Research - Film magazine covers

Visual

Connotation of main colours: The main colours in this picture are dark and bright blues, greys, and reds. This is very fitting as the front cover is showing the film inception, and the blues and greys connote mystery and seriousness which are themes that run throughout the film.The red is used in some titles and simply makes it stand out from everything around it as it is very bright and the colours around it are fairly dark. The colour red would normally connote danger or death however not in this case as it is used in titles.

Masthead: Big, bold letters - "Total Film". The font is in Sans Serif and this connotes seriousness. All the titles are in Sans Serif. The titles are grey which connotes mystery, which is what the film on the front cover is about.

The main image is Leonardo DiCaprio, playing his character in Inception. This is right in the middle and covers most of the height of the front cover. This stands out and is clearly the focal point of the front cover.

The strapline for the main picture is "Inside the ultimate head trip". This shows the readers that Inception may be a film that will "mess" with your head which may entice them to read on.

From the front cover, I can infer that a patriarchal world is created. I can see this because no women are in the front cover, just one man. This man is also very serious looking, wearing a traditional black and white suit. From this, I can infer that the film takes itself seriously.

The strapline could be a typical genre convention as many thrillers are made to confuse the viewer and offer a different perspective.

A puff that is used is "The 27 most mind-blowing movies ever!". This would probably be purely based on opinion and their views may be exaggerated.

 Verbal

The coverlines used in this magazine are "30 page Game of Thrones" and the whole part underneath that. This is placed on the left, under the title, and next to the main picture. This is so the main attention of the picture isn't drawn away from the audience however it still does stand out, and gives the audience information about what will be in the magazine.

The main picture and focus is on the film 'Terminator Genisys" however the coverline contains information about Game of Thrones. This means that people many not at all be interested in Terminator, and may read or buy the magazine specifically for Game of Thrones.

The word Terminator connotes death as the word terminate means 'bring to an end' Genisys also means start of the world which could connote that the world might be in danger.

The placing of these words are out of the way of the main picture, which means that the focus is still on the picture however the words around it still stand out.

The Pug in this cover is not placed in any top corners, but the left middle. It reads "Stars interviewed, Secrets revealed, Kills Counted!" These are all in capital letters and are used to grab the readers attention. It is also very concise.

Persuasive Techniques

The Unique Selling Point (USP) in this front cover is the actors that have been involved and interviewed in the magazine. These would be exclusive and no other magazines would have these, which sets it apart from the rest.

The Pug could be seen as a Persuasive Technique as it tells the audience that secrets are revealed and kills are counted. These could be exaggerated statements because there would not have been actual kills or the "secret" might be something that the cast of one of the films in the magazine have said in their interview. This still grabs the audiences attention with short sentences and the use of capital letters.

Gratifications:

 Information - Finding out about current and upcoming films.

Entertainment - The whole focus of the magazine is on films so every aspect to do with the actual film, rather than information about it or interviews is for entertainment purposes.

Personal Identity - Interviews and/or characters that you can relate to or see as role models is linked to personal identity.

Integration and Social Interaction - Talks with the cast of people involved in the films might talk about values that they believe in, or interactions with fans or helping to carry out social roles.

Attention is gained from many aspects such as faces of familiar stars and characters (Terminator who is a very well known character). The Game of Thrones section may also grab people's attention who are interested in the program or similar genres of program. Phrases such as 'secrets revealed' may grab attention because the reader might want to know who's and what secrets have been revealed.

Institutional Information



 Price and Date - This is located at the top of the magazine an it says £3.99 or $9.99. The date was May 2015. This magazine cover did not contain the issue number, or barcode. The price and date is placed there for informational purposes, so the reader knows how much it is and it is in small print at the top so it is not obstructing anything.

I feel like it is a very good cover as it conveys many things that will be contained in the magazine, whilst making it as concise and attention grabbing as possible. It is clear to see the main focus of the magazine and what to expect from it.

This front cover may be ever so slightly disturbing for very young children as the Terminator's face may seem frightening however it is very minor and the target audience are older people so this does not really matter. The cover is also not offensive in any way.