RESEARCH INTO FILM MAGAZINE COVERS

EMPIRE

To starts off my research into Film magazine covers I went on Google images and searched for empire magazine covers. I decided to conduct research on ‘Empire’, as they are a well established movie magazine company. By looking into the house style I am able to gain an incite of what makes a professional cover, I will also try to use similar conventions for my own horror magazine. By googling the cover I was able to compare all of the companies issues. The large selection of the magazines also allowed me to spot out the common magazine conventions that ‘Empire’ uses as well as learn the house style of the covers. I found that the majority of empire covers have one model within the cover image. This model usually either the antagonist or protagonist. Their masthead are usually red, but it is sometimes altered according to the issues topic. The name of the movie being presented is typically placed within the centre or bottom centre of the page. The name of the movie is also the second largest piece of text on the cover, after the masthead. The company also sticks to two fonts, usually serif, this gives the work a more professional feel.

On the following slide I have deconstructed an ‘Empire’ magazine cover, I did this to gain a deeper understanding of magazine conventions so I can use them when building up my own horror magazine.

The Cover image- The cover image is a long shot of the Protagonist of the movie–’Man of Steel’. The angle of gaze is towards the audience, this factor draws the audience in. The actor is also dressed in the costume of the character he plays in the movie being advertised.

Masthead- This is the largest font on the cover , this is because it is the name of the magazine company. The colour of the masthead d is red, this flows with the colour scheme of the cover, which is red, grey , white and black. The masthead is also placed behind the cover image, this is so more attention is drawn to the actor on the cover. Movie-It is clear which

movie is being advertised, as the protagonist of the film as well as the movie title is the centre of attention. The name of the movie is the second largest text within the cover. This is eye-catching and demonstrates to audience what this magazine includes. The colour of the font is also a silver/grey which stands out in front of the cover image.

Cover Lines- The magazine also holds the names of other relevant movie titles. The movies link to the magazine cover as this issues specifically advertises ‘superhero's. All the movies mentioned link back to this theme. Colour scheme- There is very minimal colours within this cover. The magazine colour scheme consists of red, white, grey and black. The red stands out and brings the right amount of attention to the cover. Overall there is not too much going on for the cover to be overwhelming.

SCREAM

As our brief for this project was to create a horror magazine cover, I choose to look at a magazine companies which specialize in horror. I researched into ‘Scream’, after looking at the images of the magazine covers I found that every cover has more than one image being displayed. This is a complete contrast to Empire magazines, as empire typically has one model within the cover image. There are typically four or more images found on a ‘Scream’ cover, the majority of these images depict the villains of the horror movies. There is also a range of camera shots, within the cover image. There is also a range of fonts. There is no set layout, so each issues is different in smalls ways. There cover has a lot to look at and a lot of content for audience members to engage with compared to ‘Empire’ which focused on one topic. The colours scheme for ‘Scream’ is red, yellow, black and white The colour red may has been used as it can link to the iconography of blood. The magazine also has a blood splatter effect amoungst the images. Overall you are able to noice the contrast between empire and cream as both media text has different house styles. I liek both magazines but I feel that Empire has a more proffesional feel, but I do like ‘Screams’ use of iconography and common horror movie conventions such as the blood.

Cover Image- There are 5 different images on this cover, all are different sizes. The majority of these shots are close ups of the characters face. For the largest image on the cover, the angle of gaze is towards the audience, this would draw audience members in.

Masthead- The mast headd is red and the font of the text appears to resemble dripping blood, this shows the links to horror, specifically the slasher genre.

Banner- On the cover the words ‘Blood, guts, gore’ are used. This helps to build a horror magazine as these words link to horror conventions and subgenres of horror, such as slasher and gore.

Movie- The movie title in the magazine is placed in the bottom left part of the cover. The text is very large and this helps make it stand out against the cover images.

Exclusive- The use of the word ‘plus’ suggests that the magazine has extra content. This would interest audience members to pick up the magazine as it has extra content which related to horror.

Fonts- There are multiple fonts used within the cover, they are all different sizes. This may make the cover more interesting as it has more aspects to look at and engage with.