Film Magazine AnalysisBY NATHAN BROWN

The masthead “Empire” is the biggest piece of text on the front cover, however “Inception” is a very close second. This doesn’t happen often with the masthead usually being outright biggest attraction on the front cover but because of the magnitude of the film Inception and how it’s a Hollywood blockbuster it almost equals the size of the masthead. The use of the vibrant red in both texts means that once the reader has been initially drawn in by either the masthead, or heading they’ll look straight to the opposing one, linking the two together and showing that Empire is an elite film magazine as they can secure big name interviews and exclusives.

This is literally denoted by the magazine’s tagline “The world’s biggest movie magazine”. Showing that they are self aware might impress the reader. They have used left and right cover-line spaces to name drop some of the biggest films of that year and put them in a bold and larger font so the audience will be drawn to them. As well as this they have been inwardly slanted to fit the theme of inception and its psychological thriller genre, it also draws the reader’s eye to the main image of Leonardo DiCaprio who stars in the film.

DiCaprio’s image is positioned purposefully in front of the masthead to connote that the movie is bigger than the magazine and the review/interview is more appealing to an movie fan audience.

The text being slanted gives the effect that DiCaprio is falling, and with the background being an aerial shot of a city this is confirmed that it was the intention of the designer. Although it could be depicted as flying and is surpassing the films seen in the cover-lines.

 The title name “Empire” gives an impression of large community and group of people ( like a real empire).When the audience buy this magazine they feel like they are part of the community and that they are part of something, this gives the pleasure they therefore gives them a reason to buy the magazine, to feel like part of the community which all share a similar interest (Films).

The top strap line of “The Dark Knight Returns” will attract fans of the previous films. The comic book superhero fan base is extensive and is sure to bring in a big audience, which is why they’ve placed it at the top so readers can see it immediately.

Christopher Nolan is also referenced which will attract fans of the directors work.

The price and barcode being near the central images reminds the reader that if they are not pleased with the price they are getting what they paid for due to the good information about the central character being in the magazine and buying a “Empire “ magazine which has a good reputation for giving the best content in magazines.