1. What is instantly effective about the Magazine?

The image is instantly effective about the magazine. The close up shot shows the intense expression on his face. The expression shows his character in the film, which

then gives some extra depth into what the film is about.

2. How does the magazine conform to it’s genre’s

conventions? The magazine conforms to the thriller genre by

the language that is used on the cover. ‘The popcorn king’ suggests that the film was a hit on the big screen. Spielberg is the most profound director of his time and has had many box office hits over the

previous years which makes him the ‘popcorn king.’

3. How does the trailer challenge it’s genre’s conventions?

The poster challenges the conventions of a thriller by the use of pastel colours. Thrillers usually have the colour scheme of dark blue, red, white and black which adds tension to the magazine cover. The colour scheme connotes the thriller genre, most

thriller magazine covers have blue to convey mystery and loss of memory of some sort.

4. Who do you think it’s target audience is and how does it appeal to

them? I think that the target audience for this magazine

would be 17-50 years old, I think that this in an appropriate age range as I don’t feel that anyone younger would want to buy a magazine with hardly any colour or context.

5. Analyse the effectiveness of it’s conventions?

The image is a close up image of Tom Cruise, his face is very serious and stern which gives a certain intensity to the magazine cover. The close up image lets us have an insight to the emotions that are conveyed throughout the film.

The colour scheme isn’t very effective on the magazine cover. The use of pastel blue gives the magazine a childlike feel, for a thriller I don’t think that this is the effect that the editors were trying to achieve. The masthead is bold and looks a little 3D. However I don’t like the way that the text overlaps the image as it draws attention away from the image. On the contrary I do like the way that the word ‘Total’ is buried within the word ‘film’.

The title is bold which makes the text stand out. However again the pastel blue makes the text look child like. The cover lines are bold and easy to read which is effective as your attention can easily be swayed from the text if it isn’t clear.

The costume of the black t-shirt shows how casual the film is. Black usually connotes the thriller genre as it adds a certain powerful sense to the genre. The A list celebrity Tom Cruise suggests that it is a high quality film as A list celebrities don’t accept roles from any old script or director.

The background is plain grey the effect of this makes the rest of the text and image stand out. Bold images and text are what make a magazine look professional. The puff is used here to promote the interviews that are in the magazine. ‘exclusive’ suggests that the interview is unique to that magazine. Therefore the readers will want to buy the magazine due to the interview being one of a kind.

The plug of 45 pages of reviews and a giant DVD section shows the readers that the magazine have a very large section in the magazine which is worth talking about.