The masthead
of this film magazine is ‘Empire’. The
word ‘Empire’ reflects the paramount
society. It therefore has suggestions of power and a hierarchy. In an Empire you must work together to manage
a team and progress further. An Empire
is usually responsible for others that are in that are labeled as ‘below’ them.
The masthead therefore reflects Harry’s
power and strength that he uses within his films to save his peers and himself.
The font used for the masthead on the front
cover of Empire’s August 2009 issue
is a basic bold Serif font, coloured with a strong blood red. Using the colour
red for the masthead of this magazine, accompanies the meaning of the title very
well. The colour red connotes strength, forcefulness and power. In addition red
also connotes danger which hints towards the narrative. The masthead takes up
the top quarter of the page (length ways). This is the typical size used for
magazine titles therefore this title is following general conventions. The size
of the masthead is large enough to fit the width of the page; it is bold and
simple allowing it to be easily read and ensuring that it catches the eye of
‘Arden’ film fans.
The target
audience of Empire is ABC1 males who are professional and affluent, with a high
disposable income. They are most likely early twenties to mid/late thirties.
They are into gadgets (e.g. iPhone, iPad, gaming, etc), film, obviously
(thriller and action, mainly), music, socialising. This male is an intelligent,
masculine, but a bit of a 'geek', perhaps, good sense of humour, sophisticated
tastes. He may be in a committed relationship.
The masthead
may appeal to the target audience because of its simplicity. Furthermore each issue
of Empire features the same size,
colour and large sized masthead. The
large size allows the masthead to be easily recognized by its loyal fans. This
maintains brand identity and will keep the magazines sales at its regular pace
thanks to its regular buyers.
Moreover the word ‘Empire’ matches the emphasis of this film and acts
as a meta narrative for the film’s meaning. Overall this film poster uses three
primary colours red, white and yellow. These colours are typical for featuring
on advertisements for horror and action films. The fact that only four main
colours feature on the whole front cover itself; sticks to the general
conventions. This use of minimal colours allows the page to be effective and not
too overpowering to the eye. There are many other typical conventions of
magazine front covers, which this issue of ‘Empire’ follows.
The main sell-line that features on this particular front cover
of Empire is situated in the middle on the left hand side of the page. It says
‘Massive Preview Special’ suggesting that this magazine will provide us with
information that we can’t get anywhere else. This statement intrigues us as we are
led to believe that we will be receiving exclusive information that has not yet
been released by any other magazine. This sell-line is in block capitals and a
serif font is used. This is a powerful tool used, to lure in the target
audience and attract them the front cover. The colour used for this sell-line
is white. This is very effective because the background of the front cover is
dark therefore it contrasts well and allows the sell-line to bounce off the
page. This sell-line in particular uses an informal mode address, used to lure
in the target audience and make them feel welcomed and interested in reading
the special preview provided especially for them.
‘Massive Preview
Special’ is coloured in white as mentioned above. This colour connotes mystery,
purity, ghost like figures and all things new, maybe in this case; the unknown.
The film being advertised on this
front cover of Empire is ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’; the film
where Harry begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of
the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's
dark past. The colours reflect the fact this film is mainly an action and
adventure film even though it has elements of horror within it and the imagery
that is used on this front cover. Two of the colours used are introduced in an
unusual way on this film poster. On the left hand side of the page their seems
to be part of a border using black and white almost imitating a piece of tape
that gives a warning of danger ahead. Harry meets danger on many occasions
within his films.
This front cover
of ‘Empire’ follows the general image to text ratio. All the text is placed on
the left hand side taking up a third of the page, where as the main image of
Harry takes up two thirds of the entire page. This is important as the target
audience of this magazine is predominately males who are visually stimulated by
images rather than a many words. The layout used is not a favourite of mine due
to the fact that the left hand side is text heavy, making us feel less
interested in reading it. However this is done for a reason, the reason being
that the audience will read the text first and then focus on the main image. Naturally
the human eye scans a page from the top light to the right and below.
However, it must
be noted that many magazine covers specially lifestyle magazines have a slightly
different layout. This other style of layout is shown in the image below. The
main image is usually placed in the centre of the page and text is placed on
either side of the image. Therefore I
think that the text on this particular front cover appears very squashed and
crammed.
The second major sell-line on this front cover is ‘Bloody
Hell!’, situated at the bottom right hand corner of the page just above the
barcode. The appearance of this sell-line is exactly the same as the ‘Massive
Preview Special’. The only difference is that it is just a smaller size, however
it is in block uppercase and coloured white. Both sell-lines also have an
exclamation mark after the two words to suggest that it is an important message
to us.
Furthermore the two words ‘Bloody hell’ lures in the eye of
the reader as it is clear and visible
due to the dark background (Harry Potter’s surrounding being the night sky). In
addition to this, the mode of address used for this sell-line is informal to
further attract the correct target audience. I believe that this front cover is
effective and suitable for luring in its target audience of ABC1 males who are
professional and affluent, with a high disposable income
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