MAGAZINE RESEARCH

EMPIREThis magazine cover is advertising the film ‘T2 Trainspotting’ which is a remake of the 90’s social realism drama favourite. The magazine uses ‘Trainspotting’s famous bright orange as the primary cold colour for the front cover. This bright orange makes it vibrant and eye-catching, and also makes the cover relatable to the film. Research has found that the colour orange is one of the most rejected and least used colours but young people respond well to the colour because of its connotations of youthfulness and impulsiveness. This bright orange stands our even more due to the primary image of ‘Trainspotting’s central protagonist is in black and white. The primary image being black and white is indicative of its social realist genre and makes the bright orange appear less joyful and more hard hitting. The primary image is centre frame on the cover, meaning that it’s what catches the audiences eyes the most. The white background makes a good base colour for the overlaying images as some primary images and coloured or textured background could make the poster appear too busy. The magazines title replicates the same shade of orange as a way to colour coordinate the cover which makes it appear visually appealing. The title is capitalised is a large and bold font. This makes the title eye-catching which is essential if the primary image is going to be overlaid on top of it. The fact that the title is partially hidden suggests that the magazine is not an independent magazine and that it is popular. This is interesting as often big magazines don’t usually include independent social realism dramas on their covers as opposed to big industry films like ‘Avatar’.

TOTAL FILMLike Empire’s front cover, Total Film’s title is partially hidden which suggests that it is a well established film magazine. The covers colour scheme is purple orientated which has connotations of luxury due to it’s royal connotations. Unlike on Empire’s front cover, Total Film includes ‘Ex Machina’s 3 central characters, instead of the central protagonist. Similarly, Total Film and Empire both have a sign (circled in red) on the left hand side of the cover, which is then met with text on the opposite side. This is used to make the cover appear level which is visually appealing for its audience. Both covers so far establish what their magazine ‘features’ which is appropriate to have on the front page as it advertises the newspaper. The cover also has text at the top which further entices its audience to buy it as this edition is a ‘anniversary special’ edition. The primary image is on a white background which makes the image stand out. This front cover doesn’t include a bar code which is something that I would want to have on my own magazine cover.

FILMMAKERThis film magazine doesn’t appear to have a clear or evident film cast on the front which subverts the stereotypical conventions of film magazines. The uninformative front cover implies that the film magazine is well established, which is reinforced by the use of formal text font. The framing of the front cover is visually appealing as the text and primary image weigh themselves out perfectly. The barcode in the bottom right hand corner suggests that this magazine isn’t a digital magazine which is definitely something to think about seeing as my film addresses modern social issues, with the inclusion of the problems with the digital era we live in. It would therefore seem appropriate for me to consider my film magazine being an online magazine, although I would have to do more research into the conventions of those and how high their success rates are.

INDIE SLATE

Similarly to FilmMaker magazine, Indie Slate doesn’t include an evident film it is advertising, but it does include vibrant colours which are very eye-catching for an audience. The bright and contrasting colours correlate with the unconventional life-style ‘indies’ like to live. The magazine is evidently an ‘Independent Film and Video’ magazine which is something that I would like to replicate, in order to advertise my independent film. The front cover is cartoon themed which links to Saul Bass’s famous cartoon film posters.

EFFECTIVE METHODS

■ I have highlighted in pink, throughout the PowerPoint, methods I believe would be effective to replicate in my film magazine.

■ On Total Film’s front cover, it includes ‘Ex Machina’s 3 central characters, as opposed to its singular central protagonist. This is a method that I could recreate in my magazine as I have 3 central characters in my film trailer. However, the two female protagonists are primarily the central characters and the pair are featured on my film poster as a duo and so it would seem appropriate to keep the two primary images similar.