Magazine Construction

I gained inspiration into the construction of my magazine greatly from Empire and Total Film. After analysing a variety of covers, I decided that I wanted to use a single character image in the centre of the poster. This follows the conventions of many film magazines, as the use of a single subject allows for content to be easily and clearly displayed around the outside. After looking through the photos that had been taken for the construction of my poster, I thought that the image of our character Mr Pink standing on top of a roof was visually the most complex and powerful. This was primarily due to the varying features in the background of the image, making it more interesting from a distance. The image also emphasises our film's location in South London; furthermore due its skyline position, it comes across as more professional.

Once I had decided the central image, I began to test out the different ways in which I could present my magazine title. When thinking about what magazines titles mean to me and the connotation of them, I came up with three reference words: Reel, Life and Film. I particularly liked the double meaning created when the use of "Reel" is presented with "Film".  However I found that visually I particularly liked the position of text inside another, much like my inspiration, Total Film. This was due to the partition between the bold black and white colours, making the title appear less heavy overall and creating a ocular link between the words. Whilst experimenting with the titles representation on the poster, I felt that it had a more powerful effect on the viewer in the text spanned either side of the page. Furthermore this worked most effectively with block fonts such as 'Quartzo' as the graphics were immediately catchy and recognisable.

To try to diversify the variation of graphics on my magazine, I researched into different fonts on the website: http://fontsinuse.com/in/2/formats/11/magazines. I found this site very useful to achieve a broad perspective of the styles of font available and exploring the possibility of experimenting with non-stereotypical styles. I particularly focused on the Magazine section of this website as I wanted to see how real media texts contrasted different features through varied fonts. I found that the magazines that featured most varied fonts, were immediately more interesting as each exclusive felt unique. Using this website helped me to experiment with contrasting styles of fonts for my chosen magazine title, Reel Film. I particularly liked the font 'uncle typewriter', as against 'Quartzo' it connoted an edgy magazine with assorted features.

My first rough draft of the poster was minimal, featuring the title and main exclusive advertising "Capture". I was unsure where to present the main feature, as media texts position it in varied ways. However I did find that commonly the text was on the lower third of the page, enabling it to balance the weight of the magazine title. I used the font 'Champagne and Caviar' for "Capture" as I felt it conveyed the modern urban setting of our product. Initially it was hard to read any font in the lower third and so using the eraser tool and paintbrush, I faded the lower third of the poster into black. This worked effectively as when text presented on the lower third was in white, it created a strong visual contrast drawing the viewers eye immediately. To try to diversify my product, I wanted to include the reoccurring feature in our trailer of the ink. The main inclusive reason for the use of red ink is its connotation to blood and thus death. This alerts the audience to a possible outcome for our product, suggesting it as an action/thriller.  It also makes our product the most attractive piece on the magazine, drawing the audiences eyes there first.

I was pleased with my final poster shown below, which features many layers of information and graphic elelments. During the construction of my magazine, I found that adding features from real media texts, such as puffs, greatly increased the authenticity of the product. My final puff, used a contrast of black and metallic gold tones. As my magazine was predominately dark coloured, I decided to use white as the background colour of the puff to lift it off the page. Furthermore I positioned it at a tilted angle and added a shadow backdrop to emphasize its effect as an exclusive product. Due to its success in my earlier trials, I chose to present the title of 'Capture' with a clipping mask and red ink behind to create continuity, which also features in both my poster and our trailer. To try to create variation within the magazine, I used different fonts on each of the composite segments. This enhanced the visual effect that each feature is unique, emphasising the varied content in the magazine. One of my final decisions on the magazine was adding a subtitle of "our most action packed issue ever". After researching into real media texts, I found it a common feature that to make the magazine stand out from the others it would feature a statement line above the title. Due to our product having hybridity across the action and thriller genres, I was able to suggest the issue was action packed as it also referenced to our product 'Capture'.

EJ

Magazine Analysis - Empire

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Magazine Analysis - Sight and Sound

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Magazine Analysis - Empire

simplebooklet.com

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Magazine Analysis - Empire

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Magazine Analysis - Little White Lies

One of the key themes within Little White Lies magazine covers is the use of a strong central image created in a style of an illustration. The colours generally carry connotations of the style and tone seen within the film, here the orange and yellow creating a sense of the colours used within the film. A mother defining factor is the use of very little or no text, often only the title of the film is seen, allowing for a minimalistic them and style which follows the overall artistic feel of the cover. The title being in a recreation of a puff style works really well, allowing for the strong central image to be the main focus, while all other text and details needed are viewable but not complicatedly distracting away from the image. The floral image with the outline image over the top works really well, being clear well still artistic and abstract. Another common feature in the way in which the magazine world is through the use of the illustration itself, where commonly the magazine will employ someone to create an illustration for the cover, which is something I may do myself, possibly drawing it on paper and then developing this on the computer suing Adobe illustrator as well as Adobe Photoshop. In terms of how other Little White Lies covers compare, this is definitely one of my personal favourites, as the colour, mixed with the black as well as the contrasting white for the title draws the viewers eye on and works around the page. There is little detail, but is just enough, and slightly abstract to keep the cover interesting and attention grabbing.     

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Magazine Inspiration - Adam

As I'm targeting a mass market in my magazine, I researched Total Film and Empire. These two magazines are very similar in style and I will aim to adhere to these conventions. You can see many different conventions which are used throughout, notably the large title behind the central image and a tag line above the title. In these magazines, a lot of action is going on in the cover with a lot of different parts, given a cluttered but specific feel.

I extremely like the use of a bar to showcase other films, this gives the cover a professional feel that I hope to replicate. The title of the film is also shown centrally, and covers the whole page. I also hope to include a puff to showcase another film along with a bar at the bottom, giving a brief teaser to what's inside the magazine. 

AF

Magazine Inspiration - Ewan

For my magazine, I have been largely interested in the more arty, minimalist style such as Little White Lies or Sight and Sound, with the simple titles and clean layout of text. I particularly like the Little White Lies covers, which employ simplistic style through the illustration on the cover, and minimal text to create the overall minimalist style. The commonly employ an illustrator to create the covers, which is a concept I really like. The title itself sits in an variation of a Puff, with the white standing off the background making the title clear. The only text commonly viewable on the cover is the title of the featured movie, as seen above to be Attack the Block, and Drive. My favourite cover out of all three is the far right drive cover, and is something I will work closely with. The Sight and Sound magazines are not my favourite, however they employ a great technique allowing the text to sit on the page without being to distracting. The main central images are clear, and idea I might use in my cover, however I am thinking about merging the two styles to create an illustrated cover like Little White Lies, and laying minimalist, non varied colour text over the top in the style of Sight and Sound. In particular I like the Shame cover, where the text is all right alined and uses bold fonts and non bold fonts to create a form of sub headings and main text. This is something I want to use within my own cover. Noticeable things about all covers are that the title of the magazine is commonly at the top, a trope my magazine will conform to. As well as this, the title of the film the cover shows is at the bottom, something I will also follow. The text is commonly placed around the central image and rarely over it, which is again something I will do. As for the main image, the Little White Lies covers normally use colour and vary in colour, which is something I will use to help my cover stand out.

EL

Magazine Inspiration

When researching into current magazines, I found the ways in which they present their content to the audience greatly varied. Magazines such as Empire and Total Film cater for a mass audience, making content easily visible on the front cover so the potential consumer is aware of the best features. Magazines such as these, vastly advertise their content, selling the magazine on the content rather than the name. Despite this, it could be suggested that film fanatics are also interested in these mainstream magazines, as the advertisement content at the back includes fan paraphernalia.

In contrast, magazines such as Clash and Little White Lies aim at a niche audience, primarily featuring arthouse and indie films. As people buy these types of magazines for the name and reputation, minimal advertising is present on the front cover giving it a very professional and minimalist feel. Sight and Sound magazine strikes a contrast between mass audience and indie magazines, showing interest in both areas. For my own work, even though I prefer the design of magazines such as Clash, I want to create a cross between Sight and Sound and Empire. I believe that this will strike a balance between stylised design and practicality, testing my abilities to  produce a convincing magazine.

EJ 

Institutional Analysis - Empire

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Institutional Analysis - Little White Lies

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Institutional Analysis - Empire

 
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Posters Construction

My first attempt at the film poster was relatively simple. Prior to making the poster I had never used Photoshop to the level required for constructing a poster. At the start I found this very challenging and it took me some time to get to grips with the wide variety of tools available to use. The challenge this raised was not being able to produce the varying ideas I was coming up with as it seemed too complicated to produce. However Ewan in our group was very skilled at Photoshop and so he was able to teach me key tools and edits, such as applying a clipping mask.  The use of a clipping mask, allowed me to achieve the title below, with the swirling red ink inside of the text.

At this point I was working solely on my imagination, which after a point, I felt I was unable to visualize how I could include all of the constructive elements in the poster. After revisiting my real media texts poster inspiration, I was interested in the poster of Eastern Promises.

My main inspiration for my final poster was that of "Eastern Promises". I chose this poster to base my own on due to its unusual strong central image of hands. The use of this image in particular evokes a feeling of danger due to the masculine hands and tattoos covering them. The saying 'a picture speaks a thousand words' applies to this poster as it is carried through the images. The use of the banner at in the lower third, allows it to attract audiences by the famous people starring in it as the title is not well known.

I begun my construction of the poster by taking a photo of our main character 'the girl's' hands. I took this photo against black clothing to accentuate the paleness of her skin, implying purity and youth. The use of red rope highlighted the female characters situation in our film and also created a bold contrast against her skin. I tried multiple variations of hand positions and found that it looked best where the hands took up a minimal condensed area.

As I wanted to experiment with the different presentations of the background, I took some images of the ink that we used for our trailer title. I chose to use the images of the red ink due to the connotations of blood and death. Furthermore the use of red ink would contrast the black background, making the image come to life rather than blend in. 

For my banner, I took multiple body and head shots of our four main characters from varying perspectives and angles. I was unsure whether I would use all of the photos, particularly as four characters may make the banner look too crowded which would un balance the poster.

I was pleased with the overall effect of my preliminary poster, it contained connotations of blood and kidnapping through the deep red tones and rope featured in the top two thirds of the poster. However I didn't not think that the banner was working effectively as the individual characters looked obviously lifted off another image. I decided early on not to include a head shot of 'the girl' in my poster as I felt that her presence contrasted the three male characters too greatly. Furthermore I felt that her presence was depicted through the tied hands as the central image. Presenting it in this way, I believe allows the audience to take an evaluation of the situation (kidnapping/capture) and visually contrast it with the characters featured in the banner suggesting possible conflict.

EJ

2nd Audience Feedback

Like we did previously we showed a newer cut of our trailer to a selection of people in order to gain some feedback. At this point our trailer was far closer to completion as the music although not the final piece was very close to how the final track would sound. We had also begun making our graphics and had completed half of them along with putting in our first ident. We had also made our title, which we created using ink in water and placed this in.

Notes from the feedback:

• 2nd shot, remove and place at the end
• For the 2nd set of graphics, use a different font, perhaps the same as the title?
• Need to make those graphics fit into the style of the title, perhaps add a clipping mask of ink
• 4 star empire review breaks up the suspense, use shot of her getting grabbed
• Maybe add a boom and fade back in after the black
• 2 car shots don't work
• Take out 'improv side car 1' use it to make it clear that they're in a car
• Hold longer on the 3 shot, to send the message that they can't decide
• 4 stars should be placed her, between the shot of them not being able to decide and the car in order to show that they are separate
• Montage, layer in booms
• Music, hold at end and ramp back up
• Boom on the black at end
• Title should come in slower
• Ink drop needs more time
• Final music, ink drop should be in silence
• Use more booms, boom from title to credits
• Add a sound for the title, perhaps the breathing or clock??

As this was close to our final version we hoped that we wouldn't have too many negatives, thankfully we didn't as we took the advice on board from last time and made the necessary changes. Overall the main pointers were to clean up the title a bit, this we knew as we had only just put it in as well as change up the narrative graphics as at the moment they are fairly similar to each other. We were also advised to remove several shots which don't work, this is completely understandable. We also had plenty of positive feedback particularly towards our Full Circle ident and the title. We were were thankful that the title came out how it did, as when filming it we encountered several problems such as the reflection.

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1st Audinece Feedback

We showed a very rough draft to several people in order to get a grasp of how our trailer was shaping up. At this point our trailer had all the shots from the shot list put in with the correct length, along with a 1st draft of the music. We had only put in black spaces in place of the titles/graphics.

After showing them our trailer we asked for tips on what needed to be improved:

• Soundtrack needs more drama, and crescendo
• As a trailer needs to be more thrilling, with the montage being quicker
• Sound/dialogue needs to come in much tighter as they speak
• Layering of sound
• Too much posing in the shots
• Opening and closing with the same shot??? Cut one
• Fit quick shots to sound, maybe longer
• Doorbell replaced with a knock
• Longer black after the graphics
• Cut tighter on the opening of the door
• Spade in Act 1 shown too early, makes the job appear to be something that it's not
• Shot of house needed, ESSENTIAL
• Remove echo
• Bag thrown down too slow
• Too long on cocking of gun
• Everything is too placed
• Split audio 'lets go' over establishing shot of house
• Music: Needs more drama
• Some shot needed of them breaking into the hosue
• 'We're done here' needs to be far quicker
• Noise of door, doesn't work
• Act 2/3 needs more danger, faster cuts, more happening, quicker, tighter montage
• 'What are we going to do with her 'could come earlier, soundbridge + split audio edit
• Pull out to the three shot later???
• Start with single line 'What are we going to do with her' perhaps???
• 'We can't kill her' in the montage???

Overall the main pointers are the music needs to be faster and every shot needs to be far tighter. These are both areas that we know need to be improved and we are already working on, as the music is only currently in it's first draft and we've only just begun editing the whole piece together. We also received plenty of praise, particularly surrounding the stylised nature of the shots and the overall feel of the trailer

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EJ
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Poster Research - Ex Machina

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Poster Research - 7 Minutes

I produced a video to analyse the 7 minutes poster, when the video uploaded the colours in the video became much more muted, and therefore the red has turned into an orange shade. The original poster can be seen below.

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Poster Research - Scarface

 

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Poster Research - Looper

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Poster Research - The Revenant

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