Analysing a magazine front cover (Ancillary Task)

In order to successfully make a high quality magazine front cover I must analyse existing front covers to find out what they do to make them professional and use these techniques to put into my own front cover. I will study the cover of a magazine called Empire. Empire as a magazine specialises in the film industry with reviews, latest releases and all the film news.

Here is some brief information about the film magazine Empire.

The film magazine Empire first started in July 1989. Empire is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain, outselling rivals "Total film" by 2 to 1. Empire is also published in America, Turkey and Russia.  Empire reviews mainstream films but they also review artistic films, some main features Empire has in their magazine are the top 10's (for example they feature the top 10 best chase scenes or top 10 death scenes).

As you can see Empire is a highly rated film magazine, by basing my magazine front cover on their work means that I can take their features and incorporate their properties into my magazine. This is why I will choose Empire to focus my magazine on.

Empire almost every time chooses the theme of their magazine based on the genre of the film they are showcasing. Such as the film Inception. Inception is a film about going into peoples dreams/minds and finding out there secrets about their lives through there dreams/minds. As you can see from the magazine front cover on the right. They theme the background around the film but the Empire title still stays the same red as always, this could be their trademark symbol.

Here is the magazine front cover for the film "Bourne Legacy"

The Bourne Legacy is a film exactly like taken, so therefore i can compare these films because they are both of the same genre. The taken's film poster showed Liam Neeson taking up a third of the poster with the colour scheme of Earthy grey and reds. Because the bourne legacy is on the cover of Empire I will see what the professionals have done to create the best selling film magazine in the world.


The first thing I have noticed is that the character is in the middle of the page, but is in front of the "Empire" title, this could show that fans already know the name of the magazine so they can afford to cover up the title with the character. I have also noticed that there is a colour scheme of red, black and white on the magazine.

Title - The title for the magazine front cover is Empire. This title is one word, this is easy to say and read because this is one word. The title is coloured in red with a character blocking the title up. The title is at the top of the page with a brief motto about the film that it is showcasing. I believe the reason the title is written in red is because red is a colour that will attract the eye of the viewer. There are only 5 items on the page coloured in red and the title of the magazine is the biggest. This will grab the viewers eye even though the title is partially covered up.  I also believe the reason the title is at the top of the page compared to being at the bottom or the middle this is because this will set up the viewers eye point because naturally they will look at the top of the page for a title rather then the middle.

Images - There are 2 images on the front cover of the magazine, there is a main image of the main character from the film but there is also the background image on the magazine where the character is stood. The background is choosing by the genre of the film, in this case the bourne legacy is about a super elite MI5 agent who turns rogue to find out who they are, this film contains kick ass fight scenes with explosions. The background is a street with a brick wall in the background. This relates to the genre because action/thriller films are set in the back alleys where they go under-detected when they have fight scenes.

Colour Scheme - The colour scheme for the Empires magazine is based around the colours; Red and black, the third colour is based on the genre of the film. 

Quantum of Solace - This front cover features the red and black colour scheme but the third main chosen colour is based on the genre of the film, so quantum of solace is a film with fight scenes and explosions so this would be a action/thriller but we relate the grey on the cover with the grey that is associated with James bond, the colour of his Aston martin, also the colour of metal which could relate to weapons and money. This shows that Empire select their third colour based on the film they are showcasing. 

From looking at professional magazine front covers I have learnt many things about how to make my own magazine front cover the best it can possibly be, these things are;

• By having a simple magazine front cover with only a couple of pictures on will enable me to have a simple front cover but one I can make in high quality because this will be a simple design to move about and make perfect. 
• By having the main character on the front page and in front of the magazine title will make the audience assume i have a well known film magazine where i don't need to show the film title in order for the audience to know what film title my magazine is. 
• If I arrange my magazine front cover around the genre of the film then this will show the audience what type of film I am show casing on my magazine but by having the same colour scheme on my magazine this will ensure my magazine will look professional and of a high quality. 
• I must also include add-ons on my magazine front cover that will entice the audience to buy my magazine, Empire uses a top ten section to entice their audience to buy the magazine. 
• I have also learnt that the title of the film must be on the front cover of the magazine, such as I could copy Empire magazine and have the film title in front of the main character on the cover.