Magazine Construction

I had a very strong idea of what I wanted my magazine to look like, primarily through looking at a wide range of Empire and Total Film covers. Because of this I also gained a large grasp of the conventions of a main stream magazine and how it should look. As you can see it my draft below, I liked the idea of the bar going across the screen, I felt this would fill up the screen and make it visually appealing.

My central image that I took of Robbie.

First I felt that it was important for me to just get all the parts of the magazine on the page, so that I could get a better idea of what needs to be done.  I used a still from our trailer as the background image, I thought that this image was strong and sinister enough to work. I liked the orginal look of the bars however at this stage the angle was far too large.

I decided on the title of 'CINEMATIC' as it felt that this felt powerful and would grab passer byers attention similar to 'EMPIRE'. I also put in the first of the pictures, this one being from my opening last year, minus the white text on the title, this colour scheme is similar to how I imagined it, a lot of red/white/gold.

In this edit, I added on the tagline at the top, this tag line sounded extremely professional and I really liked it. I had huge difficulties finding a font and I'm still not happy with it, I didn't realise how long it took to find a good font. I also changed the puff from red to blue in order to make it stand out more, the WIN being larger also helps.  I also gave Robbie and small haircut this was because his hair was standing out on the background due to some parts of the image I cut him from still being there, this change isn't noticeable at all, which I am rather proud of.

In order to get all elements in the banner at the correct angle, I decided to make it separately and then transport it in.

I used a clipping mask on all the gold text in order to give it shine, due to the image having a slight gradient. This immediately made the magazine look a million times better and far more professional.

In order to make the text at the top stand out, it needed a background, I liked the idea of using a gold bar, and again used a clipping mask on it to make it look more professional. I couldn't however decide what to do with the below text as you can see in the images below.

I couldn't decide whether to have the text be in front of his leg, have the banner go over the whole page or have it all behind. I wasn't particularly happy with any design however I asked some of my target audience and they all liked the 1st one best (the one with the banner going across the whole screen). I'm going to hold off on this decision for the moment as I'm not sure.

The background and Robbie were both far too pale so I edited the saturation and colour levels of both images in order to make them look better overall and less 'student-ish'

There is a fairly substantial jump between these two edits, I changed the font as it looked too un-professional before and added a small outline to CAPTURE in order to make it easier to read. I also added a slight gradient behind the puff in order to make it stand out more. It was also noted that the gab between the A and the T in the title was unusually large and therefore I edited that. I then added in the additional elements such as the bar code and date/price which can be seen in the last C. The major change however is the bottom text, as I didn't like any of the options I attempted something else. By looking at Empire and Total Film covers I noticed how many different films they refer to on the cover and this was something which mine was perhaps lacking. Changing up the colours between rows also makes it each row easier to read.

This edit is very close to the final product now. I slightly enlarged the film titles at the bottom as they are more important than the directors name and therefore should be larger. I also made the puff larger and at a slight angle to make it stand out better and I changed the size of the top text. I added the white bars, which again have a small gradient in order to look more professional and not just a flat colour, because without them there was a large amount of empty space which wasn't being used, this felt un-natural and off putting. I also wasn't happy with the wasted space in the bottom right corner and therefore I also added in a printing cross, similar to Empire. The one element which I feel needs slightly more work is the puff, as the WIN! needs to be slightly larger and perhaps in a different font

Above you can see the final poster, I have increased the size of the WIN along with changing the font to give a more blocky and bold effect meaning that it stands out better and catches your eye. The last change that I made was editing the banner, as through some audience feedback someone pointed out that the left most image 'High Trees' looked off compared to the other ones. This was due to the other images being closeups and at a higher saturation, making High Tress appear too grey and insignificant. In order to correct this I enlarged the photo making the main character larger and more central along with altered the vibrance and saturation making the colours pop and removing the grey nature of the photo. Although this photo was a screen-grab and therefore by doing so I may be mis-informing the audience of the style of the film, I feel it was worth it for creative decisions as the three images fit together far better.

AF