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Tony Mutombo Magazine Overview

Six magazine front covers which are placed accordingly have all been designed to effectively promote movies. You can clearly see by exploring them that the magazine front covers all share common features and they relate to each other. The entire magazine front covers above follow the general layout conventions of this type of media. Such as an image that dominates the frame, a masthead that is situated at the top of the frame in the biggest and boldest font, the main sell-line, a puff, and other sell-lines and, in addition to his, the front covers obey the conventions of the film magazines also. For example, the main sell-line is consistently the name of the film being promoted, while the colour scheme is always dictated by the genre, signature colour and style of the film referenced within the main image.

Following on from this, we see clear repeated patterns. As mentioned before, all of the mastheads are located at the top of the frame which is significant are on the magazine where western eyes will automatically look first. Each time, this piece of text is the biggest and boldest text on the frame and is presented in a bold, display font. Uppercase is use repeatedly across all front covers in the selection, ensuring that the bold personality of each publication is suggested, along with the enormous power of the film industry. This use of caps could also suggest a largely male target audience. A symbiotic link is maintained across the different issues of ‘empire’.

The magazine front cover of Hell Boy 2 follows a simple colour scheme of red, white and gold to attract the viewers and connote how danger and horror are dominant and very powerful. They also make the magazine seem very authoritative, the image is layered on top a black background, this could be a small preview to show how dark the genre is and how there is a lot of darkness in this movie genre. Hell boy, who feature on the front cover is the main character in the film (hence the name), he is in red which connotes danger. This is relevant due to red also being the colour of hell, fire, blood and is the most used colour in the horror genre. Furthermore, we see that this character is different, his small yellow eyes, cut off horns, rosary beads and facial hair and expressions suggest that he may not be evil, just like the his appearance may suggest. In the Shining, the readership are reminded and allowed to reminisce or reflect back on the famous bathroom scene where killer Johnny breaks down the door indoor to catch his victims. This has been used to advertise that edition of Empire as fans of Psycho will be intrigued to find out what place Psycho finished in Empire’s 500th Greatest Movies of all time. The conventional colours of red, white and black, just like Hell Boy 2, shows the audience that this particular scene does belong to a horror movie. Whereas, Empire’s use of the colours red and blue in the ‘Inglorious’ magazine front cover; allows the cover to stand out when the background image is quite dull. Blue is a calming and friendly colour which juxtaposes with the harshness and danger that the colour red connotes. Apart from the ‘Empire’ title at the top, on the magazine front cover of ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’, the cover uses a basic colour scheme with the text, being yellow, black and white. This makes the cover look exciting, yet professional.

The main image is centred on the Hell Boy front cover and this follows the conventions of the rule of thirds. There is a connotation that this magazine is well known as the image is overlapping the masthead; however this also connotes that the model and the movie are more important in this issue, they have more dominance over other information in this magazine. The Dark Knight magazine front cover shows that the head of the joker covers the ‘P’ in empire; which gives the sense that it is overpowering the magazine itself because the film is so big and successful. The bright colours make the magazine stand out and the different shapes around the letters shows that it is

unique. The picture of the film is the main aspect of the cover. The other features are written over the picture, as opposed to the picture being a small feature on the magazine. The colours of his socks are shown, which, with the different colours they relate to the word ‘joker’; his title in the film. Whereas the main image and background on the Hobbit front magazine front cover is conventional because it gives an insight into the film by showing the costumes and actions of characters, useful for those who might be new to the film or may be aware of it, with view to possibly wanting to watch it in the future.

On the Hell boy 2 magazine front cover, the masthead shows strong connotations of the film being in the horror genre. Firstly the writing is in red suggesting that there is an element of danger in the film as well as the magazine helping us understand what the issue of the magazine is based on. We then see the masthead being burnt and up in flames connoting there is a horror dominance in this issue as well as giving us the a visual effect that suggesting that this magazine is not like the others. This magazine will grab the attention of the other audience and can be full of all the film gossip and interviews that will set the place of fire making it unique. On the Dark Knight magazine front cover, the red title of the empire magazine masthead enhances the darkness and sense of the film, giving clues or reinforcing the genre and general narrative. Whilst on the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug magazine front cover there is a cover line above the masthead. By placing this cover line here, attention is drawn to it. Its black sans serif font contrasts the plain background which makes it easier to read. The masthead appears in a conventional style at the very top and across the page. This draws more attention to it and is useful because it appears in a familiar position. Positioning is important. If something is in the route of the eye, its importance grows significantly. The cover story uses a font that is similar although not an exact replica of the actual font of ‘The Hobbit’ film. This probably helps to avoid copyright issues, but it helps to make the magazine more professional as well as building a brand image of the film in question. All the main pieces of text, including the masthead are in the route of the eye. This is a convention of magazine construction and design.

On The Hell boy 2 magazine front cover, we see that there is a button displayed above the image allowing us to see the other information that will be in this edition of empire magazine. Buttons grab the attention of the reader and make the magazines unique from one another. It allows us to be excited about what may appear in the magazine and is clear and easy to read. On the other hand the use of the word ‘plus’ on the Dark Knight magazine front cover shows that the film situated on the front of the poster is the main focus and everything else is just ‘extra’. The white font used for the ‘extra’ information shows a sense of innocence for those topics, but more so enhances the horror genre of the dark knight. On the dark knight magazine front cover a website is shown, the website is fairly small and just about hidden underneath the title of the magazine, which shows where you can find out more about what is in the magazine. Empire took a different approach on the Shining and Inglorious front covers, where on these editions; the magazine uses both text and images for its content features. This helps to promote the films and to illustrate the greatest movie moments.

On the hell boy 2 front cover posters, the headline is large and bold on the page meaning it can grab the attention of the readers and allow us to see what this image is suggesting. The fact that it says first look connotes that this is a new film that hasn’t arrived in cinemas yet for the public to see. Empire have given their readership the privilege to be the first to hear about the film and have sneak preview shots of the release of the sequel to hell boy and what’s to be in the film. There is white writing suggesting dominance and power as well as impact that this film will have in the cinemas.

This is effective alongside the use of simplistic fonts used. On the Dark Knight magazine front cover, the writing shows that the film is/will are relatively eerie. The font used looks handwritten and looks as if it has been carved. The words ‘world exclusive’ show that the film is going to be successful or is already successful. It gives the impression that this is a rare opportunity to read this anywhere else so as it promotes the magazine. The Inglorious front cover features signifiers such as ‘epic’, ‘exclusives’ and ‘greatest’ are used to promote both films and the magazine as they have ‘exclusive’ information. Whereas on the Pirates of the Caribbean magazine front cover some pieces of text have a font that resembles the image, the Pirates of the Caribbean movie set eras ago; therefore a swirly italic text creates a theme for the cover.

On all six of the Empire movie magazine front covers, one similarity is the barcode. This is there to allow the readership to see that this magazine is in the mass market as well as being sold to readers if they want to buy a copy. Significantly, the Hell Boy 2 magazine follows common conventions such as the issue date and price in the centre of the ‘M’ in the masthead suggesting that the magazine is not new and is well known to produce lots of film information. The cover line on Empires edition of The Hobbit, in the route of the eye at the bottom of the front cover, uses a variety of techniques to make it standout to the reader. Eye-catching contract of colours are used to enhance how the text appears in the eye of the reader. Furthermore, bold and simple sans-serif fonts mean that the even in this area of the magazine is looked t indirectly, it still stands out very well. The three images are conventional of the form because they give insight into the article in question. In addition to this, they feature three very well known stars of comedy, which enhances the appeal of this article. On the Dark Knight magazine front cover, the date and the price of the magazine is very small and doesn’t stand out. This could be as it may not attract the readers as much, and the film may also be taking over the whole page and divert their attention to that instead.