1. Analysing Magazine
Covers
I’m going to look at two magazine covers – an
Anna Paquin Dazed & Confused and a ‘Tintin’
Empire magazine cover.
By Katy Pitcher

3. The title ‘Dazed &
Confused’ is
emblazoned
across the top of
the
magazine, and
very much
reflects the tone
of the magazine:
self-
obsession, emoti
on, power and a
completely
unashamed
voyeurism. The
large font and the
plain white
Anna Paquin wears bright typography show
red lipstick in this image, a this off, so that
colour typically related to even though the
passion, hate or love. The picture is colour
colour is bright enough to and layered in
draw attention to her The connotations of the front, itred being
colour draws the
face, but not so bright to love and passion is also related to the eye.
obscure her other features. reason behind Paquin being on the
This has been used to magazine. During the release of this
ensure Paquin being the edition of ‘Dazed & Confused’ was the
first thing seen when the release of ‘The Romantics’, a film in which
magazine is picked up. Paquin plays a woman whose fiance is in
love with her best friend, and maid of
honour. The colour red brings this film to
mind for the audience, so advertises
both.

4. The image of Anna Paquin Unlike the conventions of her role, Anna
that the magazine has Paquin looks confident and feminine. She
used reflects aspects of is still fashionable, as whilst being a
the actress’ character. modern mix of arts and culture - Dazed
She, like the magazine, is & Confused can still be considered a
unashamed of showing fashion magazine - wearing a camel
her emotion. Unlike the jacket and a leopard bra. These clothing
archetypal magazine not only show her body, but her
model, she is literally personality and character. This is used to
grinning from ear to ear. advertise the magazine in that it implies
The conventions of a that the article inside will give an insight
magazine model is a into the actress’ life. It also has the
skinny, pouting girl who implications that it is possible to be
completely lacks beautiful and confident, and you can find
emotion, in order to out how within the pages of the
advertise whatever it is magazine.
that she sells. All of this is
reflected back
upon the
magazine. The
colour scheme
of this issue of
Dazed and
Confused is
quite muted
pastels. This
really puts
emphasis on
Anna
Paquin, and the
words
emblazoned
across

5. The fact that Paquin wears a bra covered only by an open
jacket could be interpreted through Mulvey’s male gaze.
However whilst the image can be said to be shown from a
perspective that makes her more attractive, the magazine
has subverted this by making the text only on Paquin and
by making the screen around her blank. This subverts
Mulvey’s male gaze because it makes the actress the most
important aspect of the magazine, and removes the idea
that Paquin is owned by the magazine, and stops the
actress being seen as an object or commodity, but instead
as the selling point of the magazine.

6. The rest of the writing on the magazine cover is not
related to Anna Paquin, so uses smaller text, that is
white like the title. Like the title, the white makes the
text obvious, but not overpowering.
The majority of ‘Dazed & Confused’ centres on
music, film and fashion, and the titles down the bottom
reflect this. Raf Simons is a men's fashion designer, Lykke
Li is a singer, and James Franco a famous actor. This
shows the audience that whilst they can expect the
subject matter to change, they know that the themes
within the magazine will be the same.

8. By using two recognisable directors, a niche market is
opened. This directly targets fans of both Spielberg and
Jackson films - a very wide audience that would be happy to
look at a new film.
Price, date and issue -
essential
In the colour issues of Stark black background is reminiscent
Tintin, he always used to of the Tintin special - ‘Ils Ont Marché
wear either red or blue, and Sur la Lune’ (They walked on the
his cheeks would be this moon). This shows that whilst the film
shade of red too. Not only is will be new, it will still possess the
this colour attention characteristics of what made Tintin
grabbing, it is reminiscent of the comic great.
the comic.

9. The word ‘present’ is
written using the same
font as the comic The bubble of films that are also
originally used. This included in the magazine are
again implies that the attention grabbing in that they use
film will be a throwback a bright blue outline to be seen.
to the Belgian classic. However by not using a bigger
circle, or a large scrawling font, the
main image of Tintin is drawn away
from.
Tintin is again represented in his
original clothing
By using a clearly defined shadow
here, the magazine implies that the
film will be a cartoon, or use some
form of animated technology.

10. Again the magazine uses a typically comic strip Like Spielberg and
writing, the red outline on white text was used Jackson, Tintin and his dog
in Tintin to give audience extra information have become icons in the
such as, ‘meanwhile’ or ‘2 hours later’. This comic world, and this
implies to a Tintin fan, that this will be an therefore transpires into the
important piece of information, which it is as it film genre, and gives the film
gives the directors names. a certain sense of
excitement - if they were this
famous as a graphic novel, a
cartoon and a comic
strip, imagine how good they
would be in film.
The words adventures and of are in a Tells the reader that whilst there is
smaller font to add emphasis to the still a typical representation of
word Tintin./ If you didn’t recognise Tintin, there are new
the character’s image, then you will characters, things have changed, and
know his name, and allows the whilst still recognisable, Tintin is going
magazine to target even those not to be new and improved.
brought up on his comics.

11. I’m now going to replicate the Dazed &
Confused magazine cover. The cover will have
information generated from the internet –
however the main image will feature an
actress from a trailer I created.