Evaluation – Magazine Front Cover Lucy Calvert

Research and Planning From looking at a range of magazines, I managed to gain an idea of the structure of their layouts. For example, I found that from most magazines there was one main image, a title which was usually placed in the left hand corner in order for it to be seen properly when in shops, a barcode, competitions and offers and headlines as to what can be expected from the content inside. Most magazine covers had the person in the image looking “outside” of the magazine, whether it be at the reader or elsewhere. However due to our trailer being based around a romantic genre, I thought that it would be most effective to have our actors looking at each other. It is noticeable from my research that on magazine front covers there is a range of different fonts and text and so I realised that when beginning to plan my own product, that I too should consider this and use varying types or styles of font which are present on the magazine covers in order to inform the reader of what they can expect from the magazine itself.

Text I placed the title of my magazine in the top left hand corner as I believed that this fitted with the conventional approach of a magazine. I also thought that this was the best placement for it as the actors could then be seen properly as a result of them being either side the title. I used a range of text for the competitions and information regarding content of the film and chose the colour scheme of purple, black, grey and white as I thought that this combination- especially with the purple- could somewhat contribute to the romantic theme being exhibited from the cover – a reflection of the film itself. I included a circle in the layout surrounding the text as this is often used on magazines when being used to promote a competition or free gift. I displayed the date and price of the issue in the smallest font as on all magazines it can be seen to be just about legible and so I followed this idea onto my own product. The text which reads “Behind the scenes of What Love’s Worth” is situated underneath the actress and is most likely to be the first thing to be read from the poster. I purposely chose to do this in order for it to be a strong advertisement for the film and therefore influence our audience to view our trailer.

Image For the image for my film magazine cover, I chose a coloured photograph of the two characters facing each other. I believed that the way that they were presented reflected the relationship of the characters. For instance the fact that our actress Alexandra Robson is smiling but still looks as though she is reserved highlights the mixed emotions which her character exposes throughout the trailer. Will, our actor, looks more affectionate which also highlights the fact that he is so interested in her whereas she looks as though she is holding back from being emotional. My choice to use a coloured image was basically due to the fact that I thought it would be more attractive to an audience for a magazine front cover as for this product I thought it was not merely the image but equally the content on the cover which is effective in trying to reach and attract the consumer. Whereas I thought with my film poster for my trailer that it would be more effective in promoting the trailer if I used a black and white image as the image is predominantly the attracting feature for the film itself with the information coming second in importance.

Slogan The slogan for my magazine front cover reads: “The Insight For Film” and I chose this because I believed that it would reflect the target audience for my product – a consumer who is highly interested in film, wanting knowledge about the production of these films as well as details about actors, reviews and competitions aside from the general film content. I therefore believed that this would be representative of the reader. In relation to where it is situated on the cover, I chose to place it underneath the magazine title as I found from researching other magazines for both film (e.g “empire”, “sight and sound”) and general magazines (e.g “glamour” and “look”) that this was the generic structure.

Competitions I included two offers for competitions on my magazine front cover including one which reads “Win a film- making day for two” and the other “see the most anticipated films of the year! with the chance to watch “From Paris With Love” or “The Good Guy” for free from February.” I believed that this would be a good reflection of the reader as it is focused upon media/film-related aspects and therefore would appeal to the target audience who would be expected to purchase the product. The first offer gives the reader chance to be actively involved in producing their own films, giving the impression that this would be the sort of consumer of the product. For the second competition I included film titles which could be thought to be similar in generic style to my own film trailer as they can both be seen to link thematically to romance.

Digital Technology In order to produce my magazine front cover, I uploaded a series of photos which we had taken with a digital camera which I then chose the one which was most appropriate in illustrating the content of the film. I gained an image of a barcode off of the following link as a result of a Google search which allowed me to come across this image: content/uploads/2009/11/barcode.pnghttp://ceoworld.biz/ceo/wp- content/uploads/2009/11/barcode.png All of the font that I had used was off of the program “Microsoft Word” and I adjusted the styles, colours and fonts for the best effects and to ensure that they looked professional and varied like that on any other magazine front cover. I was also able to use text boxes for formatting in order to create these titles and text as a result of using “Microsoft Word.”