Colour Scheme

From my analysis, I came to conclude that many of the magazines followed different colour schemes. One of which is Total Film which adopted a simple colour scheme consisting of two colours across the whole magazine front cover, however, other magazines such as Empire has adopted a wider variety of colours where it had stretched to 5 in one particular poster. In my opinion, I feel that two contrasting colours will work well up to a certain extent depending on the content of the magazine, in my case, I believe that two colours will work well due to the fact that it will make the magazine look all one and apart of each other. In my opinion, I feel that the Empire range of magazines won’t work well for my target range due to the mixed colours they have placed on their magazine which aims at a younger market which I am not aiming for. The target audience for my magazine is a more mature market who will be looking for those magazines which are more formal and organized rather then messy and colourful. Below are the colours which I will use for my magazine:

The masthead will be white as white will stand out when presented upon a black background. The connotations of white are goodness and purity which are positive connotations in contrast to the colour black. Black normally has negative connotations and the masthead being in a negative colour can symbolise bad things about my magazine.


The text on the magazine front cover such as the coverlines and main cover line will be in red due to this issue of Entire Motion Picture featuring the horror movie “The Vanishing”. The red will help link back to the horror genre due to the connotations of red which are blood, danger as well as power. This will stand out more then the masthead which is my intention as the coverlines are used to persuade the audience to purchase my magazine rather then the masthead.


I have not decided on a image to go on my front cover as yet, however, I do want to have a black background as black has negative connotations which can help to relate to the horror genre in which this issue will be featuring. Moreover, the black background will help to make the masthead stand out as well as the other elements like the cover lines and the buttons as red and black are in high contrast to each other as well as white and black.



The colours all together will look like this:

Font's

From my magazine analysis, I found that there were three different fonts across the whole front cover. The masthead has a font of its own which is to make it stand out from the rest of the text. It is bigger then the rest of the pieces of text as the masthead is the main element which differentiates and makes the magazine identifiable. Mastheads are always big and in bold in order to help it stand out more. The possible fonts which my masthead could be dressed in are below:


The above font is called Bummer which caught my eye as it is three main things which a masthead should be; Bold, Big and powerful. Moreover, the font is very easy to read which I felt is very important as it is one of the things which help consumers identify the magazine and this is important for those who place brand loyalty as a number one decision maker when choosing what magazine to purchase.


This font is called Never Say Die and I believe that this font will work well as a masthead due to the fairly bold lettering as well as the formality it shows. Due to my magazine being aimed at the more mature market, I want to make the consumer feel that this magazine is not childish which is given by the straight lines and basic lettering.

The cover lines on the magazine front cover carry another font different to the masthead. These are normally less busy then the masthead in order to help the masthead stand out. This font will also be used in the buttons/flash as well. The font is below:



The above font is Arial Narrow which is a simple font which many other film magazines also use for their cover lines such as Empire and Total Film. The reason why this font is so widely used is due to the fact that it carries humanistic features in contrast to other fonts such as Times New Roman. This will help the consumer to relate to the magazine hence will persuade them to purchase it.

The main cover line is the second most important piece of text on the front cover. The reason why is because the main cover line is always about the most important or exclusive information which this issue will feature. This is used to attract interest in the magazine and hook the audience to purchasing the magazine. Below are some possible fonts which I can use for my main cover line:


The above font (Pricedown) will work well for my main cover line due to the fact that it is eye catching and gives off a powerful feeling due to the bold lettering, sharp edges and straight sides. This will also work in conjunction with the masthead as they look fairly similar which will make the magazine appear more sophisticated aimed to my target audience.


The above font is called SF Automaton and is similar to the one above however different by a small amount. Firstly, the font is still bold and fat, as I mentioned before, to make it stand out more. The difference exists where the “A” and “L” in this font doesn’t swing down further then the other letters. This font is much more simple in contrast to the Pricedown font however, apart from the minor difference, they do look very much alike.

Ideas For Hooks, Teasers & Buttons

The purpose of a magazine front cover is to attract the audiences eye in order to persuade them to buy it. Moreover, it is also used to differentiate their product from other competitive magazines on the market which is normally achieved by making it decorative, colourful and better value for money from their competitors. Therefore, taking this into account, on my magazine front cover, there will buttons, hooks, teasers, selling line and cover lines as this seemed to be highly conventional amongst those magazines I had analysed. A button, also known as a flash, is normally by itself informing the audience about something that is inside which is exclusive. Buttons are normally used to emphasis freebies. I found that there was no more then 2 buttons on one magazine front cover where some didn’t have any. Cover lines range from 3 to 8 and are all about the most exclusive information they hold inside in order to grab the audience’s interest. However, there is only one main cover line in which is about the main feature of the magazine. I will also have a selling line which is a short sentence about my main marketing point.

On my magazine front cover, I decided to have one button expressing an exclusive DVD that contains footage of an interview with the actors of The Vanishing as well as a preview of the film. The reason why I will use only one button is because I do not want to make the front cover highly congested as I felt that it will cause the audience to find it hard to follow and read the information on the cover. Moreover, I will be targeting a more mature age group of 18 – 27 where this age group are more concerned about the content of the magazine rather then quantity.

I will have four cover lines on my front cover as I felt that one or two will not be sufficient enough to gather the interest of the audience as well as making the magazine look as if it doesn’t contain much inside. I want to present value for money through my front cover, which will be gained by using a small amount of four cover lines, however, choosing the four most interesting and exclusive information from the magazine. I feel that this will have more of an impact on my age group then filling the front cover with irrelevant cover lines being used as fillers. The cover lines I will have on my front cover are below:

“Matt Samon EXCLUSIVE interview inside!”
Matt Samon stars in The Vanishing and is a very big name in the film industry. I believe that when consumers see his name, they would want to find out what the exclusive interview is about due to limited information given in the cover line.

“Tom Fruise career over?”
The above cover line will also gather interest in the magazine as Tom Fruise has been in the film industry a long time and has gathered a very high reputation. Therefore, the cover line on a question on his career will question many consumers and will persuade them to buy the magazine.

“AROA take over film industry! See inside!”
AROA is the new upcoming film production company who have a large line up of films to get released later this year. Not many people have heard of AROA and I have limited the information by not identifying who they are and what they do in order to persuade them to purchase the magazine to find these questions out.

“10 steps to becoming an actor”
As this is a film magazine, the audience I am pitching my magazine too is those who are into the film market. This is those who enjoys watching films, those who are in the drama industry and actors to see what is being said about them. I wanted to balance the content of the magazine in order to increase the audience therefore, I aimed this cover line at those who are in education or those who have a desire to become a actor in the future.

The main cover line will be “JACK SILVER IS BACK”. Jack Silver hasn’t appeared in a film for a period of 2 years 3 months due to him entering the music market and being on tour after releasing his new album in February 2009. A return in a highly rated film is a very big thing considering he hasn’t made a film in nearly 2.5 years which will gather a very big audience. Also, from a recent study carried out in 2008, researchers found out that the first element which caught the readers eye was the main picture and very closely following behind it was the main cover line. Therefore, an effective picture alongside a persuasive main cover line should increase interest majorly. ( Information gathered from IM Publishing on 18th Feb 11)

Lastly, the selling line of my magazine will be “The trusted experts for the big screen”. This selling line will gain confidence in the consumer due to the fact that the term “trusted” will build a relationship between the magazine and the audience by making them confident that this is a good magazine. Moreover, the term “experts” suggest knowledge and experience in which I am trying to express for my magazine. I want consumers to feel comfortable and confident when buying my magazine, which can be shown through the terms “trusted”, and “experts”.

Possible Mastheads

For my film magazine, I have come up with three different mastheads which I have shortlisted below:

1. Entire Motion Picture
2. Scene Works
3. All Visual

The first masthead ‘Entire Motion Picture’ arose from the idea that my magazine will contain information on all of the film media market hence given by the term ‘entire’ in the name. Moreover, there seems to be common usage of the term ‘film’ in film magazine names such as ‘Total Film’, ‘Film Maker Magazine’ etc, therefore, I came to conclude that ‘Motion Picture’ is a more interesting way to express the term film and would attract a higher audiences interest. Lastly, the term ‘Entire’ means total/full which will imply to the consumer that this magazine contains everything to do with films, therefore, makes suggests its value for money.

The second masthead is ‘Scene Works’ which came into mind as a scene in the movie environment means ‘action in a single location and continuous time’ and I was trying to get the message across that anything the consumer wants and needs about the film industry will be in this one location, i.e. in my magazine.

‘All Visual’ is the last masthead in which I shortlisted as I felt that this gives a very important message across to the consumer. Firstly, this makes clear to the consumer that everything in this magazine is visual related meaning matter to do with the motion sector of media. Moreover, the ‘All’ part of the name suggests that my magazine will cover every aspect of the film industry from actors to new releases to film reviews.

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Introduction To The Creation Of The Film Magazine

The last part of the task is to create a front cover for a film magazine which will feature our film. This needs to be completed individually and the material which will be used to create the front cover will be used from the photo shoot. In order to design a top quality magazine, I will firstly analyse other film magazine front covers in order to come to conclusion as to what I will need to include in my front cover. Once I have have an understanding of what I will need to include, I will roughly draw up flat plans in order to give me an idea of what my ideas will look like and proceed with the best idea which I feel will work well.

Final Film Poster

Above is my final poster which I believe to be outstanding in every way. The reason for this is because I have challenged conventions to the limit due to the fact that I want my poster to stand out, be different, make people realise that this is not the same old horror movie which everyone see's in the cinema which has a similar story line but a completely different an innovative movie. I would not change this poster in any way as I feel that every element of this poster is perfect in my opinion.

Audience Feedback

Once I created my first draft of my poster, I created a questionnaire and handed it out to 16 people offering a prize which was used to create an incentive for my audience to carry out the questionnaire. I have used some of the changed my audience feel need to be done which I was confident with, however, some I did not change as I felt that it would not work well. Below is a demo of my questionnaire followed by results:


Results:






There were some responses in which I categorised as one, for example, two responses both relating to size but in different ways.

First Draft Of Poster

The above poster is the first draft I conducted and come to conclusion that a few changes need to be made. Firstly, I felt that the font was fairly unreadable to some people hence I needed to change the font to a similar, but clearer style. Secondly, I decided to place the actors names at the top of the poster on the right hand side and add the production crews names at the bottom in its place. The reason for this is due to the fact that the production crews names on a poster is a common convention which I would like to keep.

Screen Shots

Below are some screen shots showing the editing process of the poster:

Flat Plan's & Mock Up's For Poster

After analysing various different horror posters, the next step was to do a flat plan of what the poster for 'The Vanishing' will look like. I wanted my poster to carry the same conventions as other horror posters but be a little bit different for it to stand out from the left. The way in which I have decided to differentiate my poster from the rest is by giving as little detail as possible which will consequently cause the audience to want to know more and persuade them to watch my film. Below is 2 of the flat plans which i have shortlisted as I believe they have important elements in them as well as the posters looking sharp and effective.

Flat Plan One:


In the above flat plan, I placed the tagline at the top of the poster. The reason for this is because this is one of the first things that the audience will see and if it is persuasive enough, it will hook the audience on to the poster. The film name will be to the left of the image as the image will be partly explaining the film name, 'The Vanishing'. The image will be of the killer in the forest where the film has taken place. Lastly, at the bottom of the poster, there are crew names and the release date which I felt it is not as important as the other elements of the poster hence placed it at the bottom. The tagline and release date will be in red as red has connotations of death and blood which relates to the genre. The tagline will be, 'No Laws.. No Limits.. One Killer', and due to the fact that the tagline is trying to place an vision of horror conventions such as death and blood in the audiences head, I thought that if the writing was in red, it will be more effective and clear as to the implications its trying to give. The film name will be in white as the background is black and it will stand out due to the high contrast as well as the crew names at the bottom. Across the whole poster, there will be three different fonts which will help separate the text where the film name has a font of its own, the release date and tagline carry the same font and the crew names having a font of its own. Below is a mock up of what the poster should look like:

Mock Up For Flat Plan 1:


When I was creating this poster, I came across a few problems and changed a few parts. The tagline was not that noticeable due to the background which is fairly bright at the top of the page, I had to place a square black box at the top of the poster and reduce the opacity in order for the background to show a bit. This helped a lot as it makes the tagline stand out more as well as showing some of the background. Also, I played around with the character and tried to make him appear as if he is behind a tree, however, the character was hardly noticeable therefore I decided to pull him close up in order to make him the central point of interest.

Flat Plan 2:


The second flat plan which I felt would work well is the one above. The background will be of the car used in the film at a side angle with the bonnet open. The reason why the bonnet will be open is due to the links people make with a open bonnet and a car which is that the car is broken down which happens in the film. The car will be parked on a countryside road where there are bushes behind. I will add a sign to the right third of the poster which will contain the writing "No Trespassing, Violators will be murdered". The image of the car and the background will be in grey scale and the only element of the poster which will be in colour is the sign. The reason for this is due to the text in the sign which is a key element to the poster and will work pretty effectively. The film name will be towards the bottom on the right, in the same third as the sign. The masthead will be white with a red outline. The white will stand out on the grey scale of the background image whilst the red will help to associate the poster to the horror genre. Below the film name will be the tagline which will be in white also due to the fact that it will stand out. Lastly, the common convention of the crew names and release date will be at the bottom highlighted in a dark grey box. Across the whole poster, there will be three fonts which I found to be a common convention in all the posters I analysed. The film name will have a font of its own in order to make it stand out then the rest of the text, the tagline and the writing in the sign will be in Arial as it is clear to read and lastly, the crew names and release date will be in another font different from the rest of the poster. Below is a mock up of what the poster should look like once images, the masthead, tagline and crew names have been added:



I will not use the above idea due to the fact that it does not really link to the horror genre therefore will fail to capture a high audience. However, I do feel that this poster has very effective parts which I do like, such as the film name's font and the style it has been laid out. I will use the elements I like in this idea in the idea I put forward.

Flat Plan 3:

In the above flat plan, I tried to make the poster highly conventional by placing certain parts in the places where the audience would expect it to be. The film name is placed at the top in big bold writing which will attract the audience and also help the film name to be rememberable. Towards the middle of the page, there will be half a baseball bat coming out of the left of the poster. The bat will be black with white wood grains. There will be blood on the end of the bat which is dripping off it which will help associate the poster to the horror genre. The tagline will be divided into two parts on each side of the bat. On the top left of the bat, there will be the words " Be Careful..." and on the bottom right of the bat, in between the blood drops, will be " He Has A Weapon ". Right at the bottom of the page will be the production crews names and logos which is placed at the bottom due to not being as important as the rest. There will be two colours running across the poster which is white and red. The film name, tagline, bat and the production crews name will be in white due to the high contrast with black and the blood will be red as this will help catch the audiences eye due to it being a different colour. There will be 3 different fonts running across the poster where the film name will have a font of its own, the tagline will have one of its own and lastly the production crews name having a font of its own. Below is the mock up of what the poster will look like with certain elements in place:



Once I created this mock up, I feel that it is not very eye catching due to the simplicity of it. I prefer the first two ideas as they are very different and conventional to the horror genre.

Flat Plan 4:

This was the idea that I was most keen to improve and take forward which is due to the fact that it is very different. The first thing that you will notice is that the poster is landscape rather than portrait which would immediately attract attention due to the difference in which it holds in comparison to other posters. I had a vision to challenge common conventions. Secondly, I decided to try to give as little information as possible hence decided to place the killer half in shade and half in light consequently creating enigma as only half his features are to be seen. The part of the poster which would attract majority of the audience is the actor names due to the fact they are highly valued actors, consumers will feel secure that this film is good due to the actors and will be more willing to watch it. Lastly, the tagline will be broken down into two parts, one above and one below the film name which would be in a less busy font then the film name in order to emphasis the film name more. Typically, the production crews names will be at the bottom where it is normally found.

Above is a mock of of what the poster would look like once it is processed in photoshop. In my opinion, I believe that this is the best idea as I have challenged conventions by constructing a landscape poster rather then portrait as well as creating enigma and interest with the actor names being in bold letters at the top of the poster in the audiences eye which in turn will increase the audience for my film. This is the idea I am going to put forward.

Photographs

Below are the pictures from my photo shoot:







I will use the top third picture as I feel that the eye contact addresses the audience directly and would impact them more then a long shot. Also, the mid shot enables facial expressions to be revealed which would further add to the impact.I will use photoshop to edit the make the image appear to have a light shining from the right to the left causing a dark shadow across the left of the figures face.