This document analyzes the magazine cover of Empire featuring Harry Potter. It summarizes that the close-up headshot of Harry Potter draws the audience's attention and eye contact makes it more personal. The serious expression and blood on his face convey danger and action. Blue tones and lighting create a fantasy atmosphere, while Harry's glasses make him instantly recognizable to fans. Additional details like the masthead, tagline, subheadings and images further attract audiences by highlighting exclusive content.

1. MAGAZINE COVER
ANALYSIS

2. The image used on this magazine cover is a head-shot of the
main character of the film, Harry Potter. The nature of the
head-shot, being quite close up and direct, ensures the
audience sees it first and makes them drawn to the cover.
The eye contact with the audience makes it more personal
and adds to the attention it gets from the viewer, making
them more drawn to the image. The serious expression
creates a atmosphere for the film, showing there will be an
action theme in the film and there will be a disequilibrium.
The symbolic coding of the blood connotes danger and
action, making the audience question what is going to
happen in the storyline due to the blood being on his face
and around his eye. The lighting is coming from the left and
mostly highlighting one side of his face, giving a supernatural
or fantasy type atmosphere, as well as giving the character
importance. There image is quite blue toned, which further
adds to the fantasy, and creates an eerie glow, as well as
linking to the character's blue eyes and neckline on his t
shirt. The blue contrasts with the red that is used for the
image blood, as well as the colour of his jumper, with the colour
red being bold and striking as well as connoting danger. His
glasses are symbolic, as they are his character motif from
being part of his costume throughout the films in the
franchise. This makes him instantly recognizable to the
audience, which will draw in fans of this film.

3. Masthead
and tagline
The masthead is the name of the magazine, Empire, and is used red, which is bold and bright making it
one of the most striking headings on the cover because of the importance as it is a recognizable name
and the audience will be drawn to it. The font is sans serif but is quite unique with pointed edges and an
unusual shape to the text, which may make it stand out against other film magazines. Around the
masthead is important information in a smaller font, such as the website, date and price, which should
be on all magazines. The tag line, “worlds biggest movie magazine” is featured to the bottom left of the
masthead, which again draws the audience in because of the statement that is the most popular film
magazine on a global scale, increasing the interest and making the audience more likely to purchase it.
Subheading
The heading used, “massive preview special” adds and content
impact by implying there is special content that the
readers will be able to see before other people, and that
there is essential information in the magazine, reinforced by the
subheading, using text like “need to know”, as the readers are
likely to want to know a lot about films that are coming out as it will be a
main interest of theirs, therefore making it appealing to the target audience.
Furthermore, the list of films added underneath emphasises this, drawing
fans of specific films in as well as the general target audience by listing
content and saying “many more”, making the audience more likely to buy
the magazine.

4. Additional There is also a smaller image used on the cover, in the bottom left
image corner to add more to the layout, creating something else for the
audience to look at. This can be another attention grabbing factor,
especially if the viewer is not a great fan of the film depicted in the
main image because it shows other films and characters that will
be included in the magazine. The image shows three characters all
from different movies, therefore appealing to a wider audience
and making it easy to see what will be inside without reading the
content, making it more effective to the target audience.
banner
There is a banner used along the bottom of the magazine, with additional film names and content
listed, separated with dashes. This further appeals to the audience, as if they see a film name they
like or are interested in, they are more likely to buy the magazine. The banner is effective because it
uses up a small area at the bottom which would otherwise be quite bare and adds more information
onto the cover without looking crowded, and it is a common convention used by film magazines as
well as other magazines genres such as music.

5. The image used for this cover is a mid/long shot of the
protagonist of the film, Pirates of the Caribbean. The use of this
shot makes has been chosen to encode meaning to the text
through mise en scene, mainly through the use of costume and
props. The costume connotes the pirate/adventure themes of
the film and lets the audience know the type of character and
film that is being depicted, which will attract the audience if
they are fans of the particular genre or film. The use of the gun
further adds to this, with connotations of action which is
emphasized by the actors pose, as they have chosen to use an
image that makes him look as if he is in mid action and doing
something active. The setting behind him is of sea and sand,
further linking to the themes within the movie. The hair,
costume and props combined are effective in creating a
atmosphere and background for the film before you have read
anything about it, making it more effective to the audience,
especially if you recognize the character. We can tell the impact
of the technical codes used in the image because there has
image been no need to use a large heading with the name of the film.
The direct eye contact is used, a common convention of images
on magazine covers because it draws attention of the audience
and it is in a different context to film posters, trailers and the
films themselves as it is a separate format which is the
magazine, providing information and reviews of the film and
often interviews, so the direct contact adds to the more
personal format.

6. The headings on this cover are used to attract the
audience by using wording like “essential”, and
headings “biggest year ever”, to make the viewer feel as if
there is important and exclusive information in the
magazine that they can find out which would appeal
to the target audience of film fans who want to
know more about films that are coming out. The
more important words are also used in yellow to
make them bolder, which will draw the audience in
so they look at them first.
Colour scheme Similarly to the last Subheadings and
magazine, there is a list
The main colour scheme is red, black, white and content
of films and articles
yellow, which is a common combination of that are features in the
colours for magazines as it can create impact magazine, again to
through bold and bright colours as well as the make the reader more
more plain colours for text, while using the likely to buy the
brighter colours to emphasize important words magazine. There is also
that will attract the target audience. I will a serif font in between
probably use this colour scheme for my the house font, for
magazine, as it is an effective method to make it words like “plus” and
comparable to other film magazine covers on “102 more!”, to show
the market and to appeal to my target audience. the reader there is
more inside.

7. For this magazine cover, the image is slightly less conventional
due to the fact the character is facing away from the audience,
not only without eye contact but with the whole body facing
away. The use of this pose is interesting, as is differs from the
conventional look of other film magazine front covers. The
choice to have the character facing away with an over
shoulder long/mid shot adds enigma to the character as you
cannot fully see his face. As well as this, the character motif of
Spiderman's outfit can be seen with the recognizable costume
and logo on the back. This makes it easy for the target
audience to see the character's identity without the
conventional face on mid shot with eye contact. Using this
technique, the target audience is instantly drawn to the
magazine cover, especially fans of superhero or action films
because of how well known Spiderman is, making it effective.
The character is also backlit in a striking way, with a burst of
light coming from behind him with the light spreading around
the page graduating into dark from light. This lighting
technique is commonly used in different ways, such as a dim
image
back light that highlights only parts of the figures face for
horror villain posters. When used in this way, with streaks of
light in a blue tone, it connotes action and the supernatural.
Additionally, it is used to highlight the importance of the
character, and when paired with the text about it, it could
signify his return.

8. The masthead for this magazine is in a very large, bold
sans serif font. The name of the magazine, total film, is
created by the larger text saying “FILM” with the “total”
being placed within the F and the white colour being
inverted. This is an effective logo because it uses a
slightly unconventional technique and stands out to the
audience. The banner is placed above the masthead,
making it more noticeable than the usual placing at the
Masthead and
bottom of the magazine, therefore it can be used as a
banner selling point to draw in the target audience.
The main heading is linked to the image, and
is placed in the mid centre of the page, making
it a main focus. The small banner saying
“exclusive!” highlights the importance of the
article, as well as the use of “amazing” and the
bold red and yellow used. The subheadings summarize the new things
that will be seen in the spiderman movie, creating enigma because the headings
audience want to know what will be happening and who and what is new.
The headlines for the stories attract the audience further, by naming actors
and films that will be inside the magazine, hinting about content that the
target audience will be interested in. additionally, they have used enticing
language that makes the reader feel as if they are getting information that
stories other people don’t, with phrases like “Simon Pegg spills” and “first word on”.

9. The sticker style shape used for this headline grabs the viewers
attention as it looks different to the format of the other headlines. As
well as the circle shape, the use of bright red makes it even more
emphasised on the page, especially with the use of the yellow text. It
adds variety to the image of the stories, and leads the viewer to look at
them all because of the different looks. Again, the language used makes
the reader more likely to buy the magazine, by implying that the
information and stories inside are exclusive and important.
sticker
There is additional information in the bottom banner, listing
banner other stories that may influence the reader to buy the
magazine. The red and white makes it still bold, but doesn't
take attention away from the other headlines. Alliteration is
used to add a humorous and catchy tone to the text making it
seem more informal and appealing to a young target audience.

10. conventions
When looking at film magazine covers I have found
conventions that will help me when I create my
own and achieve a more professional look by
following current conventions. Firstly, a main
convention that is almost always used is a portrait
of the character that has eye contact with the
audience. This makes the image as well as the cover
as a whole more effective and engaging. The most
commonly used shot types are close ups/head shots
to show emotion and the face's characteristics for
impact, and mid/long shots to show more of the
characters body, costume, post and setting.
Secondly, a main convention is the colour scheme.
It is often red, white, yellow and black, or blue
white and black. The colour scheme usually reflects
the colour of the clothing or eyes of the character,
using an accent colour from the photograph in
some of the headings to tie in the cover and make it
look professional. Other noticeable conventions are
banners at the top or bottom of the page, lists of
films that are in the magazine, sticker or banners
with an article on. I will relate back to these
conventions while creating my magazine cover in
order to make it as successful as possible and be
effective to my target audience.