The magazine cover features a close-up image of Harry Potter with wounds on his face, indicating he has been in a battle. The image suggests the film will include action scenes set in a fantasy world, similar to the previous film poster. The magazine's name, Empire, positioned in red sans-serif font at the top of the cover, aims to present the brand as powerful and well-established for film fans. The cover uses eye-catching colors like blue, red, and yellow to advertise previews of popular upcoming films and draw readers' attention through direct address and highlighting key details. The layout balances the image and text around conventions to make information easily accessible to the audience.

3. The main image used on this cover for Empire magazine is displaying a teenage boy with numerous
wounds on his face, indicating he has been in some sort of battle. His glasses are also damaged and
he is wearing a stern looking expression. His costume his fairly casual as he appears to be wearing a
white t-shirt and red jacket. This leads us to wonder how such a regular looking boy could be involved
in what appears to be a serious fight. This links to the main sell line as it says that ‘Harry comes out
fighting’, making clear reference to his damaged appearance and also hints that he is the hero in the
movie. This image suggests that the narrative behind this film will include action scenes, though the
blue background and light reflecting off his face gives it a more fantasy feel. There is a symbiotic link
between this image and the film poster for Harry Potter 6 as the blue, foggy background is also used
in the film poster. In addition to this, he is wearing the same costume and similar serious facial
expression. By doing this there is a clear link for the audience to recognise which film is being shown.
The camera angle used here is a close up, making he audience feel closer to the character, and this is
furthered by his use of direct address. The lighting used here is partial lighting, which is highlighting
the left side of his face and darkening the right hand side, making him appear to have a more sinister
side.

4. The name of this magazine is ‘Empire’, and the fact that this film magazine chose to use this as
their brand name makes them appear powerful and well established with a good, strong
target audience. The font for this masthead is displayed in uppercase sans serif and has been
written in red, making it stand out as the boldest piece of writing on the page. It also helps
bring out the red tones on the actors face and jacket. The connotations of the colour red are
of power, energy, passion and love so by using this as the colour of the masthead it could be
seen as a way of reflecting not only how strong they are as a brand, but also the love their
target market have for movies. Something distinctive about the masthead which makes it
suitable for a film magazine is the actual choice of name itself as it makes the audience feel
included in a large ‘empire’ of like-minded film fans, which is an effective way of drawing in a
larger audience. The masthead is used to maintain brand identity as across all issues of the
magazine the size, placement and font theme are all kept the same, the only thing that
changes is the colour (though it is mainly kept red).

5. The sell lines used on this magazine cover are all focused around new movies. They are reflective
of the interests of the target readership as film fanatics would be highly interested in movies
which have just come out so seeing a sell line advertising that they are going to be discussing all
the latest releases would generate excitement among the readers. The sell lines have been
specifically designed to lure in readers, and this is made clear when you analyse the use of
devices and techniques they have used to achieve this, for example, they have written in a bold,
large text ‘massive preview special’ which again would generate the interest of film lovers. Aside
from this, Empire also uses techniques such as direct address (‘you need to know about’). By
doing this the reader feels as though they are being directly spoken to by the magazine, and it
almost becomes a friend to them so they feel as though they want to hear more about whatever
is being advertised. The magazine also makes a list of all the most popular film names which will
be discussed inside and then adds at the end ‘and many more’, so not only can the reader
immediately recognise and be drawn to a film they are particularly interested in, they also know
that there are even more to read about inside.

6. The colours used on the magazine colour are predominantly blue, red and yellow which are quite
eye catching and bold colours to use. The sell lines are written in white, grey and yellow fonts. The
white contrasts with the dark blue background making its easily eligible while also avoiding the
page looking too busy, and the yellow has been used to emphasise key lines and to highlight the
most important pieces of information. These colours reflect the narrative of the film as yellow
connotes the ideas of energy, sparks, and possibly magic, so this links with the theme of the
movie being based around fantasy. Using these particular colours on the cover is an effective way
of luring in potential readers as they will stand out against any magazines placed around them
and also create a sense of excitement with the uplifting colours scheme. The colour yellow is
introduced in a slightly unusual way as the down the side of the magazine there is a strip of
yellow which doesn’t have any particular meaning but is a good way of introducing this bold and
potentially unusual colour choice.

7. The text to image ratio on this magazine cover is roughly 50% text and 50% image, which is
positive as it shows that there is an equal balance between the visuals and writing. The overall
layout has been used for effect by placing all the text around the close up of the actors face,
therefore drawing more attention to it. In addition to this the text has been written in a
variation of different colours without clashing so it makes the page appear more interesting
to look and removes the possibility of it being too busy. This cover follows typical magazine
cover conventions mainly due to the placement of the masthead being at the top, centre of
the page, the main image being of a well known, main character within the movie, the sell
lines being placed around the main image and the barcode being in the bottom right hand
corner of the page. These conventions make it easer for the audience to find a piece of
information which they are looking for on the cover.