Magazine Cover Analysis

As part of our coursework, along with the film trailer we have to create a magazine cover which features our film 'Raze' on the cover. In order to do this, I will look at and analyse typical film magazine covers which i think are effective and eye-catching. Magazines such as Empire, Total Film and Sight & Sound are good examples of magazines to research in order to design and create our own film cover. Magazines are a primary way to promote upcoming films with cast interviews and film reviews, as well as TV promotion and viral videos and advertising. As magazines are fantastic ways to promote and review films as well as effectively target an audience I will look at some of the best examples I have found of effective and successful film magazine covers.

Empire

Here is an Empire cover for the release of 'Batman: The Dark Knight' which features the character 'The Joker', played by Heath Ledger, on the front cover. I think this is striking and strong magazine cover as the character's face looks sinister and threatening, making it a very intriguing and chilling front cover which would grab attention from the audience. Ledger's character is recognisable straight away as he has got the creepy, clown-like makeup with the pale skin, smudged red lips and yellow-green hair, depicting him to be the antagonist of the film just from this unnerving portrait. The way his face looks out the darkness with his face tucked down and eyes looking up, making his eye sockets look dark and shadowed creates a frightening and intimidating cover with the face filling up almost the whole of the front cover. The film logo is placed well against the pale white skin of the character which makes it stand out well to a reader. I also like how the logo of the magazine as well as the typography used on the cover matches the image as it is highlighted in a bright green which pops out on the dark background and the pale looming face of 'The Joker'.

Here is another Empire cover which promotes the release of 'Hellboy 2' in the cinema. This, again, is a very bold and striking front cover, especially with the magazine logo ignited in flames behind the 'Hellboy' character is very eye catching and links directly to the connotations that come with the word 'hell'. The main image of 'Hellboy' is bold and powerful, in a blood red colour with a fairly intimidating and confrontational expression and position on the centre of the poster. This makes this poster very effective when appealing to an audience as the image is very powerful and bold which would stand out, making it a good example of a successful film magazine cover used to promote a film. The fact that the character looks similar to what the Devil is supposed to look like makes this image quite controversial and striking as it is quite a frightening and creepy image of the character who is clenching his fist with the other hand resting on it, again making him appear very intimidating, suggesting that his character is very strong and perhaps violent and confrontational.

Total Film

Here is a Total Film cover that features the 2010 release 'Salt', starring Angelina Jolie. This cover represents this film as a gritty, action-packed thriller by the use of a blurred, flaming background. The use of this orange colour gives the idea of fire, with the colours representing heat, anger and passion which are also very bold, bright and eye catching. The logo for the magazine is designed to look like a smashed mirror, which again depicts the film as perhaps being quite violent with action-packed scenes of fights and destruction. Jolie's pose of the cover is very serious but mysterious with a 'secret agent' - type vibe as she is holding a gun in her hands, highlighting that she is a powerful, independent and perhaps dangerous but authoritative character in the film. The film name is in large, capital letters in a slightly pale and transparent, striped font which adds to the mysterious image of Jolie which would make the film seem appealing to fans of Jolie or action/thriller movies.

Here is a cover to promote the release of 'Inception'. The cover features Leonardo DiCaprio which straight away appeals to an audience who are familiar with his work or are fans of his. His character is depicted as being quite authoritative as he is wearing a suit and tie which straight away tells the audience he is an important and respected character in the film. His face is half lit by a dim light and he is holding a torch which suggests that the film is quite dark, secretive and perhaps sinister. The colours of this image are mainly blue which give connotations of coldness and sadness, in contrast to the bright red bits of typography that are on the cover which represent heat, blood and anger which implies that this film will be quite chilling and sinister with scenes of fast-paced and thrilling action and perhaps love scenes. The magazine logo is created with birds-eye images of buildings in the shapes of the letters which is a very clever and effective way of incorporating the film that is featured into the magazine properly by adapting the logo to the film. The use of these buildings create a mysterious and secretive effect which suggests that this thriller/action film may be based around a heist, for example, which involves the use of maps. The film title is in metallic grey, capital letters across the character's chest which stands out against the black and blue colours and the tag line underneath it which says 'Inside the ultimate head trip' implies that the film will be confusing and very psychological which some people may not understand.

Sight & Sound

Here is a cover for Sight & Sound which presents 'Public Enemies' as the focal point for this issue of the magazine. This cover is effective as the image is striking as it combines all the features of the film into one image which represents it perfectly. The dress code of Johnny Depp's character depicts the film to be set in the past in or around the 1930s. The fact he is holding a large gun in his hands with a focused but smug expression on his face represents the character as being a self-assured criminal. this is also supported by the typography on the cover as it reads 'gangster's special' in very large white lettering, making it the most eye-catching piece of writing on the cover, even above the film title or magazine logo. The red blood splatter in the background behind the character suggests the film is an action-packed crime thriller which involves quite a lot of violence and bloodshed in it. These ideas also come with the connotations you get from the word 'gangster' which is also supported with the stereotypical looking 1930s gangster with a machine gun, dark suit and fedora hat. The use of various types of typography is also interesting as there is a bold font teamed with two styles of hand-written scripts and an old-fashioned style typeface which is effective in highlighting the different features and parts of the texts. The logo does not adapt to the film on the cover which I think makes the cover a bit less effective than the others as the logo does not match the image and features on the page, but it is striking in the bold and bright colours which are used.

This is a Sight & Sound cover which is a special edition for the Cannes Film festival. The cover features well-known actress Penelope Cruz holding a knife. The image is eye catching because it is shocking as she is holding a blood-covered knife with a crazed and angry but subtle look on her face which makes this cover very interesting. The fact that she is holding a knife depicts the film to be about violence and murder and specifically a female involvement in crime which is unusual to a crime/horror genre as males are usually depicted as the antagonists or ones who do wrong. The colours behind her are also blood red, indicating themes of, again, violence and anger. The typography is in a bold white font which stands out against the dark-coloured red of the background but the general layout if not particularly interesting and again the magazine logo is not edited or altered to match or compliment the image like the other magazines do. The layout is a typical and standard format for this magazine with the features listed to the left of the cover.