Backgrounds for magazine cover

When it came to choosing the background I had a number of ideas. I wasn’t sure whether to use a photograph of one of the main locations from the trailer or not. Whilst shooting the trailer I also took some photos of a couple of locations which I thought would best advertise the film’s narrative and/or genre. I always planned to superimpose a photo of the two main characters onto the background rather than have them in front of the background when I took the photo. This allowed for a lot more creativity as I could essentially place them wherever I wanted.

Background 1


The first place I took photographs of for a background was the front of the Lulworth building at Weymouth College where the trailer was shot. This is one of the main college buildings and the two main characters are shown to be looking at it in the trailer from the middle of the college square at the front. I felt this would give an establishment of the setting for the audience and would link in well with the characters.

Background 2


This is the room in which the female protagonist (Amy) is shown to be tied to a chair in the trailer. The dim lighting plays on the codes and conventions of thrillers and so does the rest of the mise-en-scene. I placed the chair tilted up against the cupboard in order to imply some kind of struggle or activity having taken place in this room. Having emergency exit door in the frame with a fire alarm to the right also promotes danger.

Part 2

After reviewing my magazine research and looking through a few more Empire covers I noticed that very few of them actually used a picture as a background. Most used either a plain colour or some kind of design. Because of this I decided against using photos and started looking into creating my own designs.

Background 3


I hadn’t used Photoshop for a few months before beginning on the magazine cover and as such was a bit rusty. I spent a good few hours just messing around and trying to learn what I could actually do with it. My first effort at creating a background was merely an interesting version of the paintbrush tool in colour red used on a black background. Red and black are the two colours most associated with thrillers as the dominant ideologies held in this country for these colours are red = blood and black = fear, death etc. I couldn’t however get a consistent finish over the whole page and decided to look at other effects.


Background 4


After a bit more time practising I eventually found the filters on Photoshop. There are a number of effects in the filters and after trying a number out I finally came across this one above called ‘Bas Relief’. For a good few days I fully intended to use this as my background as it was simple yet interesting. The gradual shift from light to dark provided a binary opposite effect between good and evil. With the two main characters on the cover and their heads in the light this showed they were the protagonists. The fact that they would almost be sinking in to the darkness also implies the ‘evil’ nature of the film and that these two characters are somehow entangled in it. Overall this background provided a professional feel and worked with the codes and conventions for a thriller with the light and dark contrast.

Main background


After carrying out some further research into Empire magazine covers I felt the previous background which I had intended to use was inadequate. Though on a few occasions Empire will use a plain white background they generally use some kind of theme. For example, on the 'Spider Man' issue (January, 2007, Issue #211) there is a 'web' effect and on the 'Iron Man' issue (January, 2010, Issue #247) there is an 'electric storm' effect. In order to try and fully comply with these codes and conventions I used an effect on Photoshopo within the 'filters' called 'difference clouds'. I then decided to a black foreground and red background which provided a very effective contrast.

I made these decisions so that I could comply with both Empire's codes and conventions and those of the thriller genre. Speaking ideologically, black denotes fear, red denotes blood and therefore pain and the clouds denote a storm, turbulance and unrest. I hoped that by using this ideologically loaded background I would be able to instill the kind of emotion that would interest the target market by helping to reveal the film's genre more and thus successfully promote the film.