Front cover analysis

From my front cover analysis, I have chosen to analyse the Empire "Spider Man edition" i am looking for particular conventions and techniques used which I can use in my horror trailer front cover.

The medium shot of actor Tobey Maguire who plays superman is a common convention of film magazines, to establish the body of the person whilst looking at his face. The eye line match of Spiderman looking into the camera without his mask on shows how he is trying to to connect with the Empire audience via looking at them, attracting the audience to view the picture.

The colours red, black and white feature throughout the image contrasting each other. The colour red is used to represent the danger of Spiderman and the evil which goes with the Hollywood blockbuster movie. The colour black portrays the darkness the new Spiderman movie brings, it represents how Spiderman has developed over the years showings his transformation into a new superhero. The white contrasts with both the red and the black, this represents the light in which Spiderman offers, as the fictional character is a superhero we expect him to serve good rather than evil with the colour white this connotes good which brings a sense of relief to the audience.

The masthead of "Empire" is located at the top of the page, a convention of film cover magazines which which i want my magazine to be like as well. They are other ways which other magazine use to show the title of the magazine for example the middle of the page but to me this is less effective in grabbing the audiences attention of who created the magazine.

In the bottom left colour the text "FREE" is used in capitals which goes with the colour scheme of bold white, this is a common feature used in attracting audiences to buy the magazine. Empire was offering to give away a free set of posters for people who buy the magazine. I found this very helpful in using this for my front cover as this will attract people who look at the magazine to purchase it. Empire also have put the pictures of the posters such as the "Rocky" film poster next to the word free, as when the audience look at the word they see the pictures as well linking the two together.

The bar code is an essential part of any magazine, to enable the shop to scan the product for the customer to buy. But the way Empire have placed the bar code is not the traditional way used by most magazine company's which go for the bar code in the bottom right corner. I plan on putting my bar code in the bottom right corner.

The mise en scene of the Spiderman costume represents the change in attitude of the new superhero from the traditional red and black to the darker all black showing the change in the Spiderman ethos. When Spiderman was being represented in the red and black costume we identified the superhero as something who represented good but had a darker side which was reinforced through the colour red. The new outfit which Spiderman is being pictured wearing shows a darker side to his character somwthing which may come as a shock to Spiderman fans who associate the fictional character in red and black.