Movie Magazine Cover Analyse!

Finally after I had analysed trailers and posters I moved onto looking at a couple of movie magazine covers and then analysing them. The four magazine covers I looked were:

1. Empire
2. Entertainment Weekly
3. Total Film
4. Film Review

I looked at all of the information that is presented on the magazine covers and around the cover I wrote what I saw on the magazine and then later analysed it a bit more. After looking at the covers I wrote about each one in more depth so I could understand the movie magazine covers more. I started by annotating Empire

What I wrote around the cover was:

• Sub Article Image
• Date and Price
• Sub Article Title
• Main Article Image (Unique Selling Point)
• Magazine Title
• Magazine Website
• Magazine Advertisement (Unique Selling Point)
• Article for Magazine
• Sub-Heading for Main Article
• Other Articles in Magazine
• Barcode

The next magazine cover I annotated was Entertainment Weekly

What I wrote around the cover was:

• Sub Article
• Main Article Image
• Other Articles in Magazine
• Magazine Title
• Date and Issue Number
• Unique Selling Point (Exclusive)
• Main Article Title
• About the Article
• Writer of Article
• Photo Information

The next movie magazine cover I annotated was Total Film

What I wrote around the cover was:

• Sub-Heading for Magazine (Unique Selling Point)
• Magazine Title (Unique Selling Point)
• Main Article Image (Unique Selling Point)
• Magazine Website
• Other Articles in Magazine
• Sub Article
• Title of Main Article
• Sub Title for Main Article
• Other Articles in Magazine
• Barcode
• Articles Linked to Main Article
• Other Magazine Article
• Date, Issue and Price

Finally the last film magazine cover I looked at was Film Review

What I wrote around this cover was:

• Main Article Advertisement (Unique Selling Point)
• Issue and Price
• Title of Magazine
• Sub-Heading for Magazine
• Other Information
• Other Article on Magazine
• Main Article Image
• Magazine Website
• Barcode
• Main Article for Magazine
• Sub-Heading for Main Article
• Information on the Person in the Image (Unique Selling Point)
• Other Articles

After annotating each cover I decided to write about each one so that I could understand the magazine covers a little bit more and it's appeal to an audience. The questions I answered were:

1. What are the most common elements of the magazine covers? Why are these elements important?
2. Which magazine cover is best at catching attention of potential readers? Why?
3. Is there anything missing from any of the magazine covers? Do you think there is a reason for any missing items?
4. Do the magazine covers offer any information that is not related to the film it is promoting? What is the other information and why is it necessary?
5. Can any of the magazine covers help you design your own magazine cover? Which one and why?

To make sure that each cover is analysed I changed the colour of the text so it shows the different covers and that represent that cover.

1. What are the most common elements of the magazine covers? Why are these elements important?

The most common elements of Empire is the title of the article, a medium close up of the actor of the main article and the article title. These are important because it then aims at a specific audience for that article and bring in more people to that magazine and film.

The most common elements of Entertainment Weekly is the title of the article, a medium long shot of the actors in the main article and the information for other articles. These are important because they want people to concentrate on the main article.

The most common elements of Total Film is the colour of the text, the sub article information and the sub-heading. These are important because it has to link to the main article to draw in people to the magazine.

The most common elements of Film Review is the advertisement for the main article, the sub-heading for the article and the image of the actor in the main article. These are important because they want to publicise both their magazine and the actors in the main articles.

Overall the most common elements in a magazine cover are:

• Title of Article
• The Main Image
• The Other Information on the Article
• The Other Articles Related to Main Article
• The Adverts
• The Sub-Heading of the Main Article

These are important because if it was just plain and simple which then makes it less interesting to others.

2. Which magazine cover is best at catching attention of potential readers?

Total Film is best at catching attention of potential readers. This because the colour and layout of the text connect with the film. The title of the magazine also relates to the film. Finally the information of the article makes a reference to the film.

3. Is there anything missing from any of the magazine covers? Do you think there is a reason for any missing items.

I think there is nothing wrong or missing from Empire magazine. It gives the information correctly and in simple yet dramatic way.

I think the thing missing from Entertainment Weekly is the barcode. i think they just wanted people to concentrate on the article and image.

I think there is nothing missing from Total Film magazine. It includes all the information needed and it connects to the film article they are doing.

I think there is nothing missing from Film Review magazine. It gives the information correctly, includes everything a magazine needs and yet the text is simple it still looks good.

4. Do the magazine covers offer any information that is not related to the film it is promoting? What is the other information and why it's necessary?

Empire is promoting 'The Avengers' and it offers information on other films. The other information is bond Skyfall, and other action type films (Titans, Hunger Games, Bourne, Stifler). It's necessary as they want to advertise films that are similar and that are from other companies similar to Marvel.

Entertainment Weekly is promoting 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' it offers other information. The other information that are released next year, it's necessary because it needs other articles for the magazine.

Total Film is promoting 'Inception' and it offers other information. The other information is a different genres of film (Toy Story 3, Predator). It's necessary because then it can appeal to others than just one person.

Film Review is promoting 'Sean Connery' and it does not offer other information. It only offers about Lord of the Rings and the rest is about Sean Connery, it's necessary because it's called 'Sean Connery Special'. Which means other information not to do with Sean Connery is not important.

5. Can any of the magazine covers help you design your own magazine cover? Which one and why?

I think that Empire magazine covers could help me design my own magazine cover. This is because all through it's simple it is effective and also focuses on the film. I also think that it look really good an puts more focus on the image.

After annotating and going through it more in depth I found out that the important things for a magazine cover includes:

• A Big Main Image
• A Couple of Small Articles
• A Big Article Title
• A Website for the Magazine
• A Sub-Heading Underneath The Big Title
• A Date, Price and other Information