Media Magazine

First Draft

Second Draft

Final Product

As you can see my magazine cover went through some changes before it reached the final product. Even though drafts one and two are blank it's because we wanted to show where we were going to have everything by using the final product and our plans.

Draft one, in my opinion, looked more retro then the final product. I felt like I had chosen the wrong font for the main title "Films4You". I then decided to change it to a more suitable font but then found out by looking at it that Draft 2 looked too cartoon like. I decided to go with black in draft 2 because I took the picture during that time which made me change my decision because of the black suit that my main character was wearing.

The pictures were hard to get because of how much free time people had, just like the films trailer, the people who said they were going to be the main characters could not do it because of time differences in free lessons. We decided to go with a bunch of people would were free when we were free, so we could easiley take the pictures, however for this picture I took it at home with a family member. I set up the area in my living room using old boxes which came from another family member ordering something online. I felt like it made the picture look more old, like the killers hideout. The comedy aspect in this magazine is easiley seen. I came up with the idea when watching Tim burtons Alice in wonderland with the Mad hatters tea party. I thought this would be a good idea because it would fit in with the title "Killing Time" and it's tagline "Time flied by".

The teaset was just a present that was supposed to get given to someone but ended up being left in the cuboard for months. I decided to use this and not real tea cups to show the comedy like aspect that I want people to know about in the film.

I decided to use the ghostface killer in this film magazine because it would be similar to the Joker magazine cover in empire.

Another smart thing which I have done is used, pictures that I have used in past work. The Hankicheifs, a spoof of the Kaiser chiefs was from our music magazine project 2 years ago in year 12. I have made it so the band is releasing a film documentry about the bands life and tour. The security picture was used a year ago in year 13 for this same project. This time the film is getting a sequel to show that the movies and band are progressing. I thought it would be a good idea to show past creations progressing in there lifes, even though it's not real, it's nice to show that I can use them in a good way to remind people and myself of my last bits of work.

Research for Film Magazines

As part of our coursework, we have to create a magazine front cover with our film being featured as the main story on our magazine. I have done some research on what magazines front covers have got and what we would need to do on ours, it would also help us get ideas.

Film Magazine Front Covers

Premiere Magazine

The Main character of the film magazine is the first thing people will notice because she is also doing an interview for the magazine. It also Talks about other films on the front cover and what the actors and actresses are doing, sort of like film gossip, most of what the writers talk about could be just speculation of what might be happening for a film, for example is a certain actor or actress been rumored for the main role in a film. The Premiere magazine also has light colours which makes the magazine more attractive, Keira Knightley stands out more on the magazine and she should since she is the main actress the magazine will be talking about. The magazine title is partly covered by the main character probably because Premiere don't want to squash there main picture into a small space, you can see that sub headings in the white and yellow font are over the picture as well. They were made yellow and white to stand out of the background colour which is a light orange colour and Keira Knightleys black dress. As all magazines have we can see a price and bar code at the bottom right, this is usually kept in the same place. There are three pictures of this magazine cover, the first one we already can see of the actress Keira Knightley, the second one, which is very small, is the stay puft marshmallow man from Ghostbusters and the third picture which is also very small is a picture of Johnny Depp. The second and third pictures link in with the story's that they are about, they are small so the page doesn't look messy since they have already chosen Keira to be the main picture. In my opinion the font used makes the magazine look old and not very interesting, it just looks like a normal font but in bold. Keira Knightley is not in character in the magazine, people who expect her to be in her pirates costume like she was in the third pirates of the Caribbean film, at worlds end, probably because not only is that what people recognize her the most from but also because seeing the picture of Johnny Depp, who was the main character in the Pirates film, makes it look like Premiere are doing something on the film franchise.

Empire Magazine
  

Empire is the second magazine I will be researching and all ready you can see that it follows Premieres style by having the main character at the front of the magazine, the difference with Empire and Premiere is that even though the main character of a film is the main picture on the front cover, Empires magazine manages to have another three well sized pictures on the magazine without making it look messy.  The black background with a small amount of light coming from behind Robert Downey JR makes the white, red and even the odd gold thetas here and there stand out from the magazine. The red especially since it really gives the Empire title a nice effect standing out from the rest. The white coming from behind Downey literally puts him in the spot light which is also what usually his cocky character Tony Stark is like in the iron man films. The three pictures also show whats in store if the reader buys the magazine. We have the reveal of Indy Jr in Indiana Jones 4, the reveal of the prince Caspian actor and the new actor for Speed racer. There's less text then the Premiere magazine, but it's nice to see the magazine not looking clustered with text. The colour scheme also relates to Iron man because Iron mans colours are Red and Gold, plus the white is for the light source that comes from Tony Starks chest. If for example the magazine was about the Joker in Batman the Dark Knight then then font would probably be green, purple and white which would relate to the villain from the dark knight. At the bottom of the page you have the "Plus" section where the audience can see the other stuff which are included in the film magazine. The colours of the font used here are white and red, the white is for the normal font, listing the other stuff which are inside the magazine and the red which is used on"Worlds first looks at" sperates it from the "Plus" section, it proberly didn't use anoother line incase it took up to much room so thats why I think it was included half way inside the "Plus" section. The top of the magazine, above the title Empire, kind of introduces Donwey as it's his first comic adaptation movie, where he started to get the main role of some top movies, the iron man franchise, the sherlock holmes franchise and also playing the funniest character in the film tropic thunder where he dressed up like a sterotypical black guy.

Total Film Magazine

Total Film is the third and last magazine that I will be researching. The first thing you will notice on this magazine is that it follows the same pattern as Empire and Premiere by having the main character of the film your writing about as a world exclusive is blown up on the front page, but I think this magazine has the best effect out of all three of the magazines because it shows Max Payne's gun coming out of the right corner of the magazine kind of like a 3D effect. Max Payne is the main story of this magazine, the movie is a video game adaptation (where every adaptation sucks) and the magazine over relates to Max Paynes character, it's dark, gritty and depressing. This links into Max Paynes character because of the trauma he's been through after his wife and one year old daughter were shot, from going to a loving father to a tough straight faced detective. The snow also links it to how cold hearted he has become, towards the criminals of the fictional city where the film is set. The front covers background is enough for people who don't know max payne and for people who do know him from the video games to see what he's going to be like in the film without watching the trailer. It's not like Mark Wahlbergs character from The Other Guys where he stared as a detective with his partner, Will ferrell as they got into all kinds of trouble, obviously we have the major change in comedy and non stop action  but to compare his two detective characters from two differen't films you really can understand what he could be like in Max Payne. The colour scheme used here is quite dull but it's to make the font stand out. We have the colours white and yellow which really can stand out from the dark snowy background. Another nice little effect is the font style on "Max Payne", it has been made to look like it's been shattered kind of like how Max Payne has become a broken man. The bottom of the magazine has the "Whats inside" bit, this has got a pattern of one film or actor being in bold and then next being in normal font and then the next in a bold font again and so on.

Audience Research

This is what my Questionnaire looks like

What I learnt from my audience feedback, thanks to my questionnaire, is that the audience expect big news about my new film. They would want to see the biggest film news as the main story and be the main picture on the magazine.

I also learnt that people perfer a film magazine which has a good layout, I think the reason for this is because people don't want a messy layout which they can not follow, a nice looking magazine cover which is easy to read and follow. This tells me presentation is the key in a magazine cover.

EMPIRE was the magazine that most people had read, this is because EMPIRE is more well known then the other two. Most people who did this questionnaire were males.
What each magazine have  in common

• Each cover has a bar code
• Each cover has a big picture of the films main character
• Each cover  has a mast head.
• Each cover has a 'plus' section.
• Each cover used the colour white in the text (common)
• Each cover has a price, date and issue.
• Each magazine has a cinema theme title, (Premiere, Total Film)
• Only two of the front cover don't have much text on, the Premiere does.
• Empire and Total Film have a dark background, Premiere has a light background.
• Empire uses more than one picture, there is 4 pictures used, Premiere use two (other one used is very small) and Total Film only uses the one picture.
• The date/issue number/price is always placed around where the masthead.

What our magazine front cover will contain?

• A Masthead
• Picture of the actors as the main characters on the cover
• A 'Plus' section
• The colours will be light colours, and they will blend with the dark background.
• The magazine will have a cinema based title. (e.g. Popcorn, Lights, camera, action)
• The background picture will be the only picture that the front cover uses.
• The main characters will be interviewed.
• The front cover will have a date, issue and price.
• There wont be too many pictures used on the front cover, maybe about 1 or 2.
• There wont be too much text, just headlines on what the magazine will include (people will want to buy it for the style of cover)
• It will be an interview of the actors.

Magazine name ideas

                           

• Popcorn
• Lights, Camera, Action!
• CUT!
• Wrap!
• Behind the Scenes
• Film Fanatics R Us