Magazine Cover - Draft 1

In the advanced production we have to create a viral campaign with four elements consisting of a trailer, radio ad, magazine cover and website front page. As there are a number of projects time management has been key. Near the beginning of the coursework whilst carrying out the research and pre-production for the film in general and the trailer I drew a couple of drafts for the magazine cover.

Draft 1


This first draft was also accompanied by another draft with the models facing away from each other which I re-drafted below on A4 size paper later. This first draft was drawn with the original title for our film on it as by this point we hadn't changed it. I was looking to establish what the characters would be doing on the page as well as the type and placing of text on the page. From my research into Empire there were a few key things I focused on. The first was that the actors are always looking straight at the camera in order to create a gaze between themselves and the potential consumer. Gaze theory is one that is well established in the media industry as they understand that when the audience and character's gaze meets a couple of things happen. Firstly a power relationship is formed between the two and secondly a personal connection is formed. I made sure in my drafts that I stuck to this convention of Empire's and had the characters looking directly at the camera.

As for the text on the page the first and most important piece is the title of the magazine. I drew it in the font Empire always use and placed it top centre as they also do. Using the rule of thirds it is easy to see why the title is top and centre as this is one of the most powerful locations on the page. The title also has the largest font size of any piece of text on the page again in order to make it the most powerful text on the page. For these reasons I made the title in their style and made sure all other text on the page was smaller. The other pieces of text Empire place on their magazine covers advertise some of what is in that issue of the magazine. I spent some time thinking about these and researching films that will be released later this year in order to try and create articles they might actually have on their magazines. I also created one specifically about my film and one about cinema beyond 3-D. I felt it was essential that my articles were as realistic as possible and that they were about issues Empire would actually deal with. Finally to make it look truly authentic I placed the issue date and price in the dip of the 'M' of 'Empire' as is the custom for this magazine and placed the website address just below the last 'E' of 'Empire'.

The final pieces of text were the film title and slogan. As I am trying to promote our film the title was written in the second largest font on the page, only surpassed by that of the title. This is common for Empire who generally advertise a paricular new film on the front of each issue of their magazine and the title is always in the second largest font. Where it was placed on the page was also important as on the line of the bottom third and in the centre is the most common place for Empire to place the title of the film on the cover. The size of the text and this central position usually covering the lower half of the character(s) on the page puts in prime position for the consumer to notice it and take it in. I created the slogan early on as the last piece of dialogue for the trailer. I again stuck with Empire's conventions and placed it just below the title in order to show the connection between the slogan and the film. The title and slogan have been changed since this first draft was created but most other things stayed the same.