Here are 6 magazine front covers for film magazines. I have chosen ones with different styles and colours but with the entire same layout to show that you can differ from other magazines in your own individualistic way and still stick to codes and conventions. All magazines have a mast head, sell lines, puffs and main images but where these are placed are thought out carefully and yet must meet the requirements of the conventions. Three are from Total Film and three are from Empire, both of which are offering the same substance and are in competition with each other. We can see this through the use of the same movie but on two different magazines, Inception in on both of them but have two completely different styles. This shows the vastness with the designing the magazines and how two different designs can appeal to the same target audience.

The main images used on the magazine front covers are mainly dominant characters from the film, most of which are the protagonist’s. We can see that they are a male character which fits in with the target audience criteria for the magazines. A strong male lead is what the fans of the movies look for, its more plausible in an action film to have a dominant male, this however is different from horror films, as the antagonist is male and the remaining survivor is usually the final girl. The men in 5 of these cover all have a strong stance and they are showing power in both their eye contact and their costumes. Robert Downey Jr and Daniel Craig both have their shoulders forward emitting of them power and dominance. The Iron man suit that is featured in the Empire issue acts as a sort of armour for the character leaving him indestructible. The same can be seen in the James Bond Empire cover as he’s wearing the classic James bond suit, the bullet holes around his body just miss him showing that no harm could come to him either. For Total Film magazine, Iron man 2 cover, his arm is extended as though he stopping something or protecting someone, this is a male trait of protecting the weak and helpless, like a superhero, which is of course every man’s dream. Again appealing to the target audience. The colour surrounding the characters all seem to be a shade of blue/navy which is thought to be a man’s colour, again attracting the audience towards the magazine even further.

The colours that are used for the mast head and sell lines always match the colour scheme presented in the characters costumes. For Total Film’s Alice in wonderland cover the colour of the mast head is the same colour as the make up on Johnny Depp, this grabs our attention as it’s a lot of white in one place. The sell lines on this cover are also white, making every match with each other to produce the sense of continuity. The gold that is used on the Iron Man shows the legend behind his character as we can also see in the James bond front over, that the legend entitles them to the most worth colour; gold. 

The mast heads blend in well with theme of the issues we can see this especially in the Total Film issue with Inception as the main article that week. The Mast Head has been designed to look like buildings of which Leonardo De Caprio is standing in, and by watching the trailer the audience would know what this symbolises. We can see a mirror of this in Empire magazine’s cover as the depth and complexity of the film projects itself onto this cover again as well.  As it stands out among the rest of the sell lines as they seem less important that the main article.

The sell lines usually consist of other movies that feature in that issues that week. These are either upcoming movies or newly released movies or even movies that have been released on DVD. The other sell lines consist of promoting their own magazine by offering special offers on subscription to the magazine, which may entice the readership as they would want to know they are getting the latest movie new at their door every month. They also promote other ways of getting the audience’s movie fix as they offer free trips to the cinema or special merchandise to be won (freebies).

Over all these magazine front covers are very effective in attracting the audience’s attention as they are bold and cover the topic that they want to read about most. The most anticipated films of the year are always on the front covers and this always follows a theme for that magazine issue. This however may be bad as other fans may not want to read this sole topic throughout the magazine and may put them off buying that issue. However both magazines offer a wide range of genres that we can see through the sell lines.