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This is the magazine that I produced as one of my ancillary products. Much like the poster, the main influences of my magazine came from the research I did on other products. The typography, images, colours and layout are all conventional for a genuine product.

From my research I found that each magazine differs in colour, image, and typography as it is conventional for the covers to follow the theme of the featured movie. With this taken into consideration, I based my cover around the themes of my production.

LAYOUTMastheadIt is conventional for the masthead to be one of the most eye catching elements of a magazine cover, which is why they are usually placed at the top of the page. This is because it needs to stand out to catch the audience’s attention while on a shelf amongst other products, as the identity of the magazine would be easily recognizable. I considered these factors when creating my magazine cover and made the masthead extremely large, bold and a contrasting colour to the background.

Main coverlineThe main coverline focuses on the main feature of the magazine at the time and also relates to the main image of the cover. Since my production is the main focus of this magazine, then the coverline must relate to it. To make it conventional, I used an extremely large font to place the coverline in the center of the magazine, just below the main image. From the film magazine I have studied, it was common for these coverlines to be placed in this same position as the central area is one of the places the audience are most likely to look at first, and with the bright, bold, large text standing out this makes it even more eye catching.

Main imageThe main image dominates the majority of the page because it is conventional for a magazine cover to only focus on one film (which relates to the main coverline). Throughout my research many of the magazine covers I looked at had only one single photograph which was spread across the entire page. With this in mind, I wanted my magazine to only focus on my production and so I used the technique of having no other images on the page. I placed this in the center of the page because this is the general area that gets the most attention and so the audience are bound to see it, potentially attracting them to the film and promoting it throughout print media.

DatelineIt is conventional for a dateline to be situated at the top of the page near the masthead, or near the barcode at the bottom of the page. I decided to place the date at the top of the page in this instance and the barcode area was quite crowded, however there was dead area around the masthead. This avoids the cover looking messy and clumsy, which is visually unappealing to the audience.

BannerThere is often a banner placed at the top of the magazine page to show some of the contents of the magazine to entice the audience.It is effectively placed at the top of the top page because this is above the masthead, which attracts a lot of attention in the route of the eye. By looking at the masthead the audience are likely to notice the banner and become more interested in the magazine.

BarcodeThe barcode is conventionally placed out of the way of the main features of the cover because this has no impact on the audience’s interest in the contents of the magazine. I placed this at the bottom with the price next to it which I also found was conventional.

CoverlinesCoverlines are a common feature of a cover as they highlight some of the other important features the audience can find inside the magazine. It is common for them to be placed at either both sides, or in the left or right third of the cover. I combined a range of magazine influences which I found from my research and decided to place the coverlines on both sides. The bottom center of the cover also has coverlines written in a different style. I found this technique used in my research and thought it would be appropriate for my magazine.

IMAGE I have used only one photograph for my magazine cover, as I found it was conventional for their to be one main focus. I took a mid shot of the three protagonists of the film, because it is also conventional for the most important characters to be promoted so they will be recognizable with the film and other promotional packages.

Both mid shots and long shots are often used on magazine covers because this way we are able to see a wider view of the characters. A long shot is usually used with photographs where the costume/appearance of a character is extremely recognizable and iconic, for example, Superman. However, I thought using a mid shot for my cover would be more conventional.

TYPOGRAPHYThe typography that I used for the main cover line follows the same theme as the poster. This is so that the promotional packages can be easily related with each other. I found the font on fontspace.com and searched for distorted styles. This represents chaos and the carelessness related to the delinquent youths who are portrayed in my trailer.

Using the same font as the rest of the promotional packages is effective because not only does it enable the audience to recognize the film on the cover, but it also stands out against the rest of the colour scheme and the large, bold font is easy to read.

The masthead is an important part of the cover because it identifies what magazine it is. For this reason it is conventional for the masthead to contain the largest writing (sometimes with the exception of the main coverline) so it stands out the most.I found the typography on fontspace.com and chose a bold, capitalized, sans serif font to make it more noticeable. The contrasting white font against the black background also adds to this effect.Another convention of a magazine was the fact the photograph usually overlapped the masthead. I took this into account and used the same effect on my product. Another similarity between my masthead

and the one seen on Total Film, is the stylistic way in which the two different font styles combine. For example, the word ‘total’ is effectively placed inside the larger word ‘film’, and in my masthead, the word ‘big’ is placed to the left of the word ‘screen’ so that the two intertwine.

My cover lines consist of a large, bold font which indicate some of the featured articles in the magazine. These are the followed by subtitles written in smaller font which give a brief description of the coverline. As you can see from the Total Film cover, it is conventional for the coverline to be conveyed in a bolder font and the subtitles in either a different font, colour, or style. The subtitles are much less noticeable than the coverlines because the only time these would be read is if someone was initially interested in reading the subtitle (which are still not one of the main features of the cover compared to the main coverline and image).

COLOUR

Colour is an important element of a magazine cover, as it is able to reflect the target audience of both the magazine itself and the film the issue is focusing on.

I portrayed the same colour scheme on the magazine as I did with both my poster and my trailer, with the same intended effect I had when using the same font – to ensure my promotional packages linked together and related to one another. I initially chose the bright pink combined with black colour scheme to represent the feminine, youthful nature of the typical teenage girls, combined with the evil, dark and malevolent attitude the antagonist forces upon them.

The general colour scheme consists of mainly black, this is because the cover is based around the movie which also connotes evil behaviour. This is conventional because the main coverline often acts as the basis for the entire theme of the magazine cover

Dotted throughout the cover are small segments of pastel colors to hint a subtle feminine edge. These soft colours symbolize the girly, young characters who also reflect the target audience which is conventional. The colours also contrast against the black background so they are more visually enticing, and also represent the light and dark of the characters personalities, which relates to the theory of binary opposites as argued by Levi Strauss.

By relating the colour scheme to the target audience, we are able to recognize the demographic interested in the magazine/film. For example, the Total Film cover sticks to a very minimalistic colour scheme of white, black, red and grey. The minimalistic colours connote masculinity which also relates to the target audience of the both the film and the magazine.