MAGAZINE CONVENTIONS AND ANALYSISSpecifically Sight and Sound

Masthead

This is a convention that is displayed on all magazines as it clearly indicates the exact film magazine that it is, by being bold and large.Sight and sound always has the masthead in black and yellow and at the top of the front cover. This rejects usual conventions of a masthead being brightly coloured in order to stand out as ‘Empire’ and ‘Total film’ have theirs. However Sight and Sound’s masthead stands out in comparison to the rest of the text.In our film poster as we are recreating the Sight and Sound front cover this is a convention we will definitely need to comply with in order for it to reflect a real media text. We will use Photoshop to design our own version of the masthead; attempting to use the same font and colouring.

ImageA magazine front cover always tends to have a focal image that takes up the majority of the page. The form of this image differs from each magazine. However a usual convention is to have a photograph as Empire, Total film and Sight and Sound do. Sight and Sound always have a singular photo that is simple but eye catching. This example differs from most Sight and Sound images as it is in Black and White, this is in order to capture the persona of the director, Clint Eastwood as he is known to produce quite morbid, negative and foreboding films. This is something I would like to use for our front cover as it would capture the genre of Neo Noir with the cross over of the classic noir convention of black and white. Differently, Total film always have quite ‘busy’ front covers by having multiple layered images and a one focal image that appears in the foreground. This is to reflect how this film magazine wishes to draw in young audiences that are interested in mainstream films. One film magazine that rejects the convention of a photography is Little White Lies. This magazine always has illustrations as it’s focal image. This is in order to stand out as a magazine as it has a creative take. Furthermore another convention of Sight and Sound is to have an image of the director rather than an actor like most other front covers do. This is to give more of an insight on how detailed the magazine is with film, and how that is it’s sole purpose

Buzz words

A common convention of magazine front covers is buzz words. These include large words such as ‘Free’ or ‘First look’ this is in aid of drawing in an audience that would be interested in added free features or giving the magazine a sense of gossip. However Sight and Sound don’t tend to use this convention as they are a magazine that is directed to niche, mature audience. Alternatively, as shown in this front cover their buzz words include ‘Interview’ which would appeal to the film focused audience of the magazine.

ANCHORAGE TEXT

Anchorage text runs alongside the image. Here you can see the actors name in a bold large font, that coincides with the main image. It also goes on to give more information about the actor and his film without giving too much away. A bit of advertisement in sometimes involved.

BANNER

This is not a convention that Sight and Sound comply to but it is a common convention across the more mainstream film magazines. For example Empire use banners that will address a specific film ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ or ‘Bond is back’. This is in order to draw in an audience by addressing more films that what is depicted through the image and anchorage text. Alternatively they could use banners such as ‘Movies’ biggest year ever!’ that is more broad but will engage film fans as it creates an exciting tone.

However as Sight and Sound reject this convention we will not be including a banner in our front cover. Possibly Sight and Sound do not use a banner as they already have an established niche audience and they don’t need any more assistance other than the image and anchorage text.

TAGLINE

On the other hand another reason for Sight and Sound not using a banner is because they have a tagline and with a banner it would become too busy and clustered (Sight and Sound like to have a simplistic, minimal front cover). The tagline ‘The international film magazine’ is there to support the magazine and clearly show the readers that they are a high end, established magazine that responds to global films and issues. This would appear to more niche, mature audiences that are interested in all the issues and developments in the film industry and not just the mainstream ones.

Barcode/release date

The date, price and barcode is an essential convention for a magazine front cover as this is the way in which the magazine can be purchased and it gives out all of the relevant information regarding this. A convention of Sight and Sound is to have the barcode in a yellow box with the BFI logo. We would like to incorporate this feature in our front cover in order for it to represent a real media text.