Magazine Front Cover Analysis

I will be analysing 4 different magazine covers including 2 different film genre magazines, one international film magazine and a magazine of a completely different genre. I am doing this to research the common codes and conventions of a film magazine, and through comparison with a magazine of a different genre I will determine the similarities and differences between the film genre and other genres.

Masthead The typography is in a very plain, sans serif yet bold and striking typography. The boldness of the letters combined with the use of a drop shadow makes this masthead stand out very clearly. The masthead itself being Total Film gives away the magazines genre entirely as it expresses the word Film in such a bold manor.

Cover lines Capitalised to draw attention, used to show a preview of whats included and to entice the reader into reading articles within the magazine. Follow the magazines colour scheme by using blue and black fonts. These cover lines follow the rule of thirds and are situated down the sides of the page, to appear more structured and classy, contrasting with OK magazine which Colour Scheme As the main image consists of intends to appear cluttered and busy, representing mostly various shades of blue and parts of black and a lower class audience. white, the colour scheme centers around this. Coverlines on the page are all written in the same blue, the main coverline consists of both blue and white and other smaller text on the page is in black. This colour scheme using 3 colours appears crisp, clean, and classy as the colours go well together making the page visually appealing. This class that the colour scheme represents also represents a mature audience. Date, Issue & Price Common convention of any magazine of any genre. Included in very small text as it is not of most significance to attracting the viewer, Compared to cheaper magazines such as OK which i analysed, as they include their price in large to gain attention as their cheap price is one of their main selling points. Layout This layout follows the rule of thirds as there appears to be 3 main split sections to the page. This is a common convention of a magazine front cover, which generally applies to slightly higher priced magazines as in comparison, a cheaper magazine I analysed, shows no clear layout. The use of this layout appears neat and structured, looks sophisticated and visually appealing, attracting the target audience, being those of higher class, I.e. A/ B/ c1 Main Cover line This is the anchorage text, associated with the main image of the cover, clearly shown through the way it accomplishes the main image. A very large, eye-catching feature on the page which is centred over the main image of Robert Downey Jr. The way in which the text follows central down the page along with the main image appears neat and visually appealing, clearly showing theyre related. The varied fonts within this main cover line contrast each other through colour and typography, which stands out. The serif font further represents the maturity of the magazine and its educated, high class (A/B/C1) target audience.

Main Image Main Image is a medium close-up of film star Robert Downey Jr, representing the film genre of the magazine clearly. The main image takes up 50% of the page and is made central to immediately draw attention. Direct address has been used to entice the reader and engage them in the story. This main image subverts Laura Mulveys theory of the Male gaze, the same as Empire magazine has done, by including a male character. They have done this to represent their target audience, being those with psychographics of interest in film. This type of audience is more interested in the content of the magazine, and the concept of film and big actors, ratrher than the stereotypical idea that they would be interested in attractive women on the cover. This is different to OK! Magazine as they intend to attract a lower class audience whos psychographics are interest in gossip and fashion, so they use the male gaze theory to attract such women who idolise the attractive women on the cover. The mise-en-scene shows a misty, cold setting which is enforced through the costume of a large thick black coat, jumper and shirt, suggesting a cold, icy environment. The colour scheme has been used to center around this theme, with the use of white, black and blue. His serious expression also represents a mature audience. The main image of this front cover is clear to see and dominates the page, whereas cheaper magazines such as OK include many large sub-images similar to the main image making it difficult to determine which is the main story. Generally, cheaper magazines are much busier.

Compared to the bollywood magazine I analysed, Stardust, this main image appears much more crisp, has been edited much more in detail, whereas Stardusts appears quite basic and poorly edited. This is because this magazine has been made with more advanced software due to a high budget and big company. Stardust, being a magazine of a third world country, appears much less quality as it is a lower budget magazine made with less advanced and cheaper software.

Colour Scheme A 3-colour colour scheme, consisting of red, white and black. These colours are simple, bold and contrast well with each other and are commonly used in magazine colour schemes. Black appears to dominate the page, representing a male audience as this magazine falls under the category of Male Entertainment. These colours also relate to the main image, being spiderman theme, which the target audience, being those whos psychographics contain interest in film, will recognise this and more likely want to buy it. Masthead Written in a sharp, bold capitalised typography, the masthead stands out well, especially against the dark background. The name Empire connotes power and authority, suggesting the power and popularity of the magazine. This masthead is almost always written in red and has made itself memorable through its unique look and typography. It has been written across the top of the page, just like Total Film, being a common convention of film magazines. OK! Magazine features its masthead in the top left corner rather than across the entire top, which most cheap magazines conventionally do so that they can include more on the page. Tagline This tagline reads The worlds best movie magazine which states the popularity and bigness of the magazine, attracting the viewer as it gives them legitimacy as a movie magazine. This also clearly shows the magazines genre as it states it clearly.

Date, Issue & Price Common convention of any magazine of any genre. Included in very small text as it is not of most significance to attracting the viewer, as I said before is different compared to cheaper magazines who use their cheap price as a bold selling point.

Main Image Main Image is a medium closeup of film star Tobey Maguire in his famous role Spiderman. The image overlaps the masthead making it stand out and making it the focal point of the cover. Fans of previous films would recognise this and therefore be attracted to the magazine and know clearly of the magazines genre. Would also attract those with psychographics of interest in film, which the magazine intends to. He uses direct address which engages the reader in the image, enticing them into reading more. His costume is clear to be popular spidermans costume, but is featured in black as apposed to its usual colours, which is new and suggests to the reader that new information about the film is exclusively included in this magazine. His pose is also the well known Spiderman pose which fans would recognise. His serious facial expression and use of these new dark colours suggest this film will be more serious and filled with action. The use of this main image and particular film represents a male target audience.

This front cover subverts Laura Mulveys theory of The Male Gaze as rather than using a stereotypical image of an attractive woman, they have used a male actor as they are representing a mature audience whos psychographics show strong interest in film, so they have no need to attract their audience through stereotypical methods like cheap magazines like OK! do. Barcode Common convention of all magazines, included in small as it is least important.
Sub Images These are included small similar to Total Film magazine, as they intend to draw attention mainky to their main image and not have a busy page. These 2 magazines both do this as they are of similar price and the same genre, whereas cheaper magazines like OK include numerous large sub-images and appear busier and cheaper. Also, compared to this, the Bollywood magazine cover I analysed features quite large sub-images as they intend to bring attention to other big actors/films in their magazine, as apposed this magazine which is only promoting one film.

This cover line features a special offer unique to this magazine. The word Free has been capitalised and written in a large bold font to catch the readers eye as it encourages them to buy the magazine as they will receive something free.
Layout Conventional layout, central main image with cover lines surrounding. Slightly busier and more random than Total film magazine which had a clear columnised layout. This busier layout connotes business and action, suggesting this magazine is jam packed with stuff, and also represents a slightly lower class audience than Total Film, perhaps of class C1 and C2.

Colour Scheme This colour scheme consists of Price Contrasting with the two film magazines I more than 3 colours compared to Empire and Total analysed, the price of this magazine is included as a film, and uses very bright contrasting colours such large, bold feature on the page, as being a cheaper as pink, blue, yellow, white and red. These colours magazine for a lower class of D/E audience, their cheap appear bright and eye-catching, however are not as price is one of their main selling points. It also is one of tasteful and well put together as the film magazines I the main focal points on the page, as it is put in a analysed, as these more expensive magazines contrasting colour to the rest of the page making it stand intend to look structured and classy. This tacky out the most, as they want the viewer to see the price. colour scheme represents a cheap magazine, and a low class (D/E) audience. These colours in particular are quite feminine, representing a female audience also. Masthead The masthead being OK! appears casual and informal, and connotes that this is a friendly, casual, chatty magazine, whereas film magazines like Empire connote maturity and power, and appear more formal. This masthead further represents a low class, informal audience. It is not as big a feature on the page compared to the other film magazines, including the foreign one Stardust, which I analysed. This is because their magazine is not as popular and recognisable as these other big film magazines who use their masthead to attract their audience. By including their masthead in the corner of the page, they have more room to include more content to enforce their cluttered look, as they intend to look jam-packed, a magazine full of a lot for the small price. Cover lines There are many cover lines scattered amongst the page in bold coloured fonts, against coloured boxes used to all stand out. The use of many cover lines scattered on the cover connotes that this magazine is jam-packed and full of loads of articles. The words World Exclusive are used many times, emphasizing the exclusivity of the magazines contents. Their cover lines appear to be placed randomly, and do not follow the rule of thirds like the big film magazines Total Film and Empire. This is because these other magazines represent a higher class audience, so structure their page to appear smart and classy. This magazine intends to look informal, and casual, with a cluttered look to attract an informal, less educated audience of lower classes D and E.

Main Image & Sub Images Its not as clear to tell which is the main image and main story, whereas Empire and Total Film have a clear main image and main cover line. This is due to the class of the magazine and audience, as this cheaper magazine has included many sub-images to show the amount included in the magazine for the cheap price, whereas Empire and Total Film are more expensive and they intend to look more formal and sophisticated, in representing a higher class audience, with more spendiong power. Many of the sub-images on this cover feature attractive women posed, and made to look good. This follows Laura Mulveys theory of The male gaze, not in the way that men look at the women as objects, because this is a magazine aimed at females, but in the way that women will look at these women as an object also, and idolise them, making them want to read more as they want to look/be like these women. The fact that all these images feature celebrities represents the genre of the magazine, being a casual Celebrity gossip magazine, which in itself represents a low class D&E, young female audience as they are generally the ones most interested in this genre. Their psychographics would include interest in celebrities, lifestyle, current affairs, and gossip.

Layout The layouts unclear and just appears random, everything scattered on the page. This is very different to magazines of the film genre which generally use the rule of thirds and keep their covers structured. This difference represents the price and formality of each magazine, as a clear, structured and clean layout shows sophistication and formality, whereas this lay out looks busy and cheap, connoting the magazines cheap price and informality and casualness. Represents a low class audience with low spending power.

Stardust is an Indian monthly Bollywood film, news and gossip magazine published in English and Hindi. The magazine is published by Mumbai-based Magna Publishing Co. Ltd. and was started by Nari Hira in 1971. It became popular under the editorship of noted journalist, author and columnist, Shobhaa De after 1995.
Masthead This masthead conventionally stretches across the top of the page as the other English film magazines do, however this masthead is uniquely curved in an unconventional way. I believe this is what makes this magazine memorable to those who view it in India, giving the magazine recognition. Its written in a unique typography that appears quite old fashioned, and western American. This gives the magazine a vintage look, and also gives it an old fashioned American kinf of feel. This links with the main image in which the mise-en-scene shows a man posing with his thumb in his pocket, almost cowboy like, and links with his old-fashioned/rock themed comstume. The way this masthead curves also matches this western style look. Colour Scheme Mainly enforced through the background of the cover, this colour scheme consists of white, black and various shades of orange and blue. These colours connote an exotic location and feel to the magazine, representing the bollywood side to this film genre magazine. This differs from the two other film magazines I analysed as they both used a three-colour colour scheme to look classy and structured, whereas this bollywood magazine does not appear as high class. This is due to the lower budget this magazine has, due to being in a third world country, whereas Total Film and Empire are expensively made through big companies and advanced technology. Layout This layout looks quite cluttered and does not follow the rule of thirds like Total Film and Empire do, and instead is similar to the busy layout of OK! Magazine. This is because this magazine is cheaper than the other two film magazines, so represents an audience with lower spending power like OK! does. This layout is not as advanced and structured as Total Film and Empire as this magazine has a much lower budget being of a third world country.

Main Image This main image is much more clearly seen as the main image which differs from OK! Magazine and is similar to Total Film and Empire. It conventionally overlaps the masthead, making it stand out, like Total Film and Empire have done. The mise-en-scene shows us a medium close-up of an Indian man, thus representing the location and target audience of the magazine, standing in such a way that connotes a western American look, with his hand in his pocket and his head tilted, with a serious expression which uses direct address. This western American look relates to the masthead of the magazine, and the exotic colour scheme. His outfit consists of regular blue jeans and a leather jacket, which is associated with American old style rock and roll, which further relates to the oldfashioned American theme of the magazine. The quality of the image, like the poor quality cutting around the man, shows the low standard of software they use due to their low budget, and third world country. Sub Images These sub images are very large, so make the cover look busy and cluttered, representing the low class audience and cheap price. These also feature Indian actors, representing the location of the magazine and the demographics of an Indian ethnicity audience. These are perhaps famous Indian actors, so are featured quite large on the page as well as the main image to attract the viewer through connection with these actors, which the reader will associate with this magazine and want to read it. Barcode This barcode has been placed quite large, in an unusual, unconventional place on the page. This further shows the low quality and lack of advanced software that the magazine uses, due to its low budget.

Cover lines These cover lines are all bold, and scattered amongst the page randomly much similar to OK! Magazine, as they represent a lower class audience of classes D/E, whos psychographics consist of living in a third world country, and have low spending power This contrasts with the two english film magazines I analysed, as their target audience are the opposite being those of higher classes A/B and C1, with much higher spending power. The cover lines are capitalised, in a bold font, in various colours so that they contrast well from each other and stand out, and appear eye-catching to the viewer.