Magazine Front Covers

As I know I will be using the horror genre, I will be producing a magazine front cover as part of my marketing campaign. I will firstly need to see different horror publications to get an idea of the different cover lines, colour schemes and other details that will appear. I will them do some more research into mainstream magazines and see I could combine them both.

The first horror magazine I will be looking at is 'Fangoria'.

- The masthead is in a colour associated with horror, maybe signifying blood.

- In the cover line, two words directly references the genre.

- The main cover line links to the image, and references well-known horror film.

- The images on the side are of promotion for other horror films, e.g. 'My Bloody Valentine' and 'Underworld'.

- Lots of red is used on the poster, a colour associated with the genre.

- The dominant central image is of a well-known character holding a prop, wearing a creepy mask, his clothes are dull and look damp, giving an eerie and scary look to the audience.

The second horror magazine is 'Shivers'.

- The masthead again say red and looks like it has been scratched on.

- Colour scheme is very dull and degraded.

- Dominant central image is of a girl who looks drained and deathly, a woman is a typical victim in the genre

- Red and yellow are used throughout in both covers

- References another horror film

- Banner that has been shaped in a dramatically jaggered way, perhaps indicating genre

- The font on the poster looks as if they have been scratched on, possibly relating to the film referenced in the main coverline

  

To possibly link my horror genre to a mainstream magazine, I have chosen to find patterns for these 'Empire' magazines. 

  

Each one of the three 'Empire' magazines follow the same conventions:

- Bold, clear dominant central image of the main character from the film edition for each magazine. 

- Mastheads follow the same colour scheme as the overall film storyline, e.g. 'Hellboy 2' has a hell-like figure, therefore there are flames coming out of the masthead to reflect the character and Mise-en-scene of the film. 

- The film make is clearly printed 

- Banners relating to the same/feature films

- Main cover line linking the edition

- Banners also entire the audience to furthermore read

After looking at these two types of magazine covers, I have decided I will be linking my horror film to a 'special edition' mainstream magazine. 

Poster Questionnaire

To gather more in-depth research regarding genre, I will create an open answered questionnaire to hand out regarding audience, looking at their expectations in genre, and conventions of media texts.

1) What type of images would you see on the Poster?

2) Would you expect large fonts / and in what style?

3) Would a poster sell the film to you?

4) Do you want to see the stars of the film on the poster?

5) What type of colour scheme would you expect?

6) How much text would you expect to see?

7) Would you expect any merchandise advertised to do with the film?

8) In the horror genre, what would you expect to see?

9) If the poster was to have a dominant central image, who / what would that be?

10) Would you expect any references from magazines, reviews or critics?

11) Would the director's name be relevant for you?

12) If there were social media links, would you use them?

Certificate For My Film (2)

After reading the BBFC website about the different age brackets, I have decided that my film will be a 15 Certificate.

Reasons why it would not be an 18 are as follows:

- I will not have sexual activity
- Discriminatory language or sexual violence

In the 15, they allow 'strong violence', although more brief and verbal.
The differences that make mine a 15 are to the extent of the violence, if I was to make more extreme cases of sexual violence, language and gore then I would have to consider making my film an 18.