This is my magazine overview for a2 media studies.

1. Magazine Overview

2. These eight magazine front covers have been designed to
successfully promote films from a range of genres. The ‘Fangoria’
magazine focuses solely on horror movies, whilst ‘Total Film’ and
‘Empire’ look at a broad range of film genres. By carrying out an
investigation of them and by comparing them to each other, it is
possible to identify shared features throughout them, and establish
repeated patterns.
All eight of these magazine front covers feature typical film
magazine front cover conventions, for example, the masthead is
positioned in the top middle, attracting the audience straight away
into the magazine. Also, apart from the ‘Total Film’ featuring
Megan Fox on the front, all of these magazine covers have the
name of the film that the ‘cover model’ is from, written in bigger
font that the other sub-headings. This makes that film stand out,
and creates a symbiosis with the image. The models on the front
are also presented in character, not as the actors who play them.
This creates a sense of reality for the audience, drawing fans in
and immediately telling the audience more about what type of film
it is.
On all of these film magazines, the character on the front is making
direct address with the audience through the use of eye contact;
this attracts them to the magazine, making them feel like they
should buy it. The main character features on all of these front
covers. For the magazines advertising a horror, the eye contact
adds to the fear factor, making the audience think that the
antagonist is going to ‘come for them’ next. A variety of shots are
used, ranging from long shots to close ups – this makes it hard to
find a common convention for the shot type used. However, apart
from ‘Empire’ featuring the Joker, all of these images are placed in
front of a plain background; this means that the attention is placed
on the character and the subheadings, not the location.
There is also a consistent pattern with regards to colour; red,
white, black, and blue are dominantly used throughout all of these
magazine front covers. These are bright colours, which would
attract the audience to the magazine. Also, no more than three
main colours are used on each of these covers; this keeps it
simple and not too crowded with colour as this could put the
audience off. The colours used will often help create a symbiosis
with other promotional material, such as posters, which feature the
same colours.

3. The masthead always uses capital letters and is in bubble writing,
and bold print in order to make it stand out; symbiosis is kept in
each magazine by keeping the masthead the same, allowing
audience’s to easily recognise it. Total Film and Empire magazines
have consistent mastheads, with one simple colour featuring.
Fangoria magazine however has one colour with a white outline,
linking to the idea of innocence and horror films. The masthead is
also placed on top of the images on Fangoria, whereas it’s placed
both on top of and behind the images for total film and empire.
This tells us that Fangoria is a less popular franchise.
The name of the main film is usually placed at the bottom, apart
from the Joker, and Anchorman Two. This is because the
audience will look from the masthead at the top, down to the
image, and down to the name of the film. Another common feature
across all of these magazine front covers is having the
subheadings at the sides of the magazine. Also, all of these
magazines feature a skyline, revealing more information about the
magazine to the audience, for example ‘hot summer preview’ and
‘up – Sherlock Holmes – potter 5’. This would attract audiences as
they’re told about what other films are going to be included in the
magazine, and why they should buy it.
Most of these magazine front covers use dark lighting; this makes
the image stand out more, and for the horror magazines, increases
fear. A puff also appears on four out of eight of these magazine;
half of them. This is a common feature on magazine, attracting the
audience with usually something that is only featured in that
magazine, or a free gift to entice them. The puff is often placed on
the side, by the main sell-line in a colour that will attract audiences
to it.
On most of these posters, the barcode is placed at the bottom and
is small in size. This is done to ensure that no attention is taken
away from the important aspects of the magazine front cover.
Also, audiences will have already decided to buy the magazine
before they look at the price; this links to the idea that the price is
hidden and small.
All of these magazine front covers have been made to ensure that
they’re not too overcrowded, and that it is dominated by image.
Both of these conventions will ensure that audiences are attracted

4. to the magazine, leading them to buy it, increasing readership. By
completing this magazine overview, it has helped me to
understand how I should lay out the magazine front cover that I will
be making, and what sort of colours I should pick to dominate the
page.