Analysis of Film magazine covers

Magazine Cover 1 – X-MEN: Origins:

The magazine cover for the film X-MEN: Origins is dramatic to say the least; a simple colour scheme of black, white and red has been used for the featured text, so to make sure they stand out against the striking blue-sky background.
The main actor, Hugh Jackman, has been used as a centre image to represent the film. A profile photograph is used, from the knees upwards and taken from a slightly lower angle – all of these techniques are to make sure the image stands out, is as equally dramatic as the background, and promotes the film to its full extent. All of the text featured – masthead, left-hand third, and film title, pun and plug – are situated behind the image to show the superior proxemics of the centre image.
All text is in block, black and white text to keep it simple yet striking, the masthead title of the magazine is in a larger font and also red, to highlight its proxemics.

Magazine Cover 2 – Hellboy 2:

At first glance, the magazine cover for the film Hellboy 2 is very striking and dramatic, however; as you analyse its features more carefully you realise that apart from the masthead title and the centre image, all other aspects are very basic; this is to make sure the image and title are the most appealing – a simple red, white and gold colour scheme is used for all of the text features, left hand third, pugs and promotional packages. What the magazine has done for its Hellboy 2 edition, to make it more dramatic, marketable and to coincide with the films action/thriller genre, is change its masthead design dramatically – instead of its usual bold, black, capital font, the ‘EMPIRE’ title is surrounded by fire, complementing the anger and colour of the main central image, making for a very aesthetically appealing front cover.

Magazine Cover 4 – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 2:

Again, for this particular front cover, like the Hellboy 2 edition, the magazine has changed the cover and its features dramatically – due to the hype and world-wide franchise surrounding the featured film, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2, the magazine has chose to honour it and rid of everything, including the promotional packages and all text. The only thing that remains is the masthead, bar code, date and issue number, a line of text and the central image.
The central image stands out perfectly as the magazine has used a simple yet beautiful image of the films three main characters amongst a dark grey background; the image has been brought forward in front of the masthead title to show its significance and finally; a simple, white, bold and capitalised sentence reading ‘THE LAST CRUSADE. THE PERFECT FAREWELL.’ Is situated just above the masthead title to make it aesthetically appealing and to complement the central image perfectly.

Analysis of promotional packages related to your specific genre

Trailer 1 – The Notebook:

Incidental music used from the outset accompanied by a transition of text stating the films creator. After the text fades, the music continues; creating a simple, sweet and romantic atmosphere alongside an establishing shot of a beautiful river location. A voiceover from a character then narrated the trailer, as he does so in the actual film, creating an inviting and warming feel to the trailer; drawing you in.
The cross-cutting between scenes of the film shows the spontaneous romantic genre and highlights the struggles within the relationships between characters – providing a questionable romance and an ultimatum to choose; the fading of scenes and the transition between years within the story gives away a lot, but not too much to ruin the storyline altogether.
Another voiceover is then used to establish the production company behind the film and the main actors within the cast – providing another source of important information for the viewer.
The Notebook Poster Analysis:The layout of the poster is very simplistic, keeping to a minimalistic colour palette of blue and black.
The image covers the entire poster and is that of the two main characters kissing in the rain – promoting the romantic genre and the simplistic colour palette. The tag line at the top of the poster is what gives the viewer more of an insight into the films plot, with a catchy quote. The film title stands out the most as it has a different, more fancy font than any of the other text featured on the poster.



Trailer 2 – P.S I Love You:

A 10 second transition of text is used to open the trailer, establishing legal aspects of its viewing. The trailer then fades into a scene from the film in which shot/reverse shot is used between characters. Several transitions of text are used alongside a voiceover which, in my opinion, gives away a little too much of the film; however the contradicting happy and sad soundtrack coincided with the fast paced crosscut between various moments in the film proves that there are still moments of the film that are unseen. The happy-go-lucky quotes and scenes provide a romantic and aesthetically appealing trailer for the film.
P.S I Love You Poster Analysis:
The poster focuses mainly on the image of the two main characters – although it doesn’t give the plot away or any insight into it, it draws you in and makes you want more. The red, white and black colour scheme for the featured actors, title and accreditation to producers all tie in with the simplicity of the poster – proving it to be a complete opposite to the trailer.

 

Trailer 3 – The Last Song:

A 5 second text transition is used at the beginning of the trailer to establish legal age requirements for the trailer.
The film then begins with incidental music, a voiceover from a character within the film. Up-beat incidental music overlapping the various fade in cross-cuts between scenes from within the film present a first impression of an up-beat, happy-go-lucky film about love; however, when the soundtrack overtakes the incidental music and appears more mysterious and meaningful, it presents an element of surprise to the film.
Throughout, transitions of text are used establishing facts like ‘from the author of The Notebook’ and ironic quotable tag lines that emphasize a hidden message in the film that the trailer hasn’t revealed; thus keeping the viewer glued.
The last half of the trailer produces scenes from the film in a sped up view with snippets of various quotes, keeping the viewer intrigued at all times.
The trailer ends with an establishing shot of the films location and text transitions verifying the film’s release date, accrediting cast and official website.

The Last Song Poster Analysis:

The backdrop of the poster creates a slightly crowded aspect, however, the blended images of the films two main actors provide a clearer view of the film; alongside the simple white and black colour palette on the tag line and text on the right hand third, the poster gives a better view upon the film then the trailer itself, confirming the mystery within it.

Analysis of promotional packages

Trailer 1 – Drag Me to Hell (horror):
The trailer begins in a fairly modern office; the colour design has been specifically selected to emphasize the ‘real’ and ‘everyday’ aspect of the location. Simple incidental music is played over lines of dialogue – this then changes to a more significant and dark piece of incidental music; thus drawing the viewer in by creating a tense atmosphere in a ‘normal’ location and situation.
During the first 15 seconds of the trailer the viewer becomes hooked by the realism that this isn’t your ordinary horror film – the SFX and makeup used on the old lady has created a character of innocence, yet also anger and a foreshadowing that something bad is about to occur. What follows next is a rapid 2 minute trailer filled with establishing shots to highlight the different locations, high-angled shots zooming in towards characters with an informative voiceover. The dramatic use of dim and dark lighting contrasted against the bright and extravagant CGI effects complement each other perfectly through cross-cutted shots.
Throughout the trailer there are six different transitions containing text, often slotted into the trailer using fade-ins and blurred shots; these text transitions contain subtle hints towards the plot of the film, its producers and its release date.
The trailer doesn’t give away too much of the film, yet it gives away enough to draw you in and capture your attention – the extreme close-ups and the characters make you believe in the film and its message, forcing you to watch it.

Drag Me to Hell Film Poster Analysis:
The film poster focuses completely on the main character within the film – she is being pulled down by three computer generated hands and has a distressed and painful look upon her face; highlighting the main aspects of the film – the ‘dragging to hell’. In surrounding there is a row of normal looking houses, giving the poster and film an aspect to relate to; the character is then surrounded by fire. The bright white and bold text is used throughout the poster on the title, release date; actor acknowledgement and quotes, making them stand out amongst the centre image.

Trailer 2 – 10 Things I Hate About You:
The trailer starts with a 5 second viewing of text, indicating the age approved audience rating by its producers. In two transitions there are two important features of text; one states the creators of the film and the other stating the title.
The trailer then goes straight into a preview of the film using a tracking shot to show the innocence and likeability of the film straight away. There are then various transitions of text used at a sped up pace, ironically giving subtle hints to the film by stating 10 things the characters hate about one another.
A voiceover accompanies various tracking shots and cross-cutting between scenes and characters – all dressed slightly dated, yet showing its relevance at its time of release.
Extreme close-up camera shots are used on a completely different character to establish the differences between them and complement the giveaways of the voiceover plot.
The trailer then showcases and cross-cuts between various scenes in the film, keeping it fresh and current even in today’s market; finally, ending with text transitions of the film’s release date.

10 Things I Hate About You Poster Analysis:
The layout of the poster is kept simple with a completely white background to keep the focus on the group photo of its main characters covering the centre third of the poster and the bright and bold text of the title.
A simple black, grey and red colour palette is used for the text – a quote to ironically provide a message for the film, the title, the largest font and the actor and creator accrediting text. Overall, a fresh and current poster complementing the film itself.

Trailer 3 – The Hangover:
An establishing shot is used to open the trailer with a scene from the film, showcasing its comedy genre from the outset. Amongst transitions of text establishing its creators and producers, the next 2.30 minutes of the trailer presents a fast-paced aspect accompanied with handheld camera shots, zoom shots and cross-cutting to complement the out-of-control humour and antics in the film. The accompanied music is that of the soundtrack – fast, adventurous songs to complement the genre.

The Hangover Poster Analysis:
The overall layout of the film poster looks slightly busy due to the bright orange spot lights used as a background and the large scale photograph covering nearly the entire poster; however it is these aspects, coincided with the bright, luminous and glowing text used for the title and text, that complements and highlights the plot of the actual film. The quotes used state that the film is set in Vegas and has a comedic aspect to it.

Meeting 2

Members present – Lewis Robinson, Bethany-Louise Reilly and Ciara Walton.
Topics Discussed – The overall storyline, characters and casting.
First storyline discussed: Title = ‘Unknown’
An unlikely love story between a boy who wants to become a BMX professional and a girl who is dedicated to her school work. As they meet by chance, they become better friends and as they get to know each other they end up falling in love; however, he goes off the rails when he is pressured by his family to do better in school and, unintentionally, brings her down with him. After months of rebelling against her family in order to continue her relationship with the boy, the girl’s father finally has enough and puts his foot down; he stops his daughter from seeing the boy and in the end, gives her an ultimatum – boyfriend or family?

In order to gain the best feedback possible, we decided that basing the decision on just our opinions wouldn't make our trailer the most successful; however if we had the opinions and encouragment from members of our target audience, the feedback we could gain would no doubt help us towards the best decision.

We decided to interview students aged between 15-17 asking them what they thought of each storyline, here is some of the recorded feedback for the first storyline:


Check this out on Chirbit
Second storyline discussed: Title = ‘The Way We Were’
A boy and a girl, who live next door to each other, have been best friends since forever – they go to the same nursery, primary school and secondary school; over the years they begin to start a relationship but when the girl’s father gets a promotion at work and is forced to move to another city, the boy and girl, teenagers at this point, agree to try and stay in touch but end their relationship and friendship with the exchange of a mutually important object. After three years apart and minimal contact, the boy and girl are re-united at university, but much to the boy’s dismay, the girl already has a boyfriend. A brief reuniting occurs in which the boy tries to persuade the girl to rekindle their childhood romance; however the girl persists that they cannot go back to ‘the way they were’ – the story ends with the ultimatum of whether the girl will choose they boy she is with now or whether she will go back to her childhood sweetheart, who does she choose?

Here is some of the feedback for the second storyline:


Check this out on Chirbit
After a thorough discussion and some disagreement, we used the opinions and feedback from our recorded interviews to work as a team; we decided to go with our second storyline titled ‘The Way We Were’ – this is because the first storyline seemed very out there and optimistic, whereas with the second storyline we felt there was more to add, more depth and development that could be made. We then made the decision to draw up a draft story board containing 8 different scenes, each describing the most important parts of the storyline. This helped us with casting, dialogue and choosing our final story board - it helped the actors to produce a character when they knew the scenes they were portraying, it gave us a basis on how to start our dialogue and how we would want our final trailer to appear.

Meeting 1

Members present – All: Lewis Robinson, Bethany-Louise Reilly and Ciara Walton.
Topics discussed – deciding the genre, props, characters and location.

First genre discussed: Skins/Shameless – wasted youth, adolescence, teenage dramas
Props – alcohol, cigarettes, college, etc
Character profile – grunge, beautiful, doe-eyed, mysterious, endearing
Location – night clubs, college, bedroom
After thorough discussion and ideas related around the Skins/Shameless genre, we decided as a group that the theme of adolescence within the genre is far to niche and specific; not relating broadly enough towards an audience, therefore we chose not to go ahead with the Skins/Shameless style genre.
Second genre discussed: Romance – unrequited love - The Way We Were
Props – a significant object, no other specific props needed
Character Profile – young children, teenagers and students, quirky and cool, English rose
Location – school and university
We decided as a group that, so far, the romance genre would be the best for our film; overall, it’s the most approachable and world-wide recognised genre for all audiences, however we still have one more genre to discuss.
Third genre discussed: Religiously based - The Passion Of The Christ
Props – rosary beads and crucifix
Character Profile – one catholic girl and a Muslim boy, around the age of adolescence
Location – school and church
After a brief overview of the compete aspects that this genre would produce, we decided together that it wouldn’t be the best idea as, without realisation, we could end up offending various people and overall, the genre wouldn’t appeal to the broadest of audiences.

Finally, after discussing a pros and cons list for each film genre, we decided upon a romance genre – this is because as a genre, out of the three, it has the broadest audience and the biggest demand amongst the industry.