Here are a few examples of covers that i have been looking at and taking ideas from in order to create our magazine front cover promoting our film "Deranged".
I have specifically been looking at Total film magazines as some of the covers are really appealing to me and Manny, as are those of Empire magazine so it was really a toss up between the two, but we decided to go with total film, they are both quite similar in terms of front covers, but i think Total Film have slightly bolder covers, this is probably due to the font and typography, or the big statement images, that sometimes have more colour than those of empire, making it that bit more appealing, but obviously that depends on the film as well. Both are really good, well established magazines but we had to pick one.
A breakdown of the covers
Titles, Small print and Bar code
Total Film have a consistent font and style of Title for the magazine which acts as a logo for the print product. The typography is bold and striking and is immediately in the face of the audience who view it, it is not something on the page that would easily be missed. There are generally colour adaptions of the masthead depending on the theme of the major blockbuster film that is on the front cover, but more often than not i have noticed that it is white. On our print product i have attempted to replicate the style of the masthead, but have not completely copied the font for two reasons, one being that i couldn't find or download the actual font for that magazine and the second being that we have slightly adapted the name of the magazine to film today, so there has to be some variation between the two magazines, otherwise we might as well of called it total film.
On the total film magazine the date and website is in really small font just above the masthead to the right of the page, this is quite effective as it is small enough so that it doesn't draw peoples attention away from the main image or text, but the amount of copies indicates how well established this magazine is and possibly how popular it is as it shows that it has been running quite a long time. Putting the website address on it also increases the promotion of the magazine. They are also more likely to go to the website as the small text is the last thing that they will have seen on the cover probably, and if they are already attracted to the content then they can they could find more information on the website increasing the likeliness of someone going on the website. On our magazine cover i have done the same, but i have realised that i haven't put a website on yet, but i think i will as well as the cost as i have also missed this off. The cost indicates how good the quality of the magazine is.
The position of the bar code varies as you can see from the images above as on the shutter island issue and the Harry Potter issue it is positioned at the bottom but in the Star Trek and Alice in wonderland issue it is placed at the side. I decided to place it at the side as it is more out of the way of the main image and text of the magazine. The audience don't really focus on this component of the magazine, it is just there for purchasing purposes, but adds to professional look of it.
Tag lines, Headings and Text
On most of the above images of the magazines i can't see any tag line for the magazine, but on the harry potter one there is a circle of stars with the tag line "world's best movie reviews" in ours i have included one but i have just put it in small text just underneath the masthead. As on a previous draft of the magazine i put a circle shape on, attempting to make it look like a sticker but i felt it looked better the way it is now, could do with being made slightly bigger to make it more noticeable. I have made the tag line " The UK's favourite film magazine" this is making it a national magazine as opposed to international, i think this is more suitable as Empire and Total film i think are international and making it national puts the magazine in a different niche.
On the above covers, on each there is a main cover line that is either of the Feature film on the cover,or in the case of the Alice in wonderland one it is "massive preview special" It is the biggest text therefore is the first thing that the audience notice. As shown above there is variety of different positions for it , when it placed more towards the left side of the page it stands out because it surrounded by smaller text which emphasises its importance making it appear more dominant. It also has an impact when it is placed at the bottom of the page as it is separated from the other text which better when there are other films named at the sides of the page as it makes it seem as if this film in a league of its own and also because its the main feature film. I have placed it at the bottom of the page on our magazine cover because i have other film titles at the side. On my previous draft i had the main cover line being the actor's name, but on this draft i decided to change it to the actual title of the film as i put the title of the film to the left of the page but thought that it wasn't bold enough when it was there, it just seemed to blend in with the other text so i moved it.
A common convention of a film magazine is the small text down the sides of the page , on some of the magazines there are short headings that stand out in some way, sometimes with a box around them that has a contrasting colour to the text. They don't derive attention away from the cover line or the image but are placed beside the image so that the audience still notice them as they might think that they are captions to do with the image. some of the smaller text beneath the headings have actors/actresses names mentioned or films that attract their attention. I put Channing Tatum in ours as he is an identifiable actor who many girls are attracted, and has been in numerous blockbuster hits too, so this makes it more appealing.
Banner
On quite a lot of total film magazines there is a banner at the top of the page above the masthead, this normally indicates what extra stuff is in the magazine, such as posters, feature articles. On ours i have put "10 movies being made right now" this is encouraging the audience to look at this article because its about recent upcoming films, which also projects to the audience that this is a modern magazine which in keeping with the times and surprising the audience by giving them information about future films. I think i need to darken the red colour of the banner though as the lighter red doesn't portray the horror theme that the magazine cover will be based around because of the feature film. The red needs to represent blood and be a bit brighter to stand out more.
Image
The image on the covers above are all of the character in the film, usually the main character, they are dressed up and have the relevant plots. This makes the page look more like a film magazine as the image relates to the cover line well. If the cover line were the actors name then maybe the actor wouldn't be in character as the article is not going to be about the film that they have been. It is going to be more focused the their life. This is another reason why i changed the cover line, i think when the actors are in character then the magazine is more appealing. It looks more professional as the image links with the titles well. As from the covers above the image is usually either a close up of the actor/actress or a full length picture (mid shot/longshot). This is the type of image me and Manny want to get as we got one earlier but it didn't look right as it was of the main character covering his face, although it portrayed fear quite well it didn't show his face properly, and therefore wasn't really suitable for the front of a magazine, as it would be difficult to relate that character to the poster and the audience wouldn't be able to recognise it was the same person as in the poster.
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