Magazine Front Page

Why I chose Empire Magazine

It reviews both mainstream films and art films, but feature articles concentrate on the former.As well as film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some other regular features. Each issue (with the exception of issues 108–113) features aClassic Scene, a transcript from a notable film scene. The first such classic scene to be featured was the "I could have been a contender" scene from On the Waterfront.The regular Top 10 feature lists Empire's choice of the top ten examples of something film-related. For example, 10 Best Chase Scenes or 10 Best Movie Gags in The Simpsons.The At Home section covers Blu-ray and DVD news and releases. Kim Newman's Movie Dungeon is a regular feature in the At Home section, in which critic Kim Newman reviews the most obscure releases, mostly low budget horror movies.Pint of Milk presents celebrities' answers to silly or unusual questions, including the question "How much is a pint of milk?" This is intended as a guide to the chosen celebrity's contact with reality, and as such can be more informative than a direct interview by reporting some surprising responses. Each magazine includes a "Spine Quote", in which a relatively challenging quote is printed on the spine of the magazine. There are usually some obvious and obscure links from the quote to the main features of that month's edition. Readers are invited to identify the film source and the links to win a prize.

Here is a video of some of my favorite covers.

Inspiration for my magazine front cover.

This magazine front cover is very different to my magazine because it is Sci-fi but the colour scheme is effective because it is complimentary and doesn't clash with one another. This means that it looks effective and stands out against the background. The text is clearly visible and the colours aren't hard on the eye. The image is crisp and well lighted. There is almost now shadow and this reflects the genre of the film. The blue glow around the edge of the person is not too powerful but it once again highlights the genre of the film. 

The masthead is in-front of the model and this is done because it is a close up of the person and if it was behind then it would not be visible and as Empire is a well respected film magazine it wants to advertise this. The title of the film is in the same font as the films and this is now strongly associated with the Tron franchise and this helps to sell the magazine.  This magazine is a collectors addition and each different cover has the same font and the only change is the person who is on the front cover.

The magazine makes use of inceptions physics breaking special effects. All of the sub text units are angled towards Leonardo Decaprio and this reflects inception very strongly. The mid shot of him is cut out so it is in-front of the Empire mast head but not in-front of the the title of the film. While their are several successful film titles surrounding the main model he takes priority over them and there is even a sticker saying "Dream Access to The Movie Event of 2010". This clearly shows that it is the main movie of the magazine.

However, there are subtle hints that there is more in the magazine. There is a banner at the top saying "The Dark Knight Returns". As every body knows this connotes Batman. It is once again convincing people to buy the magazine because when it was released the plot lines of Batman was kept a closely guarded secret. No one even know who the main enemy would be after Keith Ledgers (the Jokers) surprising death. This would draw in any film fanatic and also any Batman fans. 

This issue of Empire was one of the main inspirations for my trailer. This is because the background hasn't been cropped out. I thought this was effective as it added depth to the front cover. It is a strong part of the film and therefore has been left in shot. While the characters have been cropped in it is not immediately noticeable. They are once again in-front of the Mast head. The title of the film is also in front of them so people immediately know what the film is. 

What are Empire Magazines conventions?

On every front page there is the following:

• The Masthead "EMPIRE", it is always the same font/size but the colour varies on special editions but it is mostly red.
• The date/issue/price.
• Bar-code.
• Freebies.
• Summary of the contents. 
• Photo of the main film that is being reviewed.

If I wanted to replicate this I would have to include all of these in my front cover.

Construction of my Font Cover.

To Construct my Front Cover I would be using a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe In-design. Photoshop would be used for the more technical editing as it had tools such as the magnetic lasso, colour picker, etc which would form the base. In-design would be use for more image placement and layering. It is easier to do this in In-design as it don't have image locking and images can be resided and rotated even after they are placed. In Photoshop this is not possible due to the placement locking system.

The Masthead

This is the Masthead for my magazine. It is an exact replication of the real empire magazine. It is in the iconic red font. I decided to stick to this font because it would suit the still I had chosen for the cover and it would look more like the real media product. It was difficult to find a template for the Masthead or find the font and this is because Empire are keen to keep their brand unique and stop people online from producing "real" replicas. 

The Freebies.

I decided to use posters as the freebies in my magazine front cover. This is because Empire often give away full scale posters and these are popular as they are often expensive to buy in shops. To make the freebies clear I would need to use a sticker accompanied by the actual film posters.

Progression. 

This was my first draft of my magazine front cover. The Empire masthead is behind the main model. Their is text around the edges and the title of the film "EXTRACTION" is the center of picture so it clearly connotes what the main focus of the magazine will be. 

As I continued to edit the magazine front cover I felt the lower half of cover was empty. While I was trying to decide what to do I realized it would need to be relevant to the film and also be in the colour scheme I had selected. If I chose a different font or a different colour it would look unprofessional and tacky thus not representing a real media product. 

Despite this initial layout, it soon became clear that it would not work as the text that was on the page was to large and didn't give enough information about the contents of the magazine. The real Empire magazines have lots of information on the front page to entice people into buying it. If it had as little information as mine then it would fail to do this. 

To overcome this problem I added much more text to the right hand column. This looked like the traditional Empire layout and didn't take to much attention away from the model. The only problem now was the positioning of the left hand text. This was a problem because if it was too high it would conflict with the model but if it was too low it would not be seen as clearly.

I positioned the text to the lower left section of the picture but placed it above the title of the film. While it wasn't as dominant as it had been in the first draft it was still visible and did not clash with the rest of the page. The title of the film is in the same font and colour as it is in the poster and the trailer. 

The last part of the magazine was to include the freebies. I added the posters with the sticker so the reader knows exactly what the freebies will be.

Magazine front cover development summary

Final Magazine Front Cover

My Empire Magazine has all the conventions of the real media products. It has the date in the "M" of the mast head, it has freebies, relevant articles, a bar code and a relative main story.