Magazine covers, Empire and Total Film

To supplement our film trailer Becka and I are also producing a magazine cover and film poster in order to promote our film, imitating real films produced. Initial research has been carried out on all three products, we will rely on these to guide us on how to create the most effective and successful trailer, film poster and magazine cover. It’s evident that Becka and I needed to reflect on posters that had recently caught our eye and the reason for this; we had to discuss what it was that made the poster or magazine cover so effective and memorable. When analyzing our favourite film posters we had to review what made the poster/cover stand out, what’s the purpose of the person/people/mise-en-scene used and what age would it generally be targeted at. 

Becka and I felt it was an important feature to discuss what film magazine company we would use in order to promote our magazine cover which essentially advertises our film. Primary research was a crucial task that needed to be carried out to ensure that we had chosen the correct institution, and which appears to be most successful in popularity. The biggest magazine companies who had the greatest success in the media magazine industry for film promotion was: Empire and Total Film. Both industries were fairly similar with almost the same content and same reason for publishing (to promote new films), however each had their own individual appearance and layout of how they presented and promoted new films. It was obvious that these were the largest; most successful companies so we ultimately narrowed our options to these choices, using either one of these would give our media production a sense of greater professionalism as opposed to creating our own. I don’t feel that creating our own magazine would have been beneficial to our media productions, the existing magazine are easily recognised because of their great success so it would give viewers the impression that our film we’ve created was big and worth the watch. We decided against creating our own magazine because it would mean we didn’t have direct inspiration from existing magazines which I personally heavily rely on as it shows what layouts we should use. If we’d have used our own magazine brand it meant we would have a greater work load as this meant questionnaires on titling, a further decision, feedback on the titling and how visually and verbally our magazine was. Using a real film magazine seemed much simpler however it meant we needed to use similar fonts to create the company name, this was retrieved using a font website as there was greater choice. By using an already established magazine people would directly understand what the media production was and that the film we’d created was good enough to headline the magazine.

Using an existing published magazine directs us into having foremost similarities to a used layout, again as stated previously proving us with some inspiration. This would make us a step closer than if we were creating our own magazine, it put us at an advantage as we already had sent fonts and titling that we simply had to follow. We could either work from a template or simply replicate the entire text using font website Dafont.com. However disadvantages rose from using an existing magazine as, if we did decide to choose our own magazine logo it could mean we would subvert conventions if necessary. With a real magazine cover we couldn’t do this as we had direct magazine front covers that could be easily followed.

It was difficult to decide on which successful magazine we should use because they both had good features that we’d combine together, both were equally appealing yet do have similar conventions. Both magazines covered the entire issue with the film image that’s been advertised, both mast heads of the magazine title were large, bold and positioned on the top centre of the magazine, which seems to be the typical convention of any magazine. In the images presented above I’d personally open for the Total Film logo, this is because of the wording of the title, it’s obviously related to the film and keeps the theme of the promoted film consistent. However from primary research I’m fully aware it’s not always like this. Empire is highly engaging because of how bold the magazine title is, especially with the bright red colouring. As the title of Empire is placed over the image and the Total Films logo is under the image could suggest the success of each magazine. Total Film may be more publically recognised and therefore the title doesn’t have to be completely exposed, where Empire has layered over their image creating the sense that the title has to be exposed for viewer interest.

Becka and I decided upon Total Film due to the sharpness of the lettering, being more precise and straight could slightly expose the thriller film our magazine will eventually be promoting. A strong feature of the Total Film logo is that the word ‘Total’ is within the other film; this may be harder to do however with the gained Photoshop skills I’m sure it’s achievable. This could suggest that the word ‘film’ is significantly more important and captivates the audience immediately by showing the content of the magazine will be.

Becka and I are aware that producing and presenting our magazine correctly and accurately will be difficult however we’re determined to achieve the same looks as Total Film presents in their magazines. If all goes well then the outcome should be successful and effective, our aim is to create a professional and appealing looking cover with all the appropriate conventions that entices the audience to read it.

Trailer Research

The first stage was to commit time into researching the general conventions of film trailers, the exploration into film trailers (whether that's international, teaser, feature or cinematic trailers) is vital and ensures that my partner and I complete a successful trailer that will meet up to viewer prospects. Without primary research collected to analyse and evaluate each convention used in similar film genres that we wish to compete with we would struggle in creating an effective film trailer, without it we’d have to simply rely on already learned film trailers and the outcome would obviously be less successful. Reviewing different film trailers used for different purposes ignited the idea into creating a simple TV trailer that lasts around 2:30 minutes long, when analysing trailers categorized in the thriller genre it seemed that most fitted into this time bracket, thus suggesting that we had to follow the convention. It became evident that the genre we wished to produce was a thriller as this genre was the most frequently viewed when we were simply researching what we wanted to do. Thriller films have the greatest impact on viewers and I feel to provide more suspense, viewer pleasure and greater thought processes. For a beneficial result we ensured that we had reviewed more than one genre of film during research, to broaden our ideas, develop existing concepts and choose a definite genre that we wished to proceed with; this ranged from; romantic comedy, spoofs to horrors.

After research had took place as stated before it became evident that our mind-set was completely focused on thriller genres as we found the trailers most gripping creating a sense of excitement, stimulation and pleasure. We concluded that the research had been deeply beneficial and was a significant source to provide a deeper understanding in trailer research. The typical thriller genre includes the beginning, which reveals the storyline of the film, the suspense just before the end that acts as the cliff-hanger that essentially makes the viewer want to watch the film. From researching established film trailers I have picked up the common features that appear in them as usually thriller films ensure they create the same viewer emotion which is to create suspense, tension and excitement.

Additionally each trailer that I’ve viewed, especially in terms of the thriller genre show the different characters who pan out to fit the protagonist/antagonist role where usually the protagonist generically becomes the hero. Through research it has developed our awareness of what conventions are genuinely needed within a trailer; we gathered that we will have to carefully pan out a sequential storyline to ensure it makes sense and that the viewers are on board. The limited time provided for a trailer (usually around 2:30 minutes) suggests that dialogue from characters will have to be clear, concise and relevant to again ensure that the viewers are on board about what our film is about.

Furthermore, research has allowed Becka and I to have a deeper insight in how a successful film trailer is created and all the conventions used throughout. Without taking time to research we’d have limited knowledge on how a trailer is thoroughly developed for viewer pleasure, we will now apply our learned knowledge when producing our own movie trailer. 

Billing block

This billing-block was taken from a real life film; ROCK OF AGES, Becka and I wish to produce a similar billing block to go alongside our media products (trailer, film poster, magazine cover) in order to increase the professionalism of our productions. In order to create a realistic billing block using all the conventions used in a real life film, Becka and I decided to follow the same structure and similar text to this one, however obviously altering the names, producers, and overall material such as the PG rating. To begin we checked that NEW LINE CINEMA featured on thriller films as Rock Of Ages isn't in the thriller genre, when checking New Line Cinema was featured in a variety of films including thriller so it was acceptable to use.

To create a billing block I thought that it would be complicated so as the easiest alternative I simply used an internet source to find a template, once a template was found I had to download it and open it onto Photoshop. Fortunately I already have knowledge of using Photoshop due to taking A-Level photography, putting me at a slight advantage to those who don't because it can seem very complicated to a beginner. In order to change the text I had to click various layers and simply type in what I needed to alter the text, the template however did not include logos such as; Warner Bro's or New Line Cinema so I had to copy and paste them into another layer on the document and simply erase the previous background using the Magic Wand tool so that they would blend into the black background.
Once titles were changed (the film title still remains blank because we're still unsure of what we want to call our movie, this will be altered so that the title is included on the final products) I was able to then alter the text so that it looked more professional. On the Rock Of Ages billing block the smaller text within the text were columned so that each word was under one another, I couldn't change this using Photoshop as the template didn't allow it, so I had to transfer everything onto Microsoft PowerPoint and alter it from there.





This isn't our final billing-block, this was as far as I could go using Photoshop, in the final billing-block I have made the smaller text within the text to fit underneath one another, like the Rock Of Ages billing block.