text down each side was also taken by the spacing of most of the magazines I research but particularly Entertainment Weekly. I found it appeared very neat, spacious and inline which made it easier to navigate around and grasp all the information easily.

New pictures starting to be placed

You can now see that I started to replace the old copyrighted images of the existing trailers such as Juno and Diary of a Wimpy kid to that of my class mates. To do so I asked permission from each person who I will show their trailer acting as a feature on my magazine as I felt it would be advertising their work as well as mine. I felt at the time that my magazine was coming together, but I still needed to find a few more photographs and also to take a photo shoot of my own character to be the centre photograph and feature of the magazine that will instantly draw the attention of my intended target audience. I needed this photograph to also stereotypically represent the ‘dweeb’ that of my actor is playing in full costume and character.

Old

New

Photo Shoot- Main PhotographyHere is another photo shoot that I have taken of my main

character that will be the featured article and main photographic image on my magazine from cover. I decided to keep my actor in full costume and character as I felt this appeared more humorous and attractive overall in the clothing he is wearing suggests the overall theme of my trailer being advertised. I also knew what formation and space I had left in the centre of my magazine to fill that my character could take up and be positioned in so I therefore took this advantage and came up with the idea of my actor still acting as his character where is seen holding his thumbs up to my audience and the camera which gives my magazine this upbeat feel and enthusiasm as well as connoting that my film is a thumbs up for my audience. I needed him to appear very stereotypical (using the braces, glasses, school uniform, hair done and the bow tie) so that my young audience would instantly grasp the idea of him playing a typical nerd as well as getting to grips with the idea of atmosphere within the trailer.This idea was supported by the research into the magazine covers particular that of Empire and Total Film who use their characters as the centre piece and photography and represented them in full character and costume as well. I felt this advertised the trailer and film more than the actors/actresses. This was more important to me as I have already advertised my actor in placing him an additional feature story.

Photo Editing- Making a Connection

I have began experimenting with choosing a particular shot that I felt suggested my characters personality at his best and I have also decided to manipulate the colour of his bow tie so that it merges with the idea of the red playing a significant role in tying information and directing my audience across my page.  The first thing as an audience I would see on this page would be the main image the title of the magazine and then the title of the film ‘THE DWEEB’ so I felt that creating both he fonts and the bow tie of my character red this would symbolize this link and a strong connection between the two. The bow tie was originally black which I felt made my character appear more upper class and smart which I guess would have worked will with the idea of stereotyping nerds as to being smart people but I really wanted to create a simple direction and connection for my audience. I also felt the red was more shocking and attracted my audience more to him as well as the humour of his outfit and appearance.

Additional Information on the Cover Stories

I then placed some of the previously experimented with photographs back in the bottom film strip which now gave me a better look of the idea that my magazine seems to be going in. The energy of the colours appeared to be reflecting that of my trailer and the idea of a comic strip which again was also emphasised by using this idea of a film strip to separate and emphasise different trailers. I added some simple catchy slogans to each title underneath matching that of the font previously used in my magazine for the cover stories section so that my audience can see a short insight into what the main theme of each film is about. I got these slogans by looking through each of my class mates blogs frequently and watching their trailers and coming up with my own interpretations of the main ideas, themes and storyline. I felt that I needed something that would not only support their ideas made clearly in their story line but would also instantly attract the attention of my audience by a simple short sentence or rhetorical questions to my magazine which would the ultimately advertise the main film which was ‘The Dweeb’.

Including my own Trailer-Showing a connection

To show the importance of my trailer as the main feature and article I also gave away to my audience to unique use of my narrative (animation) by including a snap shot of one of the scenes that was present in the actual trailer itself. I felt this needed to be emphasised along side the ‘top 10 animated comedies of the year’ to suggest my success within the film which again would draw immediate attention into the idea of something unusual as animation. A younger audience of students appeared to be more involved in animation lately so again this would attract the right target audience into wanting to know more about the film itself after being able to see a sneaky look into the scenes and cartoon comic style appearing. I again tried to tie all three of my media texts together by using another font type that would make the ‘top 10 animated comedy’ stand out from the rest of the simplistic font used else where. To do so I decided to use the font ‘Green Piloww’ I used within my trailer titles and the release date of the poster which appeared as a hand written design which again suggest this younger teenager target audience. As the font was different to the others this also stood out from the others and drew attention to that particular section of information (story).

Typical Conventions PresentMasthead

Cover Story

Cover Stories

More Cover Stories

Reference to Other Trailers

Reference to my Trailer, Photography

Price

Title of TrailerMain Cover Story

Tag Line

Main Photography

Tag Lines