Shutter Island Total Film magazine cover

The masthead of this magazine is original and instantly recognisable, this connotes to the reader that this magazine is professional and will have entertaining content because Total Film is known to be successful, although not as successful as Empire magazine. The banner 'Greatest movie art ever' is in capital letters and in a bold red colour, this will capture the attention of the reader because at first glance it stands out. The banner has been used to capture the attention of a film magazine reader because they may want to find out what Total Film deems 'the greatest movie art ever' and then compare it with their opinion. This attempt to make the reader challenge the statement in the banner will entice them to read the magazine because it engages them, making them feel important.

The colour scheme combination of red and white shows what the magazine deems important, for example the banner and the cover line are both in red and will therefore stand out. The cover line lets the audience know that this issue will focus on Shutter Island and may include an interview with the director or the lead actor. The Tagline 'INSIDE MARTY'S MADHOUSE' suggests that Shutter Island will have psychological themes and will be exploring the psychological states of the main characters, this appeals to movie goers who are interested in psychological films. The tagline also feels like an open invitation for the reader.

The composition of this magazine places the main image of Leonardo Dicaprio in the centre, this has been done to make him stand out. This reminds readers that Total Film is an established magazine because it can afford to use a high profile actor on its cover, increasing the likeliness that a casual reader will buy the magazine. Dicaprio is holding a gun in his right hand, this will hint to the readers (who through years of watching films, have been conditioned to recognise film genre conventions) that Shutter Island might be a action film. However the clothes that Dicaprio is wearing ( long grey coat with a matching grey trousers) suggests that he may be a detective hinting to the readers that Shutter Island might also have themes of drama. Dicaprio's white shirt matches the colour of the masthead, this helps him to stand out. Dicaprio's eyes are looking down not making eye contact with the reader, this use of body language makes it appear that Dicaprio's character is keeping a secret from the readers. This successfully makes Dicaprio's character mysterious making him appear more intriguing and mysterious. By analysing the main imagine it has taught me that through the use of colour coordination, I can make my main image colour stand out and appear more aesthetically pleasing . I have also learnt that the clothes that the main image wears is important because they portray what type of character the main protagonist is. However since the readers are only given certain clues that they can use to reveal the role that Dicaprio is playing this makes him enigmatic; the target audience is left hanging with unanswered questions and will be feel compelled to watch shutter island to satisfy their curiousity.
The barcode has been placed horizontally on the bottom right hand side, this has been done to not distract the reader from the cover line and banner. 

My focus group and what I learnt from the results.

During the process of filming this focus group my main objective was to understand the perspective of the average teenager living in London.  The questions I decided to ask range from their taste in clothes to their opinions of the realism of my teaser trailer storyline.

During the creative process of making the concept of my teaser trailer I was conflicted with my idea of staging a mugging because it seemed cliche and unrealistic. However the response from my focus group has given me confidence in this idea because they said that it was realistic and reflective of society ("within the society we live in now it happens a lot").

They recommended that we keep the teaser trailer exciting by making it unpredictable ("You have to find out how to balance the violence with emotion because if you do too much emotion we will find it boring") this piece of advice is very important and will influence my teaser, especially when it comes to making my shot list. For example now that I'm aware that my audience wants a balance between emotion and action I will use a mixture of close ups and long shots.

To me it feels like using London as the main setting has become a cliche but I wanted to know whether or not my focus group also held this view and it turns out that they did ( "instead of using london you could use the countryside or the seaside"). Although filming in the countryside is a good idea because it breaks the monotony of just using central london, the countryside is not local and therefore filming there is not practical.  The most important part though is that I understand that using different locations can be more aesthetically pleasing and engaging. During the filming process I will use different locations because it will keep my audience engaged.

Originality is hard to come across in films nowadays, my group and I were unsure whether or not to let our influences (Adulthood and Shank) be shown in our teaser. "It wouldn't really hurt to take aspects of Adulthood" this has shown me that my audience won't mind if I demonstrate my influences.

Now I don't feel the need to change the concept of my teaser trailer because they seemed to gravitate towards it very well.

Empire magazine cover for Inception

 

The masthead title of the magazine 'Empire' is both iconic and widely known, making it easier for film fans and casual readers to recognise what content this magazine will have. This iconic masthead connotes that empire is both a professional and original magazine, reassuring the reader that the content will be entertaining and well written. For example the tagline 'The matrix meets 007 on steroids!' is a bold statement which entices the reader to find out more information about the main cover line of the film 'Inception'. The tagline would even gain the interest of a casual reader since it is comparing two universally acclaimed films to Inception. 

The colour scheme of white and red is used to highlight what the magazine deems important, for example the masthead and main cover line are both bright red. This makes the main cover line stand out against the black and grey background of the magazine and Leonardo Dicaprio's suit. The font of the main cover line is also the biggest after the masthead, this signifies to the reader that this issue will have a big article on Inception, since its the same colour and almost the same size as the masthead, it is therefore important. The presence of the main image of the protagonist Cobb played by Leonardo Dicaprio reinforces the idea that this issue of Empire will revolve around Inception. Leonardo Dicaprio is wearing a black suit which makes him stand out against the grey background of the magazine indicating to the readers that he is the main imagine and may have an interview inside the magazine.  

Leonardo Dicaprio is an established actor who is recognisable by film fans around the world for his roles in Titanic and Catch me if you can, by using Dicaprio as the main imagine this will remind readers that Empire is an established magazine that can afford to use high profile actors.  Dicaprio's focused and somewhat aggressive face shows readers that he is playing a serious role in the upcoming film Inception. Dicaprio is also holding a gun, this connotes that inception will have themes of action. Using Leonardo Dicaprio as the main image lets the readers know that Inception will have a big budget because it has a high profile actor in the cast, this will generate interest from the readers because they want to know what is was about Inception that convinced Dicaprio to star in it.

The pug is included to grab the audiences attention to the extra information supplied in it, it uses buzz words like 'dream' and 'access' to engage the readers imagination to how it would feel to be at the 'movie event of 2010'. The tagline, banner and text on top of the main cover line are the only text in white ( with the exception of the pug along with the extra in the left bottom half of the magazine) this signifies to the reader that this information is important.  The banner of this magazine  'The Dark Knight Returns...' and Christopher Nolan's name is placed above the main cover line, this has been included because it will immediately hook fans of the batman franchise since The Dark Knight was critically acclaimed by fans and critics.  The barcode is placed in the bottom right hand side corner of the magazine in a horizontal style so it does not steal focus from the main imagine. 

The layout of this cover isn't formal in the way it is organised instead it is entertaining.The aesthetically pleasing colours suggest that Empire may be targeting a young audience.

Film posters analysis

PLEASE CLICK THE FULL SCREEN ICON TO CLEARLY READ THE PRESENTATION.

Our survey on Surveymonkey

We created this survey on Surveymonkey to gain some further insight into what type of characters our audience might find entertaining and relatable. To take our survey you have to copy and paste the linked below into the search engine:

Click here to complete our survey.