EMPIRE FILM MAGAZINE FRONT

COVER DECONSTRUCTION

PUBLIC ENEMIES ISSUE

Empire is a British film magazine that is released monthly, published by Bauer Consumer Media. The first issue was released in July 1989 and it is now the best selling film magazine in the UK. I have chosen to deconstruct the Public Enemies issue released in July 2009.

BACKGROUND

The title of the magazine is so iconic that the image is able to cover the title and people will still know what the magazine is. The font is sans-serif so that it is clear and easy to read. The red colour on the white and grey background stands out and contrasts well.

MASTHEAD

The colour scheme is red, black, grey and white. These colours relate into the genre of the film which is the main story, and the colours connote mystery and secrecy.

COLOUR SCHEME

The main image dominates the page, taking up almost the whole length of the page, and this shows that it is the main film story. The character is a male dressed in all black with a white shirt which is used to create contrast within the image. He is not using a direct mode of address, which makes the audience wonder what he is looking at.

MAIN IMAGE

His serious facial expression and the prop being used is a gun tells the audience that action and danger are involved. His black outfit connotes rebelliousness and death, but also gives him a formal appearance.

MAIN IMAGE

The use of “JOHNNY DEPP STEALS SUMMER!” gives the film an instant good review due to the fact Johnny Depp is a world class actor and people will want to watch the film just because he stars in it. The off-white colour is used to stand out against the black suit.

MAIN COVER LINE

The title of the film is the second largest piece of text on the front cover, after the masthead, which shows the significance of the film and that it is the main story. The serif, bold font makes it stand out, but also appears more decorative. The grey colour contrasts with the black on the image.

TITLE OF FILM

The “first look” uses a dark colour box. This helps it to stand out and draws the eye to these buzz words. The use of grey writing stands out against the black box so that the text isn’t getting washed out by the white colour box underneath.

BUZZ WORD

The white colour box around the cover lines contrasts with the black suit and the red writing. The images are equal in size and they all use similar colours, so they fit well with the magazine.The word “heroes” is used effectively as it is something everyone can relate to, and the characters and films used are very well known.

COVER LINES

The cover line at the top uses the buzz word “exclusive” so that the audience are intrigued and want to find out information that other people don’t know. The background of the image uses an off-yellow colour which is not part of the colour scheme. This draws focus to the image, but does not take away the significance of the main image as it is much smaller.

TOP COVER LINE

The red plus sign on the left hand side of the page tells us that there is more information along with the main story and the cover lines. The use of red and white fonts creates a contrast within itself and stands out against the image.

PLUS SIGN

The date, price and barcode are small and seem to be squashed into a corner underneath the cover lines. This shows the information is not important but it is a convention that you need on all magazine front covers.

DATE, PRICE, BARCODE

The background of the front cover is the grey background of the main image. It has been blurred so that the character stands out and so does all the information.

BACKGROUND