MAGAZINE COVER ANALYSIS BY ALEX MOCH

Film magazine covers all follow a similar sets of codes and conventions.The Masthead is almost always within the top third of the cover. Overall the content layout of images and text tends to represent the magazines target audience. The colour palette of the cover also usually links in with the main featured film on the cover.

EMPIRE

EMPIRE have quite a mainstream audience. This is represented in the content of their front covers. The main feature of the magazine always features main characters from the film. The title is always in the top third and is always in the same style of font. However sometimes depending on the featured film the fonts colour can change and have an effect on it. The The colour palette of the cover can also change depending on the film shown. For example the cover with the Joker on it features green and purple text which are the two colours associated with the Jokers character.

The barcode is always printed vertically and placed to the very left within the bottom third of the cover.

The left/right hand side teasers are almost always in white are share the same style of font.

EMPIRE also have a separate teaser in the shape of a circle which teases an article within the magazine.

SIGHT AND SOUND‘Sight and Sound’ is a magazine aimed at more in depth film fans from demographic B. This shows through the main image on their covers. Directors and producers are more commonly used rather than actors, as their target audience will know who they are. Their mastheads usually shy away from the typical codes and conventions. As pictured on the right the title is usually black and red within a yellow box. The Buscemi cover has a blue title which is uncommon for Sight and Sound. Buscemi is considered ‘The King of Indies’ so this could be why they decided to change up their title.

The left/right hand teasers on the Wes Anderson cover has its font style and colour altered to suit Roald Dahl’s font.The language itself within the teasers tends to be adept and proficient. It will appeal to the magazines target audience. Where as Total Films covers contain more simplistic language and text in general which would appeal to it’s more mainstream target audience.

TOTAL FILMTotal Film tends to follow the same set of codes and conventions as ‘Empire’. They always have a large scale masthead that takes up the upper third of the cover. The title font is always the same however it can occasionally change colour from the normal white. The covers feature main actors in character and costume as the main image as well as other smaller images or subheadings that inform the reader of the content inside the magazine. The general tone of the covers represents the content on the cover (‘the action issue’ has a rather dark palette with a red title).

The main subheading is usually within the middle/bottom third and aligned in the middle of the cover. Another prominent subheading is located above the ‘Total Film’