The document summarizes the design elements of a magazine cover created to advertise the film "BLACKOUT". The main image features the lead actor Sean Welsh with his mouth covered by tape with the word "HELP" painted on it, alluding to themes in the film and his character's situation. A purple border is used around the splash text advertising the film to match the tape and signify the actor is "exciting". Other typical magazine sections like additional stories and the masthead identifying it as a Sight and Sound publication are included to match the style of that magazine.

1. Main Image: The main image and the cover story of the
magazine revolves around Sean Welsh, the main actor from our
film, ‘BLACKOUT’. We’ve used this to advertise our film to
audiences who have a sophisticated interest in films as he’s an
unknown actor rising in fame due to the recognition being given to
him and the niche films he features in. The image is desaturated to
connote the seriousness of the interview as well as to conform to
the fact that noir films were archetypally black and white and as so
it acts as a reference to our noir film ‘BLACKOUT’. Sean has his
mouth covered not only to connote the fact that the subject
matter of the interview is something that people of power want to
be kept secret, but also as a reference to the convention of classic
noir films that the protagonist is exploited and put in situations of
danger. This connotation is furthered by the fact that ‘HELP’ is
painted on the tape.
Splash: The splash is the text found underneath the main
title and image. We used the same typical bold, white style as
Sight and Sound but we used the same font as the titles for our
film to make it more relevant in advertising ‘BLACKOUT’ and to
make it stand out. We also created a purple boarder to make it
stand out further, match with the colour of the ‘HELP’ painted
on the tape covering Sean’s mouth and to further connote that
Sean is vibrant and “Exciting”
Puff: A puff is typically a message used to help make a magazine
stand out and to act as a selling point. However, Sight and Sound
don’t typically use them and so we thought it bet not to include
one on our magazine cover.
Tug: The other stories and featured interviews can be found
advertised below the splash. We made sure that the other
featured stories were relevant, accurate and the typical sorts
of pieces that would be written in a Sight and Sound
publication. We also conformed to the typical Sight and
Sound template.
Masthead: Many people consider the masthead as being
one of the most important aspects of a magazine cover with
regards to helping the audience identify the brand/publication
and drawing a loyal following of readers to a specific text. In the
top left corner there is the BFI logo, placed there to indicate
that the magazine is an official publication and that to signify to
the readers that magazine is of high quality and is a reliable
source. The yellow and red colour scheme is consistent,
appearing in the main title and in the tug.
Price/Barcode: Although it is typically placed on the back
of the magazine, Sight and Sound place it on the cover and so a
another way to conform to their style we choose to do the
same.