Magazine Research

The last part of my visual project is a magazine cover, their are so many different types of film magazines out in the industry but the main ones are Empire and Total Film, these are the two which I am going to base my magazine around. So I took two magazine covers one from each company that were promoting a Horrow film on the front cover.

The first magazine cover is from Total film and is the front cover for issue 160 with megan fox from the horror "Jennifers Body".



The first thing you notice about the magazine cover is the main image of Megan Fox, she is central on the page and covers most of it at first you wouldn't tell it was a horror film until you see the blood on her hand and down the page. The title of the magazine is seen but part is missing as the main image overlaps it, at the very top of the page is a advertisement on why you should buy the magazine showing more of what else is inside like on this one it says "Our biggest preview ever" then has pictures of 3 films which personally I want to see anyway, so this would be a big selling point for me. The bottom left has a quote from the interview they have done with megan fox and on the right of the image of megan fox is a part of the contents with the text telling the buyer/audience what this magazine contains. The background being white really makes the images/text stand out and I think it works really well, but for my magazine I want to create a really dark and scary feeling so I can keep the genre of my film always with the images of it. But the layout of this magazine is one that I could certainly think about taking ideas from as it is very spacious with is good because I wouldn't like to read something which has too much going on.

The second magazine cover is from the magazine "EMPIRE" from the July 2008 issue with the joker from "Batman - The Dark Knight" on the front.



As you can see this magazine is alot more in your face with a massive picture of the Joker, (Note: Even though the film being shown on the front cover isn't a horror it has the characteristics of giving that horror genre over.) The background firstly is hardly visible and where it is the colour is black which is what the jokers body fades into (see right of the joker) this makes the whole white face paint show up alot more and make it alot more gripping. The title of the magazine "EMPIRE" has been outlined in a lime green which matches the colour of the jokers hair, this colour is used throughout the front cover on most of the texts and outlines boxes creating a colour scheme for the page. To the left of the joker is a selling point for the magazine telling the audience what special is in the magazine, at the bottom again is more of these selling points. There is a tagline for the film as well as the film title both on the jokers forehead. The way the jokers eyes are looking at the camera gives a very evil presence to this photo which is what I want to create when my magazine cover is made. This magazine cover is one which I will be taking ideas from and maybe basing my photo on the same way they have done with a huge on which covers the page really making the magazine stand out.

Now I have researched magazine covers I am ready to make my magazine cover using photoshop the same programme which I used last year, shouldn't be too hard.