Analysing My Magazine Cover

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Final Magazine Cover

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Magazine Title

For my second task I have decided to create a magazine front cover (featuring my film). I decided on the name 'NEOPOP' because it has a more modern edge to it and sounds more alternative. I'd like my magazine to be more art-house film related rather than the commercial magazines like Total Film and Empire. My magazine might also include elements of fashion and music - so may include references to soundtracks in films and fashion films. I think it is important that I've mapped out the concept for my magazine as it'll have a greater impact on how the finished front cover looks. The image above shows different fonts that I thought of using for the logo/title of the magazine...I have decided to use the third font 'Budmo Jiggler' because it stands out from the others. The 1st looks too much like the logo for 'Top Of The Pops' the 2nd doesnt stand by itself strongly as a logo and the 4th looks too abstract.

Final Poster

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• I used aspects from my previous poster ideas that I thought were effective in creating a professional-looking poster. For example I used a 'grainy' image, white text to contrast with the darker background - and I kept my original image that contains the main characters of the film. I also decided to make the poster look like part of a film strip to give it an older effect. I also used a typewriter font to further create this look.
• I feel that the costumes of the figures combined with the car headlights gives a slight modern twist to the poster - which is part of the contrast I wanted to create.
• To make the poster look more professional, I added more text below the actors names (which I hadn't included in my previous ideas). I included things such as the producers name, the screenplay writers and a film production company (where I made up the name 'Blue Road' and a logo for this company)
• To make the poster in a more suitable format I changed the size and shape to a rectangle (rather than a square). This means that if my poster was used in the real world it would be the right shape to fit on a billboard, newspaper, magazine etc

Experimenting With Different Layouts/Colours/Fonts etc

E V A L U A T I N G M Y I D E A S

Poster One
This was my first idea for a poster. I decided to increase the grain effect on my poster 'base' to create an older feel. I used a white font that looks old fashioned yet classic, creating a sophisticated look to the poster. However I feel the overall poster doesn't look 'polished' and professional enough because I don't feel the font truly 'blends in' with the background. Although I added a grain effect to the whole image I feel it doesn't look like one complete image - it looks quite fragmented.

Poster Two
After completing my first idea I decided that I had to try and make the whole poster look more complete and professional. Firstly, I increased the contrast on my poster base to make the whole image look more striking and to make the whole image look more 'merged' together. I put a black rectandle across the bottom of the image on which I placed the actors' names, tagline and half the title. Although this extra 'layer' is extremely simple I feel it adds a depth to the poster - making it look more professional.

Poster Three
On this idea I added a red based tone to the whole image to give the poster a more limited colour palette (to tie in with the conventions that I noticed when analysing other thriller posters). I then decided to use a typewriter style font rather than the more 'classic' font in my previous ideas. I think this font was more effective because the eye is drawn to the picture in the poster first and then the title and other text. This is also because I used a pale peach tone rather than white to make the text stand out in a more subtle way that tied in with the background more. I also decided to turn the title upside down - to give the impression that it was being mirrored. I think this created a more modern feel which contrasts with the typewriter font that it's in. I tried to emphasise the contrast between old and contempary through putting 2 black rectangles on the top and bottom of my more modern image. This gave the effect of it looking like part of a filmstrip which gives a more 'retro' feel.

Poster Four
For this idea I experimented more with the old/new contrast. I used a very modern -urban looking font and added a sepia effect to the image. I also blurred the image slightly to make it 'glow'. This softness of the image then contrasted with the sharper font which I thought was effective in creating a poster that was more striking.

Although I feel all these posters are effective, I shall create a final poster that incorporates the ideas that I feel are the most effective and look the most professional. Also, these ideas are square - so my final idea will have a rectangular shape that has a ratio similar to a4 size paper so that in the real world my poster would be in a suitable shape,size&format to fit on billboards,adverts etc.