Magazine Cover Ancillary Project Research and Analysis

Basic Research on Film

MagazinesEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by

Bauer Consumer Media. Empire reviews both mainstream films and art films, but the the feature articles concentrate on mainstream.

Some Things in it:

• Film news

• Previews

• Reviews

• “Classic Scene” (a transcript from notable film scenes.)

• Top 10 (ex: 10 Best Chase Scenes)

Little White Lies is a bi-monthly independent film

magazine produced by The Church of London.

Each issue is themed around a single cover film which

inspires the design (an illustration of the lead actor) as

well as the content for the entire issue.

Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine

published by the British Film Institute.

To buy this magazine you have to have a subscription.

Since I’m doing romance, a lot of film magazines don’t

focus on this genre. A lot of romance films end up with

their main characters on the covers of fashion

magazines instead.

Elle for instance has Actresses from numerous films (Ex:

Jennifer Aniston who generally acts in romances) I

found one cover that had Justin Timberlake and Mila

Kunis together, but the reason for this is they are dating

in real life now.

Terms & Conventionsmasthead-position (usually at the top), size (largest font on cover) and style (should match the genre of your magazine

and appeal to your target audience)

After the masthead, the next largest font on the front page will belong to the most important cover-line, the smaller the

text the smaller the importance.

There should be a mixture of fonts, although generally three or less.

To make text stand out: capitalization of individual words or phrases, key words in color or a different font or font

style-italics)

tagline- the description of the magazine brand normally found under the masthead

cover lines- summaries of the most enticing features and articles which are inside the magazine, headlines sort of

The image is usually a mid shot

mode of address- the image looking directly at the camera, or a way a magazine speaks to its audience

Consider the rule of thirds.

left hand third-conventional to put a lot of the cover lines down the left side of the page.

buzz words: free, exclusive, only

AnalysisGoes against the convention that the title of the magazine (Little White Lies) is the biggest writing on the page.

There’s a barcode, price, issue number which is at the top of the page, in it’s usual spot for this magazine, though in an unconventional spot as far as on other magazines.

The image is both conventional and nonconventional as it is a direct mode of address headshot, but they’ve put an effect on it so that it looks as if it was pencil drawn.

This magazine doesn’t have any cover stories on the title other than the main “Black Swan” story, as is normal for this particular magazine.

AnalysisGoes against the convention that the title of the magazine (Little White Lies) is the biggest writing on the page.

There’s a barcode, price, issue number which is at the top of the page, in it’s usual spot for this magazine, though in an unconventional spot as far as on other magazines.

The image is both conventional and nonconventional as it is a direct mode of address headshot, as are many of this particular magazine’s images, but they’ve put an effect on it so that it looks as if it was silk screened.

This magazine doesn’t have any cover stories on the title other than the main story, as is normal for this particular magazine.

AnalysisThe image is conventional as there is direct mode of address.

They make it look somewhat sci-fi by using the grid behind her, the blue, and a font that looks like the spy computer fonts.

The title of the magazine (Empire) is the biggest text on the page, as is conventional. There are also cover stories on the cover, which is also conventional.

There is a barcode as well as other information such as month/edition/price of the magazine.

There are also buzzwords such as ultimate, 3 collector’s edition, plus, special which are there to attract people and make them feel they are getting more for their money.