1. Magazine
Research
& Planning
You need to ensure you cover:
1. Research into a range of film magazines
2. Film magazine front cover analysis
3. Drafting/Layout design for your own cover

2. 1. Film Magazine Research
• What different film magazines are available?
• Find out about the publication’s profile – what is
their focus? What types of film and content do
they feature?

3. • Who are their readers?
Try to find some readership info - publishers usually
make this information available for advertisers so do
some searching in the business section of the
magazine publisher's website. E.g. The publishers of
Empire Magazine have a media pack available here:
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands
1. Film Magazine Research

4. 1. Film Magazine Research
• As a result of all of the above research, you need to
decide which magazine is most likely to feature your
film on their front cover so that you can plan to
create your own version.
• Alternatively, you can choose to create your own
magazine title, but will still need to base your
research on an existing magazine/existing magazine
titles.
• Explain your decisions on your journal and then
focus on that magazine for the next bit...

5. 2. Front Cover Analysis
• What design and
layout conventions are
there across different
covers of the same
magazine?
• Comparing many
covers side by side
helps do this.
• Make sure you are
looking at official
covers and not
student made ones.
The magazine’s own
website is a good
place to check.

6. 2. Front Cover Analysis
Now you need to analyse at least one front cover in detail:
• Annotate the most relevant cover from recent editions of
the magazine to show how it is laid out and the elements
it contains. This website is useful for reference on the
different elements of a magazine cover:
http://www.magforum.com/cover_secrets.htm

7. 2. Front Cover Analysis
• Add annotations to show an analysis of how media
language is used (micro features such as mise en scene
and camerawork and macro features such as
representation, genre and narrative). Make sure you
refer to how it targets a particular audience through the
use of these elements.
• Explain how the above informs your own planning.

8. 3. Drafting/Layout design
• Consider how your own magazine
should be laid out, taking into
consideration the conventions of the
magazines you researched.
• Do a rough draft (or several) on
paper or digitally to show the
different elements you would
include.
• Create a rough version using Adobe
Photoshop & Illustrator