Magazine Annotations

Analysis of movie magazine designs

Magazine 1: Immediately, the masthead for this magazine design is very striking, using a flash affect over it to appeal to a teenage audience, enhancing this interest by the dark shade of red iv used and the black outline of the letters. I researched various different styles of movie magazines but also various different styles of fonts to make my final design I choose to design is immediately gripping. I’ve designed this magazine cover this way to attempt at creating a mature design. The layout of this cover I feel is very appealing as six characters from the film are shown, giving the audience more information on the film, but also allows the other characters who are seen furthest away, to add the comedy aspect of the film into this front cover. The way I have chosen to design the layout of this magazine was due to what I had found during my research, showing in a certain magazine an interesting layout and positioning of the actors which I then took to incorporate into my own design, and studying the specific style gave me the idea to use a boarder at the side of the magazine. The other pieces of text I’ve included on this design is ‘ALL NEW ENTERTAINMENT, LA vs. UK’ , getting across a rivalry between the UK and LA’s entertainment value and also hinting that inside the magazine will tell the audience more about what’s happening, relating to that specific piece of information. Also, the pieces of information at the bottom of this design inform the audience on 2012 events that are happening soon, in relation to film.

Magazine 2: This magazine design is very descriptive, but not too over powering. I’ve included images from the Friend.Finder.com photo-shoot which I felt would intrigue an audience as they would want to buys the magazine and see the photos.  One specific piece of information which stands out is the ‘LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY!’ which young people can relate to and will want to watch the film. Also, this information tells the audience that the film is a comedy as well as a romance. The audience are aware that the two characters as the focus of the magazine are the main characters from this film and are love-interests. The writing at the side of this design lets the audience know that the movie being advertised is the film ‘Friend.Finder.com’ and allows them to know when the release date is.

Magazine 3: The focus of this magazine is the main girl character from Friend.Finder.com and then there’s descriptive text around her which all acts as persuasion to get the audience wanting to read it. As the film is about a teenage love-story, young people would generally want to read this magazine so I have designed it according to the age-group. The famous names used are ones which I feel people would recognise and who I feel would be good at playing the roles, according to what I have seen them in, such as rom-coms.

Magazine 4:  Instantly, the interesting style of font I have use for the masthead in this design draws the audiences attention and the word ‘Action’ relates to the genre of magazine that this is, relating to film. The focus is the actor on the page with the words ‘NEW ROMANTIC OMEDY!’, telling the audience that he is from this new film and because he is in school uniform, is informing that the character is playing a school-boy. The well-known names beside him are people which are young actors so act as persuasive text, along with the noticeable ‘PLUS’ piece of writing which then mentions the films ‘The Hangover’ and ‘The Notebook’ which are total opposite genres to each over. This creates humour as the audience are aware of both these films and how opposite they are, however, I have purposely thought of a well-known comedy and a very romantic well-known romance and put something together which will intrigue the audience. Text telling the audience that there is an interview with this actor that’s on the front page will draw them into reading this magazine too.

Magazine 5:

As well as the information found on this front page,  I found myself debating what I should call the final movie magazine which ill create. This magazine design shows I have called it ‘Spotlight’ which I thought was an interesting and unique name for the magazine and also the film strip I thought was also a unique and appealing touch to the design. I also included drawings from the different clips of the films trailer on the film-strip. The genre of film is made clear through this as the audience are able to recognise the romance in the still-images. The text revealing that the magazine holds information on the films photo-shoot is also persuasive and attracts the audience.  I also took certain elements from other movie magazine that I thought could possibly be used on my own movie magazine, such as the piece of text explaining, ’20 NEW ROM-COMS FOR 2012’ and I have also made the number bigger than the rest of the text to emphasise this.

Magazine 6: This design I feel is quite an interesting approach to a design of a movie magazine. I have put a clapperboard in the corner of the magazine with the issue number of the magazine inside it. This was an idea which I thought could be on every issue of this magazine. Another appealing element on this design is the clear writing advertising a free movie poster inside the magazine. The text announcing an interview with two well-known stars is very persuasive on this front cover and will urge the audience to read it.