RESEARCH AND PLANNING - Magazine cover ~ Empire

As I mentioned several posts below I planned to analyse some more magazine covers in order to ensure that ours turns out looking as professional as possible.

I think that this one, which I found earlier, is a very good example of a successful page, as it portrays the right image of the films it is advertising and also manages to give information about others.

This cover is extremely effective in drawing attention to the film which it wishes to advertise. The main focus of this cover is clearly The golden compass, because of the fact that the main image is of this film and the title is shown across the centre of the page in capital letters. The caption shown below the title of the film appears to be the tag line, as it is directly beneath the title and relates to the plot line. It comes across as very persuasive, attempting to convince the audience to not only purchase the magazine, but also to watch the film. The text along the bottom of the page demonstrates what else is featured in the magazine if there is any members of its target audience who is interested in another genre or type of film. The main feature which clearly has the most coverage is "The Golden Compass". This will possibly attract a different target audience than usual as "The golden compass" comes across as being aimed at children, though the series of books are also enjoyed by man adults. The back ground colours of the magazine not only indicate that this is possibly a winter issue, but they also reflect the setting of the film. Since a large proportion of the action scenes are set in the mountains, and in the lands of "Svalbard", which is a land of ice ans snow, the mountains are a subtle reference to the plot and remind the audience of the presence of polar bears in the story. A large proportion of the background is taken up by a compass-looking instrument which relates to the title, and also reinforces the idea of the film being a fantasy. The witch flying into the image from the top right hand corner, indicates the genre also, and adds depth to the image as it appears to be flying over the title. The positioning of the main characters across the centre of the page helps the audience to get more familiar with the film before they have even started reading the feature. The red-circular stamp-like circle in the bottom right hand corner draws the audiences eye and shows us more possible content of the magazine. The bar code and price are also clearly displayed.

Lucy :)