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.