Magazine Cover Research

Here i have annotated various covers of 'Empire' magazine, which is the leadunig UK film magazine. I have annotated this as we will base our magazine front cover upon Empire's themes and components, by dissecting the covers i feel that we can use these 10 points i have highlighted to compose a decent replica of a film cover, though with our film and our features.
Below is more of an in-depth look into the ponits i have highlighted;

1. Contents.
It is a crucial trait on near enough every empire film magazine to have the contents (unless a prime exclusive, such as when 'the hulk' came out the cover was 3-D with jsut the hulk on it) of the magazines main points advertised on the front, in this case the films will be names of films other classmates are making, to add a more personal and realistic feel to the magazine.

2. Price and Date.
There is not much to say on this; we every empire magazine has this and we shall add it to, conventionally on top of the 'M' in 'Empire'.

3. Character in front of Empire logo.
Traditionally on the majority of empire film magazines the character will be standing in front of the EMPIRE sign, i feel that this gives the character (and therefore the film of the given character) prominence with the magazine, it catches the viewers eye and informs them of the main film article, therefore we feel this is a crucial trait to adopt and we will follow so.

4. Text above empire logo.
The text above the empire logo, though for a formality, does occur quite often. The text is normally linked to the main article, such as an exclusive interview wth a cast member or exclusive pictures, though if there is another article in the magazine that is uncommon or particularly eye catching and is not related to a specific film but moreover films as a whole they will normally have this at the top, for example 'Dark knight is back!' or '1001 greatest movie moments!' respectively. We will use this feature advertising '20 greatest indie directors' which will involve past students in media.

5. Pictures.
Pictures aer representative, in empire magazine, of the main articles that are going to be included (par the primary prominent character on the front), this helps advertise other areas of the magazine. With our film we are going to have 3 pictures of shots from films that other students are doing.

6. Main feature.
The main feature is always linked to the main picture, examples are thorough on each of the magazine covers i have shown above. The main writing will always be very visible, and generally in a very bright colour, obviously to catch the audience's attention. We shall be adopting this trait via using red writing in front of oure main picture, so it not only matches the empire logo but also its bright and overt as to be easily legible.

7. 'Access' comment.
On near enough every empire magazine cover there is a comment introducing 'exclusive access' or 'exclusive interviews' etc, this shows a level of proximity amongst the magazine and the various sets/films they get access to, showing that they obviously have the most information and insight into the given area which they have access to, so we feel that this is necessary in order to catch audiences attention.

8. The 'stamp'.
Altough not literally a stamp it is quite common to see a circle that looks like a sticker attatched to alot of empire magazines, this sticker is not related to the main article/articles on the front in any way, but again gives another insight into other areas that are included in the magazine, for example one advertised information about 'tron' yet tron was not mentinoed on the front cover, and in the 'joker' issue of empire (see above) one of these 'stamps' introduces a section about the Coenn brothers. We will be using this to advertise an insight into Todorov and his theoreoms.

9. Barcode.
As exciting and crucial as a barcode is there really isnt much to write about it, we will have a barcode though.

10. Background
The background we feel is crucial in matching and appropriating the main picture, take the james bond magazine (above) with the desert background, and the pirates of the carribean picture with the sea background, thoguh these backgrounds are vague and blurred the reader can still see them as the correct mise-en-scene for the picture. We will be using this with our picture to create the appropriate background, and given the theme of our film we think it will have an urban-london esque background, or possibly a grey-industrial background.

In conclusion we will be following conventions of empire magazines covers', they are effective, well known and eye-catching.