Germain Mamode

IN WHAT WAYS DOES MY MAGAZINE COVER USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

IN WHAT WAYS DOES IT USE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA?

• My front cover magazine uses a variety of conventional features from real empire magazines so that it can be seen as a real replicate as much as possible. Firstly, I’d like to point out that the “Empire” masthead logo was thoroughly cropped out of an image which I used from google images of the Empire logo. I figured that this was the closest replicate and convention as it would get to an actual empire magazine. It was too basic to pick a bold font from scratch to quote “Empire” for my magazine as this was far from the real product which looked amateur. In addition, all empire logos use the M letter to place the date and price of the magazine just above the M and so I have also followed and used this convention in my front cover.

• After studying a few real empire magazine covers closely, it also has a simple 3 colour convention and this is not just a convention of empire but a convention magazine covers in generally. In my magazine, it uses 3 simple colours: red, white and black to really approach to audiences with clear fonts that contrast each other. For example, the white fonts stand out from the dark background, the black fonts has been given an outer glow effect to also stand out from the dark background and but to also be more noticeable.

• Lastly, the red font which serves multiple purposes but mainly Red coloured font really suited my magazine as it stands out from the background, main picture and can clearly be read for audiences. It also aesthetically compliments the colour of the “Empire” masthead. Most of my black and white fonts have been used for cover lines for other film features (e.g. Dark knight rises or Avengers) so that there is a variation of films being featured in my front cover that increases it’s appeal to audience. These colours are a bit more dull which is meant to keep its attention minimal so that the more noticeable red is given attention. The red colour font is lion king font and so the colour red symbolises danger and lust etc which I have associated the sub-masthead “Anonymous” (title of the film) and its cover line (Life will never be the same for detective Holloway) with. I believe this whole combination of red and snappy quote gives a thrilling effect. Overall, the coverlines pull the attention of the audience and retain the style of the magazine.

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• In general, all magazines have skylines and so does empire magazine covers. Studying these magazines, my magazine also has a snappy skyline about films: quoting “The biggest year of movies 2015” to energize audience about this year’s line ups of films. The outer glow effect also springs excitement to the skyline and sharpens the feature to be more noticeable. The spot feature also has cover lines of cinematic films which would be previewed inside the magazine and critically this feature d really pushes out these film labels to the attention of the audience, providing a sophisticated content of films to be read.

• The main photographic picture uses the conventional pose of real movie magazines such as empire where the character is directly staring at the audience. Instantly on the shelf in a store, the audience will be pulled in by the direct eye contact of the main character and this itself is already establishing a bond between the audience and the character. The lighter flame has been sized up for more noticeable effect and the cigarette prop helps express that neo-noir genre as it is very conventional as well as the shirt and tie. The reasons I added these is the exact same reason wolverine displays his steel claws in the empire issue so that the audience can be full submerged into the fantasy of the genre.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES IT DEVELOP FORMS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

• I believe that my magazine develops real magazine as it is aesthetically pleasing to the neo-noir and has a simple but yet effective colour co-ordination. The black and white background is the foundation for the eye catching combination of the colours of the font as well as the main picture. The way I have added an effect to my main image also develops real magazine pictures as it adds curiosity and more personality to the main picture as it implies that there is more going on, on the front cover. In addition, many magazines do not have a link to their websites or the site of the film I believe my cover is developmental in this area as it is really focusing on the film. The front cover is therefore providing everything it can for the audience to feed and access about the film and so this is very important for extreme fans and movie addicts. The website link is not focused on very much but it is still very visible and noticeable at the end of the masthead and so it will give way more details then what would be inside the magazine.

• In addition my magazine has an arch in the sub masthead – the film title and so this literally does bend the conventional straight titles slightly compared to real magazine covers and I believe this is way better than dull straight titles. The arched title appears out of the magazine more, particularly with the drop shadow effect and overall makes the magazine look more different.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES IT CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

• First of all I believe that the cover line layouts for the other films challenge the conventional layouts of empire magazine. As you can see on my front cover “the dark knight rises: betrayal is just the begging” are close together and in different colours and so this is because I want to make sure that these cover lines are clearly seen together. However, below the cover lines are separated to distinguish the stories and these are also different colours whereas in some of the empire magazine the colours would be the same. I therefore wanted black and white for a contrast and variation when they are next to each other.

• My main picture is slightly differentiating from some of the pictures of real empire magazines as it is close up of the character whereas real empire magazines would have medium to long shots to establish the full posture and emotional of their film characters. However mine focuses on his facial expression and his emotional stress as a hard working detective as you can clearly see by his fatigued eyes and his cigarette (stress reliever).

• The background of my magazine is a real background of a town which I took myself and so looking back at empire magazine, their backgrounds are plain edited colours from Photoshop which has now become the conventions of their magazine. I believe that my background is different and actually relates to the genre and dark theme or mood of my overall magazine that I am trying to create. Therefore this feature of my magazine is challenging the background picture of empire magazines as well as other real media magazines and it really does establish a setting or background for the audience to get a preview or idea and a connection of what they are in for.