Magazine and Poster Research

As our coursework requires us to produce a poster and magazine front cover as well as the teaser trailer, research into posters and magazines is vital.

Looking at horror magazines has given me an insight into what is used and the message they try to portray. As the audience for these magazines is likely to be people who are interested in horror films and therefore they can be creative in there presentation and in their photography as they are targeting one market. Both images used are slightly shocking and not what you would expect to be on the front of a magazine. They both also use the colour red mainly with some black as theese have connotations of blood, danger, evil etc..

As we are required to make a movie magazine, and it does not have to specify for the horror genre, our group as decided to make a movie magaizne targeting many different audiences, this means that we are aiming at a wider market, and that we are promoting tofans of movies in general.

Looking at different movie magazines including 'Empire' and 'Total Film' has helped me to become familiar with the generic conventions and typical features used. By looking at these magazines for inspiration would hopefully mean we have more of a chance of creating a professional looking magazine to promote our film. Through my research I have found many different covers of magazines using different shots, colours and fonts. As the genre of our trailer is horror, I decided to find some examples of horror magazines. I noticed the colours black and red were used a lot which is because they have connotations of blood, danger and evil which are common features within horror films.

Creating a magazine in AS means that I already have knowledge on the typical features of magazines in general. However as this year we are required to create a movie magazine, there will be differences into the types of coverlines, and main images we will use. Looking at some magazines has helped me to extend my knowledge and this means that I can share ideas with my group and inform them of my findings.

Following the horror genre we have been given, the colours we will use will have connotations of horror which would make the audience recognize what kind of film we are promoting. The magazines I have found all have large mastheads which stand out, a main image in the middle of the page and coverlines around the sides. This seems to be the typical layout of a magazine so following this we could also use this layout as then our magazine is more likely to get recongized as a magazine and look more realistic.