PLANNING: A QUESTION OF IDENTITY FILM MAGAZINE FRONT COVER

Before planning my film magazine front cover design for my film A Question of Identity, I decided that it would be appropriate to gain some understanding on how Adobe Indesign works. Although I am planning on using Adobe Photoshop to make my film magazine front cover, I thought it would be appropriate to have a go at using Indesign as professionals use this programme to make posters and film magazine front covers for Poster and Advertising campaigns distributing information on movies pre release. I think using Adobe Photoshop will allow my film magazine front cover to look professional, slick and eye-catching; successfully attracting and addressing my target audience to come and view my film at the exhibition stages.

HERE is a link to a blog post I wrote on using Adobe Indesign at the stage when I was making my film poster - the skills I learned are still applicable to when making my film magazine front cover.

After completing the first step of planning, as described above, I then started to research different film magazine front covers. I felt by doing this I would gain appropriate inspiration for my own film magazine front cover.

I firstly started to deconstruct professional film magazine front covers, looking at the codes and conventions of movie posters that successfully attract and address audiences' to come and view the advertised film at the cinema.

HERE is a link to a blog post on the deconstruction of Empire film magazine front cover.

HERE is a link to a blog post on the deconstruction of Total Film film magazine front cover.

HERE is a link to a blog post on the deconstruction of The Hollywood Reporter film magazine front cover.

From deconstructing these film magazine front covers I then had a clear idea on what I knew was appropriate in clearly conveying the codes and conventions of film posters, in turn successfully attracting and addressing my target audience.

Below are the three film magazine front covers I analysed - Empire, Total Film and The Hollywood Reporter (all equally successful film magazine companies):

I like the extreme close up of the main character in each film magazine front cover as it influences authority, a commanding presence and power due to the main focus (character) using direct eye contact to catch the audiences' attention. The film magazines  above have mainly have either direct eye contact or eye-catching facial features which attract and address the audience. I want to do this with my film magazine front cover. I will be putting the main protagonist Aaron on the front below the Masthead and the Overline so he is the main focus of the cover; reinforcing himself as a principal character in my film trailer and making it evident to the audience.

I will have a sky background around the main character Aaron - matching my film poster creating continuity. This will create an eerie, dark, haunting and sinister atmosphere; suited to my film trailers action and thriller genre. I found inspiration for using the sky background when completing individual research of the Scandi Noir genre - HERE is a link to a mini case study I made researching the Scandi Noir genre and HERE is a link to a blog post on my individual research and photos taken on the beach in Aberporth, West Wales. I will have the film magazines title in red, matching the Empire title so it looks professional, as well as have an eye-catching white font for the Puffs, Cover Lines and Plugs, so they will stand out against the black, dark and sinister background; further attracting and addressing audiences.

My group and I will have Top Film as our film magazine title. We decided that if we all have the same title on each of our own film magazine front covers but different features such as Puffs, Cover Lines and Plugs we will create continuity between all of our ancillary projects - making them match together since they are all endorsing the same product, our film trailer for A Question of Identity. We came to an agreement in class and further agreed upon it on our group WhatsApp group chat.

WhatsApp group chat

My film magazine front cover plan