Before we produced our own magazine cover we analysed many different film covers from big names like Entertainment, Empire and Odeon. When looking at different film magazine covers we saw they all used the same content and what they need to include within the film magazine.
How to analyse a magazine cover
As demonstrated by the diagram below, a magazine cover can be broken down and analysed in several parts.
When looking at any magazine cover, many will feature each of these common characteristics with the best containing them all.
Empire Magazine
One of the most popular and well-known magazines in the movie industry is Empire - a British film magazine published on a monthly basis by Bauer Consumer Media, Bauer Media Group. First published in July 1989, it is a well known and respected magazine in its industry and holds the title of the best selling film magazine in the United Kingdom as well as selling copies worldwide in the United States, Australia, Turkey, Russia, Italy and Portugal.
The strap line of this particular cover is bold and the colour contrasts well with the fire-fuelled background that can be seen behind the main character. It advertises a '30-page Oscars preview inside' and immediately makes the issue appear more desirable to movie fanatics that may have a major interest in the Oscars. As well as a bold and colourful strap line, this magazine cover also features a bold and unique masthead. The title is simple yet effective and immediately draws potential readers' attention to the magazine both due to positioning behind the character's head and the heavy weight to the title. Those that are attracted to the image of the actor are also therefore likely to be attracted to the magazine title due to its positioning directly behind the character. Positioned around the cover are also several cover lines. Information such as 'meet Deadshot!' and 'world first!' will appeal to many huge movie fans as information and features will be available which they will only be able to find in Empire. |
American Cinematographer
First published on November 1st 1920, American Cinematographer is a monthly magazine published by the American Society of Cinematographers. It focuses on the art and craft aspects of cinematography and has a key focus on the technicality of film rather than the entertainment aspects.
Unlike with Empire, American Cinematographer is aimed at rather a different audience. The magazine mainly focuses on those with an interest in the technical and craftsmanship aspects of film and so is created differently. Like with Empire, the cover from this edition features a masthead which is bold and unique to this particular magazine. It is positioned behind the character featured on this cover and aims to draw readers into the title through them looking at the character first. This cover also features a simple yet informative menu located at the top of the cover. |
Variety
Variety magazine was first published in December 16, 1905. Variety magazine is published weekly by the American society. Variety is a weekly glossy magazine which focuses in-depth about analytical stories which are aimed solely at the entertainment industry. Variety covers their content globally via having different editions like US, Global and Asia.
Unlike American Cinematographer, Variety is aimed at the entertainment industry more than the audience viewers. This magazine mainly focuses on the business aspects of the film industry. The title of the magazine 'Variety' is presented in-front of the actor on the front cover and the style of writing is big and bold showing the dominance and the power about what the magazine represents. Also on this cover of the 'Variety' has bold titles on the top of the cover showing what else this magazine offers. They also have in the bottom right corner a small description of the actor Eddie Redmayne and it gives an insight of what the article about Eddie is going to be about. |
Magazine Analysis
Our Magazine
We took inspiration from Empire Magazine when producing our magazine cover and aimed to produce something which would feature the same conventions found on their covers.