Ancillary Texts

Magazine cover

Analysis of exsisting Empire film magazine covers:

I looked at three different Empire magazine coversto analyse the features used in them, and also to see what features occur on all of the Empire covers.

In conclusion, There are a number of things that 'Empire' use regulary on their covers, such as, the 'Empire' masthead is always in the iconic text that 'Empire' is recognised for. also the central image is often, in this case both covers have a close-up of the person linked to the Main article of the cover. Another thing that occurs regulary is that the featured articles are in smaller font, much like any magazine cover really. Other than the Central image there arent really alot of other supporting images on the cover. Also, 'Empire' often use a small amount of colour in their palette, using a small number of different colours to create a theme on the page, some colours are often taken from the central image itself.

The research into 'Empire' covers has given me some ideas for my own 'Empire' cover, featuring my short film.

Mock ups of 3 Empire magazines done myself

I used photo shop to mock up three potential covers of my own, using different but limited colour schemes, obviously this will change on my final cover to fit with the central image, like the real 'Empire' magazine covers. 

I really like the colour scheme of this cover, I think the colours really compliment eachother. I aslo think the layout of it looks nice and neat, simple like the professional ones by 'Empire'

This cover includes; Featured articles, a main article, puffs, a banner, barcode, price and date, flashes, and of course, the iconic 'Empire' title in the recognisable font used by them.





I dont really like the colour scheme of this mock up, but i do like the layout of it. There's one major thing that may become a problem with this layout and that's that there isnt alot of room for a central image and as 'Empire' use close-ups of a character as the central image, i intend to do the same so it dont think this layout will work properly for my final cover.






My final mock up is quite similar to the first, only the featured articles are on the opposite side, as is the flash. I like the colour scheme on this mock up, the only problem is that I dont think it really connotes to the emotion given by my short film, which i think it should.

Final cover

I am really pleased with how my cover turned out, i think i used the techniques that 'Empire' use well, such as, the small price, issue number and date, The iconic font of the 'Empire' masthead, the medium close-up central image in direct address and the simple colour pallette.

I have also challenged the way 'Empire's' covers look by adding alot more supporting imagery in the film strip at the bottom. I also added a banner at the top which i know from last year is a convention of a magazine cover, alothough on the two 'Empire' covers i looked at neither of them had one on, but this helps the cover to be more mine and not just a copy of 'Empire' covers.

I really like the colour scheme of my cover and i think it compliments the central image quite well, the colour of the masthead was actually colour picked from the tie in the central image and the title 'Condolences' colour was picked from his hair, this was how i made the image part of the rest of the cover.

Another thing i think works well is the quote "...But real love is forever" that is under the main article name, it works because once the reader watches my short film they will see that it is actually a quote taken from it, i think this was agood technique to use becuase it makes it actually about the film. After creating my final 'Empire' cover i analyised it the same way i analysed the real 'Empire' covers;

Poster

Analysis of exsisting film posters:

I analysed two posters for films that fit the genre of my short film to help me create my own poster.

My poster

I am really please with how my poster looks, it used the techniques from the posters i had previously anylised and also has a few things that are unique and new such as the two characters are in seperate images.

the image of the female character is in black and white and is also slightly faded, this shows that she could be absent from his life but still there through his memories, which are in black and white in the film to fit with the black and white image of  her.

The colours scheme of my poster is mainly light colours but quite dull,which reflects on the emotion of the film, giving the audience an idea of what the film might be like.

Analysis of my poster