In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Film Magazine

In the beginning…

I firstly began my research my addressing the key magazine conventions. I then researched magazines

and then finally created my own. Here are the key elements that I discovered:

• Masthead (Large title of the magazine)

• Selling line (Something that enticed and convinces the reader to buy the magazine)

• Frame/Border.

• Photo of main article, eye catching and interesting.

• Simple colour scheme that doesn’t distract from the main image.

• Barcode with price and date

• Small subheadings revealing what else in the magazine aside the main article

I set out with the ambition of fulfilling most of these conventions that I had addressed from researching

successful magazine covers.

Little White Lies Research

The first set of film posters that I wanted to focus on where the Little White Lies magazine. Although they

literally go against every magazine convention, they target the market that I was looking to penetrate

(indie/arthouse market). Here’s what I noticed from the posters:

• The most recent covers have no title. (They trust their audiences to be able to recognise what the film

is.)

• The images are interesting and very different, they are arty which attract the target market.

• Their barcode/title are all in one small box, this is very different but instantly recognisable to people

who know about the magazine.

Little White Lies mock creation

Taking my research into account and realising

that Little White Lies was a perfect way to address

my target market, I decided to design a cover

similar to the ones seen in the last slide.

Similarly to the Little White Lies magazine’s that

I’ve research my magazine cover is simple with

only the title but has an interesting image as the

focal point.

I have kept the main and only constant element of

Little White Lies magazines was the circle

containing the title, strapline and barcode. This is

the element that makes the magazine

distinguishable.

Little White Lies mock creationThe famous Little White Lies header is both relevant in my magazine and the actual magazine.

Both images are of a shoulder up, portrait. They’re both simple yet interesting and eye catching

There is a colour scheme in both. Both have simple colour Scheme and do not over complicate the cover. They’re both simple.

Empire Magazine Research

I didn’t feel like researching a magazine like

Little White Lies was enough as it was so

simple! I felt I had to research how

mainstream magazines attract their

audience’s.

Through this magazine nearly all the

conventions that I’d addressed were

relevant. This was a perfect magazine to

mimic for my film.

I learnt from this magazine that I needed to

recreate the excitement and eye-grabbing

colours used on the cover, the title is unique

and the fonts are all bright and eye-catching.

Total Film Research

Total Film and Empire are both massive film

magazines and I felt that they both would

be good to research. This is one of my

favourite covers as I love the simplicity, the

red, white and blacks are so effective!

I hoped to recreate this simplicity in my

front cover. I learnt from this magazine that

a black and white image can be just as

effective as a colour.

This magazine once again conforms to the

typical film magazine conventions and like

the Little White Lies cover is has a full face

shot making eye contact with the consumer.

Post-ResearchAfter my research I decided to pick my favourite elements from my favourite two magazines that I had researched and inject them into my design process. Here are the best bits:

The bright yellow box, highlighting a special element of the magazine really caught my eye and I felt that this would create a interest in my magazine design

The boxed subheading are very effective as they are separated from the main head but have importance as they’re place just under or above the header.

The image used in the Total Film magazine made me certain that I wanted a b&w image and one that took up near to all of the cover.I decided on using the Empire header

as I felt this was the most prestigious and recognised masthead.

Final Design and ComparisonsLarge profile shot for main image. Both taking up the majority of the page.

Both use shock through contrast of colours. Red and yellow both used to highlight areas of the cover.

Both have white borders around the magazine, the difference between the two is that the Total Film cover uses the border to give more information but my one is simply to be a border.

Both have mini images of other promotion. They are highlighted once again by bold colours that contrast with the background image.

Continued…

Both headings are identical, I tried to recreate the iconic Empire magazine header by using the mast head and then recreating the date layout and strapline underneath.

Both titles are simple and readable yet are individual. They grab the attention of consumers as most of the consumers will have never seen the fonts before. I copied the Empire’s use of a stroke tool around the lettering as I felt this helped the text stand out. Something which I identified as a key convention.

Both images are portraits of the key characters in the films, although the Tron Legacy cover uses exaggerated colours to highlight its sci-fi theme, instead I use dark foreboding colours to highlight the depressive tone of my film.

I used the same set out as the Empire Tron cover, having connectives to highlight which articles related to eachother.

Both covers use a space in the corner to promote something inside or an offer.

Followed ConventionsI tried to follow all the conventions that I felt were appropriate to

my magazine.

• Masthead (Large title of the magazine) My masthead is bold

and eye catching, it would audiences effectively.

• Selling line (Something that enticed and convinces the reader

to buy the magazine) There is line that is always below the

masthead that reads ‘Magazine of the Year’

• Frame/Border I have a frame around my magazine.

• Photo of main article, eye catching and interesting. The

photo on my front cover is interesting and intriguing

• Simple colour scheme that doesn’t distract from the main

image. No majorly distracting elements about from ‘Films

of 2012’

• Barcode with price and date. I have a barcode but date and

price are separate.

• Small subheadings revealing what else in the magazine aside

the main article. I have smaller sub heading but they’re still

bold and readable to the audience.