FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER ANALYSIS ‘INCEPTION’

Masthead

Sell linesPug

Barcode

Film name(Headline)

Main image

Sell lines

Magazine website

Masthead

The masthead of ‘Total Film’ has been altered to reflect the film, ‘Inception’. By making the title look technological by adding buildings which are white/silver reminds the audience perhaps of spies and secret agents. The images filling the text ‘Total Film’ seem to show a birds eye view of the buildings which contributes further to the MI5 look. It also may give the connotation that the location is the key part and crucial to the film featured. Even the colours, blue and white/silver are normally associated with high intelligence and secret agencies due to the portrayal of this in which we see in our day-to-day lives.

The statement ‘THE MIND-BLOWING ISSUE’ gives a hint into the storyline. This film may contain intelligence because of the words ‘MIND-BLOWING’ which hints to someone being targeted, reflected by the image in the masthead and explosions of some kind due to the word ‘BLOWING’. The fact that this is in red reflects perhaps a more violent tone to the magazine cover, attracting its target audience.

Main Image

The main image of the magazine front cover is one that attracts the most attention. The positioning of the character, central to the page conveys that the male is the most important character of the film. With both his serious facial expression and his costume (suit and tie) makes the readers assume he is associated with danger, making us believe he could be a gangster/spy.

The prop of the torch makes the audience believe further that he is investigating something. The fact that there is a beam of light shining on his face allows the audience to assume that someone threatening is coming towards him, hence the worried and concerned facial expression which confirms the idea of being associated with danger.

Sell lines

The sell lines along side the main image display content relating to other films, which in this case is ‘Thor’ on the left hand side. The film magazine front cover reflects it’s target audience by only focusing on the audience’s interests. For example, the audience that is attracted to ‘Inception’ may also like ‘Thor’ as it is a similar genre of film.

The right hand side also clearly highlights new films that are being released. The mixture of different font styles and colours are conventional to film magazine front covers and are used to keep the magazine captivating for its target audience. The use of exclamation marks and question marks also keep the readers interested as it’s a lot more exiting than continuous statements.

The plus sign in a large size in red again, separates long segments of information making the magazine cover look ‘busy’.

Colour schemeThe colour scheme for this magazine cover reflects darker tones. The heavy use of dark blue and black creates a mysterious and dark side for the reader.

Psychologically black means authority, power and control. This colour black featured on the magazine cover hints that the film contains intimidation and unfriendly characters that are unapproachable such as the use of black used on the male featured as the main image . Alternatively, it can be seen as sophisticated, dignified and serious.

Blue indicates confidence, reliability and responsibility. It relates to one-to-one communication rather than mass communication, making it more appealing to its target audience as it may feel more personal to them.

Physiologically, Silver is a colour that is associated with prestige and wealth. It is seen as a sophisticated colour related to modernity. With its reflective qualities, it portrays intuition and mental telepathy which is related to the film. On this magazine cover, the silver looks sleek, smooth, and lustrous which coincides nicely with the main image. I feel silver has a coolness about it that relates to the future, science and technology.

The splashes of red used throughout draws attention to itself and calls for action to be taken.