Research – Magazine Cover 2 Total Film

Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features. Total Film has the largest circulation of any film magazine in the country, after Empire magazine.

Total Film specialises in a range of features, from interviews and photo shoots with established and up-and-coming actors and directors, to major film previews and retrospective pieces. All issues contain the Total Film Interview this is an in-depth chat with a celebrated actors or directors, along with a critique of their body of work.Total Film competes for the same sort of market as Empire Magazine, both place more emphasis on covering mainstream and popular films than smaller independent or art films and it also tends to take the same sort of reverent approach when reviewing new films.

The front cover of the issue of Total Film below features Sherlock Holmes as it was the big studio release of that month.

 

The magazine title is the biggest and boldest used on the cover. The colour scheme seems to be white and blue, this gives a distinctive feel to the cover. The main feature which is Sherlock Holmes film is plastered over almost half the page. The magazine also exploits a USP in the strap line "World Exclusive!". Other features inside are given less space and spread out around the periphery, but the use of large blue titles draws the attention to them.


Below are a few more that caught my attention, sometimes covers are dedicated to a theme, which in this case are comic book heroes. Also I noticed aside from their title Total Film are not afraid to experiment with different layouts for their features and tag lines.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Film

Research – Magazine Covers 1 Empire

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly, it is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain, consistently outselling its nearest market rival Total Film. Empire is popular because it tends to cover popular releases, is well informed as to what the tastes of popular culture are and it is irreverent in its approach when reviewing. It specialises in film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some unique regular features,  such as the "Classic Scene", this is a transcript from famous film scenes.

I will now begin to analyze one of the Empire magazines covers in detail.

  

Empire magazines are known for using a lot of different fonts and sizes on their magazines. The featured film on the cover is Sin City which is given the main prominence. The main picture is of John Hartigan played by Bruce Willis from the film Sin City. The magazine also shows a number of unique selling points. For example interviews, previews, DVD reviews and movie reviews. This will attract people to what’s inside the magazine.


Below are a few more that caught my attention:

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_%28film_magazine%29

Research – Magazine Covers

I have just started to look into making the front cover for our magazine. To do so I decided to research into magazine covers this is so I can distinguish the features that all magazine covers have. And what other unique selling features they add for the magazine to stand out and draw people’s attention. Most magazines features have the following:

 

• The Magazine Title
• A few articles that will be featured inside the Magazine
• A Bar Code
• A Tag Line
• A Dateline
• A Selling Line
• Free Posters or front cover DVD

My Film Poster - Hood In Da Wood

After the research I did on film posters I gained many ideas on how to construct my own poster. I wanted to include some of the poster techniques and elements I researched. For example the rule of space, typography and genre conventions. Unfortunately I can’t use star appeal as there are no famous actors in my trailer. 

I started with a royalty free image of a forest silhouette from Deviant Art. I manipulated it together with an image of a full moon enlarged and used as the back drop to make my film poster. I used Photoshop to manipulate all the images and text in my poster and had to reacquaint myself with some of the tools in the software. 

Below you can see the poster in progress. I started by merging the moon and forest silhouette together and then using a blood red monochrome filter I incorporated a genre convention.

 

I had a lot of fun designing this poster particularly as I used funny in jokes and quotes only my friends and family would understand, for me this gave it that finishing touch. I also played about with the glow and texture to make sure the quotes stood out. I did have trouble with the colour gradient for a while which I achieved through trial and error. Initially the image I made was in landscape orientation while the poster was in portrait orientation. Initially there was a black bar above the moon which I wanted to avoid, I wanted to match the background with the picture and wanted it to blend in with the different shades of dark red to black. Through trial and error using the colour gradient tool I managed to get a pretty close match. There was still a faint line that was noticeable, here I plastered the title across it and raised the external glow, this masked the join effectively. For the title I used the font "cracked", this had the right sinister feel to it that I felt matched the theme of the poster. Below you can see the finished film poster.

Research – Film Poster Strapline

This is the line of text on a movie poster that gives us a little more insight into the film, sometimes creating Enigma.

 

• Strapline gives us a clue that this is a crime film.
  
• The Strapline “Welcome to the bank robbery capital of America” clarifies this is a crime film but we know exactly what to expect because the word “Bank robbery” suggests there will be a bank robbery of a lifetime. This also ties in with the image of the people wearing the disguises. 

I will use this research to help prepare my own poster incorporating some of these techniques.

Research – Film Poster Rule Of Eyeline

This is when a character on the poster is looking somewhere and you follow their eyeline. 

• Girl is afraid and is trying to look back. We follow her eyeline and look at the shadow behind.
  
  
• The film makers and poster designers have used Rule of Eyeline on this poster to draw the audience’s attention to where the girl is looking.  This makes us feel uneasy because we can see what she can’t see, which is why the expression on her face it is terrifying.  Interestingly, when this happens, our eyes are also guided straight away.

Research – Film Poster Rule Of Space

This is where large expanses of the poster do not contain an image or detail. 

 

• Large black space here suggests something lurking in the shadows, maybe something that is about to get her.
  
  
• Here, the large expanse of black space around the girl’s face makes us feel as though there is something threatening and frightening lurking in the shadows. Shadows are a horror convention.

Research – Film Poster Typography

This is when fonts are used to create an image of the film, matching the genre. 

• The font looks spooky and ghostly and matches the theme of the title
  
• The typography used in the poster highlights this is horror genre because it suggests a supernatural/sci fi theme from the spooky font used for the title. The writing also looks like the mist.

Research – Film Posters Genre Conventions

These are rules of the genre, certain storylines or features we expect to see from a specific genre.

• Black white and red colours are commonly used in horror film posters; they signify good, evil and blood these are known as the typical conventions of a horror film.
  
  
• There is a shadow on the door but no one is standing there to make that shadow also signifies that it is a horror film.
  
• The title also gives it away by saying paranormal which means anything that is beyond or contrary to what is deemed scientifically possible.

Research – Film Posters Iconography

This is use of images that we associate with certain genres (this is also closely linked to Genre Conventions). 

• The stars on his shoulders originate with the Russian mafia. This means it’s going to be about another gangster film. These stars symbolize discipline, tradition and status.
  
  
• When we see the iconic tattoos used in the film poster we immediately know that this is associated with a crime film even if we may not be aware the Russian mafia have anything to do with it 

Research – Film Poster Enigma Codes

These are the questions created in the audience’s minds from the images and text on the poster (enigma’ means mystery). If you want the questions answered, you have to watch the film.

 

• We wonder why there is a boy coming out of Gerard Butler. Also the question ‘Who’s Playing You?’ makes us think about what this film might be about.
• The audience is tempted to see this film because the poster poses many enigmas and we want to know why, as a result we are more likely to go and see it.

Research – Film Poster Cinema Marketing

This is when a film poster encourages you to watch the film in the cinema NOW rather than waiting for DVD release. Film companies can make more money, more quickly this way. 

• Emphasises is also on the excitement of it being in 3D, it’s even been incorporated as the same size of the Shrek title.
• The film-makers here actively encourage the audience to watch the film in the cinema so they can experience Shrek for the last time in 3D.