The empire magazine front covers have a trend of being extremely plain containing the following;
· Very little strap lines if any.
· One main character from the film being shown centred largely on the middle of the page.
· The main picture always seems to cover or separate the masthead.
· There are very little layers.
· Holds very little information about what will be inside the magazine.
· Price is either in very small print underneath the masthead or not shown at all.
· The main picture takes up most of the page width and length and is always the actor in character relating to the film.
· The colour scheme is very plain with very little colours used; however it also links to the film.
· Colour theme repeats itself.
· The masthead changes colour depending on what the colour scheme is.
· Shapes are used to hold cover lines.
The Total Film magazines tend to be a lot more detailed containing most of what Empire contains and much more;
· Cover lines are around the edge.
· Main characters of the film centred in the middle of the page taking up a lot of room.
· What the main character is doing in the picture is linked to the film.
· The main picture covers part of the masthead.
· There normally are many layers.
· There are loads of strap lines.
· There are cover lines above the masthead.
· Other films are advertised above the masthead.
· The price and date that the magazine has come out are written above the ‘M’ of ‘TOTAL FILM’.
· Uses shapes to place cover lines in.
· The Masthead changes colour depending on the theme of colour used on the magazine.
· There is a theme to the colours used on the magazine.
· Cover lines usually lie around the edge. HOWEVER on the left hand magazine there are some cover lines in the middle.
CONCLUSION;
Mostly all film magazines have the same aim, to place the main character of a well known film on the front cover to attract readers. They both follow the same basica layout with strap lines around the edge, a repetitive colour sccheme, the master head being covered by the main picture etc. However there are also many differences, Empire is a lot less detaileld with only one layer and sometimes no strap lines. Total Film on the other hand tends to have layers and a lot of staplines to catch the audiences attention.
The bullet points written in red, represent the similarities of both film covers.
