Film Magazine Front Cover Analysis

The magazine includes their web address so that their target

audience can visit the website to find out more information,

exclusives and so on. Additionally, the website is

displayed obviously so that any possible complaints readers have they know to go to the website

to do so.

The price is displayed obviously above the “M” in the masthead. The text is

contrastingly white making it obvious to the reader. The price for this

particular magazine is £3.99, quite expensive for a magazine however this price suggests higher quality, more content and simply a more enjoyable experience. A cheap

magazine may beg the question as to “why is it so cheap?” Is it poor quality? Is it sloppily written?

A barcode is essential and will be found on any genre of magazine.

It is used so that machines can process the magazine when being purchased in shops.

The date is also shown in bold white capitals. The fact it only shows the

month and the year suggests EMPIRE is a monthly issued magazine .

The boxed-out text is used to create a readable surface to place important text. It attracts the eye and forces the reader into reading this

bit of text. If the reader likes what he/she reads, they may buy the magazine.

The tagline of the magazine reads ‘The shires’s biggest movie magazine’ not only suggests guaranteed quality

but also jokes with the contents of this specific magazine based on ‘The Hobbit.’ Any serious film fanatic will

be amused by such little details.

The masthead is in bold gold text taking up a large part of the page as it is important to ensure readers know that this

is an ‘EMPIRE’ magazine.

However, the face of the model covers some of the

masthead. This can be interpreted as almost cocky in the sense that it assumes that readers know the magazine is

‘EMPIRE’ without having to make it explicitly obvious.

In addition to the exclusives on the, at the time, new film The Hobbit the

magazine has much more content. It shows this on the front cover by

listing some more content to be found in the magazine and aim to further interest some sceptical readers. By

showing more content some readers not interested in The Hobbit may be interested in Dredd for example and continue to buy this months addition

of EMPIRE.

“EXCLUSIVE” – the use of a ‘buzz word’ aimed at attracting people to their magazine as oppose to

other similar ones of the same shelf. If one magazine has an EXCLUSIVE and the other

doesn’t then it is likely the reader will favour the one with unseen content.

The use of the term “finest coverage” is another example of the magazine deliberately trying to subtly get one up on the other rival magazines. By claiming that their coverage is the ‘finest’ it forces the reader

to assume that this is the best magazine, the best value for money, the best content etc.

“The Hobbit” is written in large golden text, similar to that of the masthead to give readers detail as to the main story in the magazine. At the time of release, The Hobbit was a big film

being released that would undoubtedly attract interest due to the success of the Lord of The

Rings trilogy. By picking this story they are guaranteeing some sales to The Hobbit fans.

The photo used for the background of the magazine consists of two models, the character Bilbo Baggins and Gollum. Notice the

light shining on Bilbo Baggins portraying him as a “good guy” and the darkness on Gollum portraying him as a “bad guy.” The picture aims to show a bit of the film plot with Bilbo looking around with a

scared look on his face with Gollum crawling around in the darkness following him. This eerie photo is effective yet also breaks codes and conventions. It is effective in the sense of using the rule of thirds. It places two characters both on the left and right hand side of the screen, not the middle. This is a concept that suggests the human eye is automatically going to look at each side of the page not the direct centre (hence the reason the centre is blank

from text or any models.) However, it does break codes and conventions as usually on the cover of magazines there is eye

contact between the reader and the model to create a sense of intimacy between the two, hopefully resulting in the reader picking

to purchase that magazine over some of the competitors. This particularly magazine cover has decided to go against this common convention, perhaps to show an exclusive scene from the film that

will interest readers?