Assignment 1 Essay

Draft 2

The masthead, Total Film, instantly tells you what the magazine is about. The title "Film" has connotations of Family, warmness, comfort and fun, which tells the targeted audience that the magazine is about the film and cinema without having to read any of the content. The masthead is a bold sans serif big and white font to stand away from the dark background and to look modern and with Time rather than a more traditional look. The target audience are males and females aged 15 – 20 and interested in the film industry so the masthead has to be easy to read, modern, and bold so it looks more appealing to the TA. They have used a display serif font as the main cover like many magazines, linking to other genre conventions, but because of the unique white font they have used its played out clear and easy for potential readers to view. There target audience wants to instantly pick up the magazine and recognise it by its name just and font alone. The masthead is placed behind the image to, not only show more of the main actor, but also indicate a certain professionalism toward the viewers and by-passers and to show they are a well know mature brand of magazine. 

With the image, the colour palette consists of dark blacks and browns with the orange hair and pale skin being the thing catching the audience’s eyes. This links and ties in with the rest of the palette through the purples and darker colours throughout. The pale white face links to the main cover lines and the colour white which all connote to cleanliness and pureness, which overall gives a positive outlook on a single glance of the cover. 

The layout bursting with content and looks almost cramped. The overall design looks quite stylish and looks quite boastful.  The layout shows more of the Image on the right, leaving room for the main cover line and secondary cover lines on the left. The target audience can be attracted to this layout because of the broken down text blocks and the recognisable large scale image of Alice.

The main image catches the target audience's Eyes because of the recognisable character on the front. The character appeals to a whole new audience who like Alice in wonderland or whoever features on the front of the cover. It Is a mid shot so the readers can view enough of the body and costume to recognise the character. If it were a Long shot you would not be able to tell who the Character is straight away, the same way if it was a close up the reader may be uncertain what the image tells them. The way he is looking directly at the camera uses direct address with the target audience getting their own personalised experience.  The target audience will want to know why the character featured on the cover is there so they will pick it up and buy the magazine.

The main cover line is white to stand out from the dark purple background. It is serif to get a more traditional look. It would change due to the film featured on the cover and based on the fantasy theme the font used is the serif one. The targeted audience will like it because it is not hard to read and the audience would want to read it with ease. This is why the main cover line is white and serif. The audience will also not want to read extended statements that dwell on unspecific information so the text is kept short for ease of reading. Its clear and to the point and to the point to see whilst still having the information they need to get across. Some connotations of the style of serif are formal, traditional, informative and stylish.

Some of the other features include a bar code, price, date and website. The bar code is placed on the right just above from the middle. It is also not a huge size which may mean they wanted the Image to be big and show it all off.

The masthead Empire has many connotations such as in power, top tier and a community suggesting that the reader is in power and in charge. There target Audience Will appeal to this because they like to take control and be empowered. The colour Red used is easy on the eye and goes well with the dark background; red has connotations of royalty power, passion and danger. Which will appeal to the majority of the target Audience because if they watch films they have probably watched horrors, thrillers and intense films which all links back with the conations and colour of the masthead. They have used a very overpowering font that is clear to see. The serif, bold and modern font all link to what the magazine provides. The magazine provides info on the latest movies and in time films which relates to the in time modern typography they’ve used for the masthead.

For their colour pallet they’ve used some darks browns, blacks and bashes to add the mystery of the whole Sherlock Holmes title. Blacks and dark colours have connotations of:  death, evil, mystery, formalness and power. All these can in some way link back to the masthead. Browns have connotations of  earthy, warm, stability and home

The layout is very showbiz and Hollywood with the roll of film just bellow half way down the page. These show snapshots of the most exciting bits of the latest films. Their target audience will appeal to this because they want to have sneak peaks and exclusives. The layout as a whole with the main piece of writing being below the film roll, the light brown block behind the main image stating “massive winter preview” and the new films right at the bottom of the page all contribute the overall intense layout of the cover

The main image is a mid shot probably to show off the characters costume and still to leave enough room also for the film roll featuring less important films that are not the main focus for this issue of “Empire”. The main image is covering the masthead; this shows that they are confident the unique font, colour and style of the masthead will be recognizable in the shops. The facial and body expressions of the recognizable actor tell you the film are a serious, action and a good vs. evil film. The image uses direct address to engage the TA and make it more personal. The main image also shows, with the costume, that the move is not set in the modern era. This contrasts from the masthead, which is modern, and serif.

 The main cover line is very clear to see due to the fact that it is the light brown colour used for the light brown block in the top left. This is to link together the magazine. The text below the film roll is white which has connotations of purity, cleanliness and innocence, which is a huge contrast to the dark black background. They have cleverly highlighted the main pieces of writing again with the light brown colour to show that it all links back with different elements of the cover.   

Some other features included in the cover are a bar code, website and quote that states “The Worlds Biggest Movie Magazine” which impresses their target audience and is saying if you where to get a movie/film magazine this would be the one to get. It also looks good ageist all the other film magazines.

Draft 1

Magazine Analysis

Magazine Analysis

Masthead – Their target audience is probably males from the age of 14 – 80. The Colour is red to stand out from the rest of the magazine and is an easy colour to link and other colours with. It is the font it is because their target audience doesn’t want to stand there trying to read what the title says. It is also this big and not hidden by the image because they want you to know what to look out for if it appeals to you next time.

Main Image – They have used a long shot for the main image to show a pose, which appeals even more to the target audience and shows what type of magazine it is, as if you cant tell by the title and main cover line. The main image also shows “The Strikers Issue” and is in font of the image witch means that this bit of information is important and the makers of this magazine want people that are targeted to know about this and want it to be the third most important thing on the page. The Image and background is also grey and black as apposed to a children’s magazine where it is quite busy and has got lots of colour and things going on.

Main Cover Line - The main cover line being the exclusive bit, is very bold and you can’t really miss it. I think they put it with the yellow block with black bold font on it because further on down the page this is used but with a red block and white writing. They have tossed it up a bit and used colours that stand out a lot more. It also has iconic names and images there to disengage the people that don’t want to read on and engage the people that do want to read on.

Cover Lines – The cover lines make the magazine come together as a front cover and makes the magazine stand out from the rest due to the link back to the red title and the style of the main cover line with the red block and white writing witch links with the yellow block and black writing on the main cover line. It also has some recognizable footballers names witch concludes what the magazine is about had you not guessed already with the title, Main image or the main cover line.