Evaluation for A2 Media Magazine

1. Germain Mamode
IN WHAT WAYS DOES MY MAGAZINE COVER USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. IN WHAT WAYS DOES IT USE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA?
• My front cover magazine uses a variety of conventional features from real empire magazines
so that it can be seen as a real replicate as much as possible. Firstly, I’d like to point out that
the “Empire” masthead logo was thoroughly cropped out of an image which I used from
google images of the Empire logo. I figured that this was the closest replicate and convention
as it would get to an actual empire magazine. It was too basic to pick a bold font from scratch to
quote “Empire” for my magazine as this was far from the real product which looked amateur. In
addition, all empire logos use the M letter to place the date and price of the magazine just
above the M and so I have also followed and used this convention in my front cover.

3. • After studying a few real empire
magazine covers closely, it also has a
simple 3 colour convention and this
is not just a convention of empire but a
convention magazine covers in
generally. In my magazine, it uses 3
simple colours: red, white and black to
really approach to audiences with clear
fonts that contrast each other. For
example, the white fonts stand out from
the dark background, the black fonts
has been given an outer glow effect to
also stand out from the dark
background and but to also be more
noticeable.

4. • Lastly, the red font which serves multiple purposes but mainly Red coloured font really suited
my magazine as it stands out from the background, main picture and can clearly be read for
audiences. It also aesthetically compliments the colour of the “Empire” masthead. Most of my
black and white fonts have been used for cover lines for other film features (e.g. Dark knight
rises or Avengers) so that there is a variation of films being featured in my front cover that
increases it’s appeal to audience. These colours are a bit more dull which is meant to keep its
attention minimal so that the more noticeable red is given attention. The red colour font is lion
king font and so the colour red symbolises danger and lust etc which I have associated the
sub-masthead “Anonymous” (title of the film) and its cover line (Life will never be the same
for detective Holloway) with. I believe this whole combination of red and snappy quote gives a
thrilling effect. Overall, the coverlines pull the attention of the audience and retain the style of
the magazine.

6. CONTINUED
• In general, all magazines have skylines and so does empire magazine covers. Studying these
magazines, my magazine also has a snappy skyline about films: quoting “The biggest year of movies
2015” to energize audience about this year’s line ups of films. The outer glow effect also springs
excitement to the skyline and sharpens the feature to be more noticeable. The spot feature also has
cover lines of cinematic films which would be previewed inside the magazine and critically this
feature d really pushes out these film labels to the attention of the audience, providing a
sophisticated content of films to be read.

7. • The main photographic picture uses
the conventional pose of real movie
magazines such as empire where the
character is directly staring at the
audience. Instantly on the shelf in a
store, the audience will be pulled in by
the direct eye contact of the main
character and this itself is already
establishing a bond between the
audience and the character. The lighter
flame has been sized up for more
noticeable effect and the cigarette prop
helps express that neo-noir genre as it
is very conventional as well as the shirt
and tie. The reasons I added these is
the exact same reason wolverine
displays his steel claws in the empire
issue so that the audience can be full
submerged into the fantasy of the
genre.

8. IN WHAT WAYS DOES IT DEVELOP FORMS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
• I believe that my magazine develops real magazine as it is
aesthetically pleasing to the neo-noir and has a simple but yet
effective colour co-ordination. The black and white background is the
foundation for the eye catching combination of the colours of the font
as well as the main picture. The way I have added an effect to my
main image also develops real magazine pictures as it adds curiosity
and more personality to the main picture as it implies that there is
more going on, on the front cover. In addition, many magazines do
not have a link to their websites or the site of the film I believe my
cover is developmental in this area as it is really focusing on the film.
The front cover is therefore providing everything it can for the
audience to feed and access about the film and so this is very
important for extreme fans and movie addicts. The website link is not
focused on very much but it is still very visible and noticeable at the
end of the masthead and so it will give way more details then what
would be inside the magazine.

9. • In addition my magazine has an arch in the sub masthead – the film title and so this
literally does bend the conventional straight titles slightly compared to real magazine
covers and I believe this is way better than dull straight titles. The arched title
appears out of the magazine more, particularly with the drop shadow effect and
overall makes the magazine look more different.

11. IN WHAT WAYS DOES IT CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
• First of all I believe that the cover line
layouts for the other films challenge the
conventional layouts of empire magazine.
As you can see on my front cover “the
dark knight rises: betrayal is just the
begging” are close together and in
different colours and so this is because I
want to make sure that these cover lines
are clearly seen together. However, below
the cover lines are separated to
distinguish the stories and these are also
different colours whereas in some of the
empire magazine the colours would be the
same. I therefore wanted black and white
for a contrast and variation when they are
next to each other.

12. • My main picture is slightly differentiating
from some of the pictures of real empire
magazines as it is close up of the
character whereas real empire
magazines would have medium to long
shots to establish the full posture and
emotional of their film characters.
However mine focuses on his facial
expression and his emotional stress as a
hard working detective as you can clearly
see by his fatigued eyes and his cigarette
(stress reliever).

13. • The background of my magazine is a real background of a town
which I took myself and so looking back at empire magazine, their
backgrounds are plain edited colours from Photoshop which has
now become the conventions of their magazine. I believe that my
background is different and actually relates to the genre and dark
theme or mood of my overall magazine that I am trying to create.
Therefore this feature of my magazine is challenging the
background picture of empire magazines as well as other real
media magazines and it really does establish a setting or
background for the audience to get a preview or idea and a
connection of what they are in for.