Magazine Cover

Designed by Kate Barnes

The magazine front cover was based on the real media product of 'Empire Magazine' (see evaluation question 1). The main image is a close up of the villain antagonist 'Elsie' which directly addresses the audience through the use of eye contact. The image has been edited using the online website www.picmonkey.com which allowed me to change the temperature, exposure, saturation and edit the eye colour of the image to appear darker and therefore conforming to the forms and conventions of the horror genre.

The masthead was overlaid on the image using Photoshop and InDesign, where the other headlines, plug/puff, banner, barcode and general layout of the magazine were formed together. 

The storylines/headlines are relevant and would therefore appeal to the target audience of a film fanatic who would be reading this magazine.

I incorporated iconic rating stars to show the audience that their has been a review of this film despite it's new release. This element requires shared knowledge from the audience and therefore entices and encourages them to read the magazine and take an interest in our other ancillary text and main product.

Magazine Front Cover Process

We decided to select this image as a magazine front cover as there is a large amount of space around the main focus of the image, this is also a dark and plain background which allows us to add clear cover lines that will be easily read by our target audience. There is use of eye contact which shows that the model is directly addressing the reader and therefore drawing them in. The image is also a close up as this shows detail and draws the audience in as the main image is clear and large.

The image also presents the audience with an image of one of the main protagonists 'Elsie', this is recognisable for the audience as this image is used in our trailer and theatrical poster as an iconic image and use of synergy. 

We edited the images on Photoshop and adjusted the exposure levels and reduced the saturation by laying a grey filter over the top to give the image of the protagonist as little colour as possible. This connotes death which is a convention for our Horror genre.

We came up with the idea of calling the magazine 'Cine' as it is a term that is recognised and widely used in the film industry. We also took inspiration and found the title of the magazine relevant to our actual film trailer as we will be using a cine camera (super-8) to give an aged effect.
We wanted to use the colour red as it is the first colour seen by the human eye, and therefore attracts the attention of the target audience. We used this font as it gives a vintage look which is relevant to the title of the magazine, we also laid a copy of the title text over a lighter colour to give the pale shadows.

We are unsure of the colours and placement of the magazine title at the moment, as the shade of red seems almost too contrasting with the black background of the main image. The moon in the image is also in an awkward position so we have decided to remove or possibly move the moon to make the image seem more realistic and fit better.

We edited the image on picmonkey.com and applied a focus zoom effect to give a ghostly and more transparent look to the image, we also darkened the eyes and increased the level of shadows to draw more attention to the eyes from our audience.

After careful reconsideration, we changed our magazine cover to represent an actual media product, 'Empire Magazine'. The logo was transferred and overlaid across the image as a masthead on InDesign and Photoshop. 

This images show the process and effects we used to create a realistic layout of a film magazine that represents a realistic media product.