Research into Film Magazine Covers

Conducting this research I found two magazine covers in which I am going analyse the conventions within it. Magazine covers promote popularity of a film, fans of the film and those interested in watching it will want to buy the magazine in order to gain more information about the characters and the plot of the story. Using a magazine cover would draw in more audiences and make your film more popular.

The first magazine cover I found was 'Total Film' the cover illustrates the popular sequel 'New Moon'. The positioning of the characters portrays the basis of what the film is about, Bella is being protected by Jacob away from Edward. Jacob acts as a dominant factor within the magazine cover and he appears his usual strong, heroic character. Edward and Jacob are back to back, which illustrates the friction they have in their relationship. This is a good element in a magazine cover because even through the image the characters traits are still portrayed and loved by audiences. Under the title there is a strap line which says 'How the Twilight saga took over Hollywood'- this suggests that the saga of both books and film are very popular in America and potentially across the world, this promotes the books prestige and popularity because more audiences will be drawn to a well liked film and would investigate into whether they believe it to be good also.

The magazine cover is dominated by the title of the film 'New Moon'; this along with the characters draws audiences in who are already familiar with the films or books, creating a wide audience. The text and font used reflects the genre of the film, it is Gothic and edgy which parallel to the type of film which is a romantic fantasy. The title is also bright white which resembles a moon. The background shows a dark night with the silhouette of trees which develops the story further with it being a fantasy as the image looks mystical.

The main image of the characters show expressions of anxiety, worrying and fearful, which reflects the storyline and adds an element of mystery because audiences would want to discover what is happening between the characters. The target audience for this film would be teenagers because it represents a teenage love story, also, fans of the novel would also be targeted to watch this film, those who saw the previous films to this sequel would also be interested in watching it to discover what happens.

The second magazine cover I will analyse is from 'Empire' magazine, it illustrates the film Harry Potter 6, however the title in this cover is not as clear and bold as the previous cover, as I found it difficult to discover the title of the film. The title merges into the other writing with the cover and does not promote the film well. This could effect the portrayal of the film, as people are not aware of the sequel, but are still interested in watching the film, would not be able to recognise the character and find it confusing when finding the actual title for the film.

The left side third of the magazine cover shows 45 new must-see movies, Harry Potter is included in this list this shows that the film is popular within the film industry and many magazines, such as, Empire support it. this would entice audiences in because the magazine has named it a valuable must-see film to watch.

The image of the character Harry Potter dominates the magazine cover, the character is injured and he is pictured with blood and dirt upon his face and shattered glasses. This reveals what happens in the film and draws audiences in because they are fascinated by what might happen. The film is from a sequel of books so audiences would be interested in what happens in this story. Harry's face translates a face of anxiety but elements of power and pride still exist, the image portrays his character in a heroic way in the use of battle scars and dirt, it is almost as if they suggest that he will never be defeated.

The title of the magazine is written in red bold writing, this identifies the blood that this within the film. The boldness of the writing reflects the confidence of the character and the boldness he has used in real life to get through his situations. i think this convention was deliberate in explaining the characters motivation and boldness.

Although Harry is portrayed a bold unique boy he is still pictured in everyday, casual clothes which suggests that he has elements of normality within his life and he is not always a fighting, heroic wizard 24/7.