The document discusses how the creator of a film magazine called "Box Office" analyzed the cover of Total Film magazine and copied several design elements to follow media conventions, while also making some changes to challenge conventions. Some elements copied included using a masthead, long shot of lead characters on the cover, arrangement of featured articles, and alternating colored cover lines. Some conventions challenged included adding a film reel behind the masthead, using lowercase for text, and adding a bottom banner. The goal was to make the magazine cover appealing while putting a unique spin on standard conventions.

3. Through looking at the Total Film magazine my knowledge of the masthead being the largest text on the page was
re-affirmed and copied to ensure that I stuck to real media conventions in my own film magazine. The masthead is
the largest text on the page to ensure it catches the readers’ eye first and informs the reader of what the magazine
is about.
I have used the same shot type on the cover image of my film magazine as Total Film has used on theirs. I really liked
the way the long shot on the cover of Total Film showed a lot of the characters costumes, allowing a greater portrayal
of the character to be shown – character portrayal is key with the promotion of my film ‘Transfixed’ as I have tried to
create a clear contrast between the binary opposite characters of my leading male ‘Matt’ and female dead girl ‘Sara’
and their costumes help to portray their difference in nature (through the black and white costume contrast) and the
difference in time period they belong to (Matt in the present day, Sara from 100 years ago) and so a long shot was
perfect for showing character costumes; especially my male’s costume as it highlights he’s from the modern day and
is not dead like Sara is in the background of the shot. Also, I have copied the way the lead male is in the foreground of
the image on Total Film and the female is in the background, this helps to portray the power difference and
difference in importance between my two characters from the film ‘Transfixed’ on my magazine.
The arrangement and size of the feature article on Total Film was copied into my own film magazine cover. I used the
same size and style box to contain my ‘exclusive’ and then arranged the tagline text below it in a smaller font than
the featured film title and then placed a brief description of the featured article below the film title. I really liked this
layout as it creates a nice neat line of articles and text down the left side of the cover.

5. I really liked the way banner text above the masthead framed the masthead nicely on the Total Film magazine and
so I developed the banner text size, colour and words to create a text banner above my own masthead. I developed
the colour from a light orange on Total Film to a light grey and red on my magazine to highlight the fact that this
issue of ‘Box Office’ is a 2013 Easter horror special and grey and red are conventional horror colours.
The small picture boxes representing free giant posters on the Total Film magazine helped to make the cover look
more interesting than just one main cover image would look. I really liked the way the smaller images were framed
in boxes to distinguish them from the main cover image and to show they are not promoting the same film. I
developed the box and position of the picture box on my magazine cover by changing the colour of the box to
red, having my photograph go slightly outside the top line of the box and putting ‘preview’ across the bottom of the
box. As I didn’t want lots of writing (or cover lines) all over my cover, I decided to position the picture box at the
bottom left of my cover in place of some cover lines.
I have developed the colour and position of the cover lines that are present on Total Film magazine. I kept the idea
of having two colours alternating between the various cover lines (as seen on Total Film) but I changed the colours
from white and grey to red and grey to stick with my cover’s horror theme. Rather than having the cover lines at the
bottom right of the page I moved them to the top left below the masthead in an attempt to frame the side of my
actor’s face and draw attention to him.

7. I challenged the convention of the media text ‘Total Film’ by creating a film reel on Photoshop and placing it behind
the masthead. Conventionally nothing but the cover image is behind the masthead, however I really liked the idea
of having a film reel behind my masthead and I really like the way it makes my magazine look slightly different than
everyone elses. Also, as my magazine name is ‘Box office’ I needed to ensure my magazine looked distinctly film
genre and not theatre genre as a box office can be associated with both and so a film reel established my magazine
was for the film genre.
Conventionally cover line text and article description is done in capital letters and I decided to challenge this
convention and do it in lower case instead. I really liked changing this convention as I think lower case looks more
‘easy on the eye’ and appealing to a reader.
At the bottom of Total Film magazine there is no banner, however I wanted to challenge the convention of not
having anything across the bottom of the cover by adding a banner containing what was going to be in the
magazine, such as ‘news, reviews and interviews’. I really feel this adds a finishing touch to my film magazine and is
an effective challenge to typical conventions.