Brief film magazine analysis for A2 Media research.

1. Film Magazine analysis

2. As a result of my upcoming movie Sacrilege, it is of paramount importance to undertake thorough research in
regards to both the suitable choice of advertisement via media texts, and the audiences attracted to such matter.
More on, due to Sacrilege’s controversial USP (Unique Selling Point) broadcasting the film within a mainstream
movie magazine may not be applicable. However, attributable to the movies popular production associations,
featuring Sacrilege in a renowned Indie movie magazine may also be problematic. Therefore a potential solution
would be to perhaps avoid using potentially offensive imagery on the front cover, or discover a magazine which not
only maintains the same amount of followings as popular magazines such as Empire, but also allows the iconography
desired to be published.
A common convention within film movie magazine covers is for the main image to depict cast, producers or
directors in their usual attire with no connotations to their genre of film or character played. When taking into
consideration the unsettling artistic mode of address that Sacrilege presents, following such conventions wouldn’t
be suitable- nor would it gain a wider audience due to the lack of established cast and directors.
Contrary to the aforementioned, Sacrilege is still in partnership with Lionsgate Productions, reinforcing the decision
of avoiding Indie magazines, and the idea to tone down potential blasphemous imagery.

3. INDIE MAGAZINE ANALYSIS
Although the previous slide dismisses the idea of advertising Sacrilege in an indie magazine, it is crucial to continue
researching such magazines in the aim to gain a wider knowledge on film magazines as a whole. Despite being
labelled in the same ‘Indie’ magazine genre, there are still established indie magazines and magazines that aren’t as
well known, this is evident in these two examples. The focal point of ‘Creepy Images’ is evidentially the film villain
depicted, accompanied with the title being an obvious horror association- primarily because the name ‘creepy
images’ in itself is a horror aesthetic, along with the threatening colour scheme. With this in mind, Creepy Images
would most likely be an appropriate magazine for featuring dystopian-horror hybrid genre movies, although the strict
horror-only features may potentially eliminate the raw, uneasy mode of address that Sacrilege presents, and could
even appear quite tacky and unrealistic. More on, after looking at other issues of Creepy Images Magazine, it is quite
apparent that the purpose of this magazine is to appeal to those interested in old horror movie memorabilia as it
states in its USP (‘ The world’s first fanzine entirely devoted to rare and hard to find horror- and exploitation-
memorabilia from the 60s to the early 80s…’)
Despite this, a horror magazine (which doesn’t restrict itself to old movies ONLY), could potentially increase
Sacrilege’s followings, predominantly because these magazines are renowned for having a cult-like niche
purchasers, an audience Sacrilege is targeting. Finally, the overall colour scheme of Creepy Images isn’t one we will
take inspiration from, thus being due to the ‘B-Movie’ sort of style that Creepy Images presents.

4. INDIE MAGAZINE ANALYSIS
The cover for Little White Lies features artistic iconography, an idea we wanted to use for Sacrilege’s
magazine shoot. However, the style of art that Little White Lies are renowned for is mainly traditional
‘art’ such as images edited to appear painted as such, whereas the magazine cover for sacrilege
would be an artistic representation of both myself and Charlotte’s viewpoint on religion. However
contrary to Creepy Images, the aesthetic of Little White Lies is more suitable for conveying the
creepy unsettling mode of address that Sacrilege presents, this is attributable to the high art
represented in the covers. The face of this cover doesn’t provide hints to the film, or even any form of
media text- it only states the title of the magazine, and allows the image to manipulate the audience,
even more so those interested in obscurities. It could be deduced that this issue is portraying a horror
genre from the usual horror conventions, such as absence of eyes, even more so on what appears to
be a porcelain doll face. For this reason, we will take inspiration from Little White Lies when creating
our magazine covers, or certainly this issue.

5. An established movie magazine such as Empire is a potential magazine we would work with to advertise Sacrilege, primarily due
to the high quality films it reviews. Overall, this issue appeals to me as the ambience maintains a disturbing vibe without the
excessive use of gore, or other usual horror conventions. When considering the aforementioned, this convention of magazine is
most applicable for Sacrilege, as the threat is subtly implied, without directly being known. Not only does this evoke audiences
curiosity as to what the threat is, but from an artistic point of view, the image is quite striking. I aim to captivate the audience
via the iconography alone, as this in effect will intrigue the audience and leave a lasting impression. The magazine cover is the
most critical selling point of the magazine as it enables the audience to directly engage with the text without even opening the
magazine, especially as the majority of potential customers initially judge a magazine by the cover. For this reason, bold
features are a necessity, however I would like the iconography to single-handedly persuade potential customers into not only
purchasing the said magazine, but to also view the film.
When analysing this cover it becomes apparent that the obvious use of highlights and emphasis of shadows could infer the
misconception that light and dark colours represent good and bad, this being a recurrence in horror films. In addition the man
depicted In this image is almost lost in the shadows, accompanied by the title of ‘THE EXORCIST' suggesting that he is the
figure of authority, and in this case the hero. This is reinforced by his god-like appearance silhouetted under the ominous evil
shades of the night, as his figure is stood under the only source of light and the ‘good’. In summary, Empire magazine displays
the most appropriate structural format for a dystopian-horror hybrid genre, it also broadcasts to the maximum following
available, especially when compared to other magazines, therefore potentially widening sacrilege’s fan base.
MAINSTREAM MAGAZINE ANALYSIS