3. Title
The masthead of the magazine SFX is partially
covered by the female character on the cover
obscuring the reader’s view of it. However, this
indicates that the magazine is well established
with its readers as you can still identify with it.
The title fills around ¼ of the overall magazine
cover and is situated with the top 3rd of the
magazine, making it easily identifiable on a
magazine rack within a shop. The bold font
used is easily recognisable to viewers as its
colouring is in strong contrast with the rest of
the magazine’s icy colour scheme.
4. Key Image
The front cover of a film magazine is primarily used to market current
films with interviews, exclusive pictures and articles, SFX has chosen a
picture of the lead character of ‘Baby Doll’ from the film, ‘Sucker Punch.’
She is centrally positioned on the magazine taking up a large
percentage of the overall cover around 3/4. She is shown to be wearing
a rather provocative costume, revealing a substantial amount of flesh,
attracting the ‘male gaze’. However, her character is holding a powerful
stance and looking directly down the camera which may be
intimidating to some readers. This icy gaze of hers is reflected in the
overall cold colour scheme of the cover. This also makes the audience
focus on her persona, raising questions as to who she is and making the
reader of the magazine want to find out more about her. She is clearly
displaying a handheld gun and samurai sword which makes her appear
confident and taking on a ‘don’t mess with me’ approach.
5. The Colour Scheme
The colour scheme of the magazine is
blue, white and black. This not only helps to
enhance the key image of the magazine, but
also these three colours are complimentary to
one another, not complicating the background
of the magazine. The most prominent colour is
blue, acting as a canvas for the contrasting
white fonted storylines to be clearly displayed
upon.
6. Header
‘THE SFX AWARDS’ written across the very top of the magazine
in bold capitalized writing is eye-catching and attracts readers
to the magazine who want to find out the winner and results of
the awards. It is positioned above the magazines title indicating
its importance as it is in the top ¼ of the magazine, making it
clearly visible on a shop shelf.
A strip of smaller images run along the top left hand side of the
magazine cover clearly showing some of the contenders for the
SFX awards. There are three images in total making them more
powerful through the use of the power of three. These images
are all framed by blue boarders in conjunction with the rest of
the magazines colour scheme. They are also manipulated to
slightly over lay one another to make them more visually
appealing to the eye and creating a layered effect.
7. Articles and features
To the left of the cover we see an exclusive interview
with Nicolas Cage as he, “hitches a ride out of hell in
drive angry.” With another feature mirroring this on
the right which states, “Hello Dave! The league of
gentlemen revisited.”
Running along the bottom of the magazine is an
exclamatory, “PLUS!,” followed by a list of other
upcoming film releases. The big, “PLUS!“ indicates
to the reader that there is lots more inside the
magazine giving it volume.
8. Issue number, date and barcode
The issue number and date are positioned to the
right of top section of the magazine cover, just
underneath a bubble of text saying, The world’s
number one sci-fi magazine.” The use of the
words, “number one” establishes it to be the best
therefore attracting readers to it. These texts are
written in a smaller font still white in colour so they
are visible however, not as much as the larger fonts.
The barcode is situated on the bottom left hand of
the cover; possibly the least important part of the
cover.
9.
10. Title
The masthead of this magazine, ‘Total film’ is situated in the top
¼ of the magazine cover with the ‘Total’ incorporated within
the, ‘F’ of the film. This font is the boldest of the whole magazine
once again and the white colour is vividly contrasting from the
reset of the magazines colour scheme. This helps to make it eye-
catching and stand out amongst its competitors on shop
shelving.
Most of the title’s lettering is covered to some extent
therefore, establishing the magazines strong readership as it
does not have to be fully displayed. The title also has a
incorporated, red star bordered, bubble stating, “The world best
movie reviews,” making it clearly visible on the cover.
11. Selling line
The selling line of this magazine is, “A Modern
Guide to Movies.” This gives the impression
that this magazine is trying to present a
contemporary styled magazine. This tagline
also implies that this magazine is the most up
to date in reference to their competition with
rival film magazines.
Written in a white capitalised font, positioned
just above the magazines masthead, it clearly
tells the reader that this is a film magazine.
12. Key Image
In contrast to the previous magazine this one has all five major
characters positioned on the front with the main character
placed centrally with the other girls following behind.
They once again, like the previous magazine attract the male
gaze with their revealing clothing however the dark leathers and
metallic zips escape any ideas of innocence.
They are all looking directly at the camera with a challenging
stance holding weaponry. These powerful stances may be
intimidating to the viewer but also suggest that these girls ‘mean
business.’ The colouring of reds, oranges and yellows are all fiery
colours in conjunction with the five character. This is in contrast
to the previous magazine with just the one characters against an
icy background.
13. Articles and Features
Just below the centre of the magazine is the title
‘Total Film’ with the beginning part hidden partially
from view by a bold yellow bubble stating, “your
essential guide to this years movies.” The particular
use of the word “essential,” makes it seem vital that
this magazine is needed by the reader. The use of
ellipses indicates to the reader that there is more
content inside of the magazine. The mention of the
sucker punch title is less obvious on this magazine
in contrast to the previous one. However, there is a
quote from the film’s director, Zack Snyder who
states “It’s Alice in Wonderland… with machine
guns.”
14. ...
In the bottom third of the magazine, there is a film reel
styled set of photos with the individual film title written
underneath each one.
This adds to the visually appealing aspect of the cover as
well as effectively showing the reader what else they can
expect to find inside the magazine. With white writing
stating, “119 more …” of these films inside, numbering is
used effectively to create the illusion that this magazine
is full.
Underneath this is a big plus sign in the vivid
orange/yellow colour followed by a further listing of the
films in the magazines content.
15. Issue number, Date and Barcode
The date and price is positioned in the middle of the
letter ‘M’ in the title, written in a small white text
making it easily visible and perfectly clear. However,
this does not make it the most important aspect on
the magazine cover. The magazine’s web address is
also positioned amongst this helping to further
reaffirm the magazines name.
The bar code is placed in the bottom right hand
corner of the magazine cover: indicating it to be the
least important feature on the magazine.
