Magazine: Masthead and Title Ideas

To begin looking at Masthead ideas I must first think of a name for my magazine. I need a name which is related films to attract the target audience of avid film viewers and so people know the genre of magazine immediately.
I am going to think of three titles and choose the best out of the three to use on my magazine. I think that Newvie, Reel and Screen. I think that Screen is a good magazine title and would be quite memorable for my magazine.
I am going to look on Dafont for suitable fonts whilst looking at current magazines to find genre conventions and make sure my font matches the conventions so it appeals to the target audience.

 This font is quite unique which makes it good, but it looks a lot like current movie fonts so may not be a good choice as people may think my magazine is related to a franchise of films.

 This font may be too thin and simple to be eye-catching. The conventions show me that the mastheads are usually quite thick writing and very official looking to look genuine.

I think this masthead font is the best as it fits with current conventions, it looks like the typical film font and would fit well on the magazine cover.

Magazine Cover Analysis

I am going to analyse three film magazine covers that are of a similar genre to the one I would like to create. I am analysing the magazine covers to allow me to find out the conventions and styles that they stick by, and so I can understand the features that they use to target a specific audience and be appealing to this specific audience. By studying the covers it will allow me to use what I have found to apply to the Magazine cover I make.  In 1997 Bentley stated, “The creative process is the rearranging of the old to create the new.” I will use this statement to view another magazine with inspiration and recreate it using the successful conventions and styles. 

My target audience will be 15-25 year old males.  will be analysing the denotation and connotation of each aspect of media language; masthead, layout, colour pallet, images, typography, lexis and other features. I will also refer to how the language on the cover relates and appeals to the target audience. 

Empire
Empire is the worlds most popular film magazine and has been around since 2001, it has a readership of 193,000 and the issues are released monthly. The target audience of the magazine are Movie Buffs (Film fans) who tend to be around 18-45 year old and male. It is published by Bauer Media Group which is a very successful magazine publisher that publishes magazines of all different genres. Empire usually features the newest, biggest action/adventure Blockbuster of the month, the cover usually has an image of a star vehicle and is of a blue tint with a red masthead.

The masthead of the magazine takes up about 1/5th of the page and is layered over the main image of Daniel Radcliffe. The word 'Empire' is written in a bright red colour and is in a unique signature font which is a classic film looking font which relates to the genre well and is a conventional look for a film magazine. The use of a really bright red against the dark background/main image make the masthead really eye-catching.

The layout of the magazine is conventional. The text at either side of the main image is quite large but is mostly just language to attract the audience and is quite minimal considering it takes up a lot of space. The large bit of text under the masthead is very eye-catching and compliments the highlights of Radcliffe's face. The page has 1 small image that is a combination of a few of the characters from the films mentioned on the cover photoshopped together. The page has lots of text around it that all relate to the articles inside. The sections of text highlight the names of the films and articles inside are about which will appeal to the audience because they are very interested in new and popular films.

The colour palette of the magazine is yellow, red and black. The colours are used on different sections of text, but the main bit that is red is the title, giving it a more eye-catching look. The colours make each section of text seem to pop out and shout at you. The colour red usually connotes various things, but in this masthead I think it represents passion and intensity which is attractive to the target audience as they will more often like action movies. I also think the red gives a interesting classic look which reminds me of the cinemas when they had huge intense red curtains that would open before the film. The yellow and white text gives a bright contrast against the red and darkness of the background/masthead. 

The main image is a close-up of a very famous Actor called Daniel Radcliffe who played a very famous character called Harry Potter in the Series of films based on the books written by JK Rowling. Radcliffe was a suitable Star to use because the Harry Potter series had a very large and loyal fan base, therefore more people will want to buy the magazine because he is on the Cover and inside. He is also attractive which makes the cover more appealing to the audience as his face is nice to look at. Radcliffe is posing in a very dramatic way and he has dirty/bloody make up on his skin with broken glasses which makes him look like the typical action hero after a fight scene which would attract the target audience who like action films. Harry Potter is Fantasy, young-adult fiction, mystery, and thriller. 

Total Film

Total Film has been around since 1997, it has a readership of 12,280 and the issues are released monthly. The target audience of the magazine are Movie Buffs (Film fans) who tend to be around 18-35 year old and male. It is published by Future publishing which is a small company that publish alot of media/technology based magazines. Total film is similar to Empire but also features films on the cover from other genres usually Blockbuster films. It also usually has a cover which is full of images and text.

The masthead of the magazine takes up about 1/4 of the page and is layered under the main image of Tom Felton. The word Film is written in black and is large, the word Total is in white and is smalled so is layered over the F giving a very unique and signature look. The font is very plain and classic but has a very similar M to the one in Empire's masthead with a deep indent to the top. The use of black gives a pop from the bright white background and compliments Tom's dark suit.

The layout of the magazine is conventional. The text at either side of the main image is larger on the left side as it is about the main article and links with the main image of Tom Felton. On the right side the text is quite small but features words that draw in the audience.  The page has no other images so the reader's full attention is drawn to the main image. 

The colour palette of the magazine is blue, white and black. The colours are used on different sections of text, but the main bit that is red is the title, giving it a more eye-catching look. The title parts of the text is blue to make them pop and the main words in the larger text is also blue to attract the audience. The colour blue usually connotes coolness and in the lighter shade that is on this cover it is gender neutral unlike a darker blue which would be seen as more masculine.

The main image is a medium shot of Tom Felton who was also in the Harry Potter series and played the enemy of Harry Potter called Draco Malfoy. The Harry Potter fanbase is very large and worldwide so Tom Felton was a good choice of Star Vehicle. He also has blood on his face which could relate to the target audience maybe liking action films and violence. I also makes him look quite frightening and his eye contact to the reader gives you chills. Tom is attractive which makes the cover more appealing to the audience as his face is nice to look at. 

Total Film Pt. 2
The masthead of the magazine takes up about a quarter of the page and is layered under the image of Robert Downey Jr. The word Film is written in a very bold font and the word Total is cut out of the letter F so it shows the colour from the background. The masthead is in a very clean bright white which compliments the frosty look of the cover and makes RDJ stand out more.

The layout of the magazine is moderately conventional. The text at either side of the main image is smaller but the subtitle bits are large and in different fonts and colours to stand out. The text above the masthead is just to attract readers with things that might interest them. There is text layered over the main image which isn't very conventional but is quite effective as it shows the reader what the main article is about. There are 3 smaller images above the masthead beside the text which show three main characters from different films to interest the reader into picking up the magazine if they see a character that interests them e.g. Iron Man (who is also played by RDJ) because it is am action film.

The colour palette of the magazine is white and blue and the colours are used on different sections of text so some words stand out against the others and so the page doesn't look as flat. The colours make each section of text seem to pop out and shout at you. The colour blue connotes a coolness and links with the frosty feel that you get from the front cover. The white gives an icy clean look which also compliments the look. The blue and white theme helps give a conventional and consistent look so the over is pleasing to the eye.

The main image is a medium shot of a famous Actor called Robert Downey Jr who plays Sherlock Holmes in the films and Iron Man in the Marvel films. RDJ is a good star to use because he is already very popular for his role as Iron Man and people may not know him as any other roles so seeing him as Sherlock Holmes may make them want to read about it in the magazine and watch him in the film. RDJ is quite good to look at which makes the cover more appealing to the audience. RDJ is staring directly into the camera which draws you in and his costume makes his character look very interesting so may interest the reader.

Trailer Text

For the trailer we have decided to follow conventions by having some text between a few clips to show the tagline of the film. To do this I watched a tutorial online (http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/translucent_glass/) and used After effects with some images from the internet.

 

 First I click Composition>New Composition and created a new composition with a solid black background.

Then I clicked the text tool to create a text layer and wrote the word 'Loneliness' in white onto the black background in Mongolian Bati at 187px, clicking the selection tool to move the word and going to Window>Align to show the align menu which allowed me to centre the word.



Next I turned on the 3D layer switch which is the box on the far right on the layer. I then clicked the small triangle to expand the settings of the text layer and clicked animate and then blur to bring up the settings for the blur effect. I then increased the blur value to about 31.

 Then I expanded expanded Animator 1 then Range Selector and Advanced and set the Shape to Ramp Up.

 Now I set the Current Time Indicator to 0;00 seconds and clicked the small stopwatch beside the word offset in the settings under Range Selector. I then set the offset to -100.

 Then I moved the CTI (current time indicator) to about 2 seconds and set the offset to 100.

Next I enabled Per Character 3D by clicking Add, then Property and Enable Per Character 3D.

I then added a Position property by clicking Add, Property and Position.

I then moved the CTI to 1 second and changed the Z setting on the position to about 549 and increased the blur to 54.0. I also clicked Add Opacity and decreased the opacity.

 Now I increased the Ease Low to about 50% which helps smoothen things.

 Next I created a 3D camera by clicking Layer>New>Camera.

 I picked 28mm and clicked OK.

 I then dragged the Ice Diffuse image onto the composition adding a layer.

 Next I searched for Motion Tile in effects and dragged the effect onto the image which I just added.

 I then increased the Output Width to 260 to fit across the panel.

 And then increased the Output Height to 190 to fit. I then duplicated the Ice Diffuse Map Image layer and dragged the Ice Normal Map  Image layer onto the duplicated layer whilst holding down alt which allowed me to replace the first image with the Normal Map image.

Now I created an adjustment layer by clicking Layer>New> Adjustment Layer.

 I then added an effect by clicking Effect>Distort>Displacement Map and hid the Ice Normal Map Image and the Ice Diffuse Map Image by clicking the eye buttons to the left.

 Next I selected the Ice Normal Map Image from the Displacement Map Layer selection.

 Now I unhid the Ice diffuse map image layer and changed the Mode to overlay using the little drop down menu near the name. I then changed the colour of the text to black.

 Next I clicked on the Diffuse image and clicked Effect>Channel>Invert.

 Then I changed it so I was inverting the Lightness by clicking the dropdown next to Channel and choosing Lightness.

 Then I clicked Effect>Colour Correction> Curves and changed the curves on the graph to flatten the image.

Now I created another adjustment layer.

 Now I clicked curves again in the effects menu and clicked RGB in the Channel dropdown and changed it to Red to allow the image to go more blue.

Then I made another Adjustment layer.

 Now I clicked on the ellipse tool.

 Then I drew an ellipse around the text to begin creating the vignette.

Now I set the Mask to Subtract.

 Next I increased the feathering to about 337.

I then clicked Effect>Colour Correction> Curves and dropped the brightness right down to create the vignette effect.

 Next I named the adjustment layers and deleted the displacement one.

Now I clicked on the text layer and clicked Effect>Distort>Displacement Map.

 Then I selected the Ice Normal Layer as the Displacement Map Layer.

Then I added a fast blur by going to Effect>Blur & Sharpen>Fast Blur.

 Next I placed the Blur to before the Displacement Map.

  I then turned the blur up to about 30, the Max Horizontal Displacement up to 37 and the Max Vertical Displace to -49.

 Now I unhid the ice Normal image and went to Layer>Precompose.

 Next I named the new composition 'ice normal map' and clicked the circle for Move all attributes into the new composition. Afterwards I clicked OK.

 I then hid the ice normal map layer and turned on the collapse transformation switch for this layer which is the box under what looks like a sun logo.

Now I needed to create more texture, I did this by clicking Layer>New>Solid.

I then chose a solid black colour and clicked OK naming it Background, then putting at the bottom of the composition which made everything look really dark/black.

Next I had to create more solid layers by clicking Layer>New>Solid.

Then I chose an icy, cold, blue colour and clicked ok.

Next I went to the ellipse tool and created a oval shape in the centre.

Now I had to feather out the edges from 0 to about 388.

I then moved that layer above the background so it was behind the text and lit it up like a silhouette.

Now I resized the ellipse so it fit nicely behind the text.

Then I clicked the 3D layer icon to turn it into a 3D layer

I then pushed it back into the space behind the text and ice texture later and made it bigger, this gives a more 3D look and gives a depth.

I then repeated this process by added more ovals of lighter colour and changed the 3D depth of some of the light ovals to give even more depth.

Now I added some on to the edges to make the edges blend more.

Next I duplicated the diffuse ice texture to create more depth and texture.

I then dragged this newer layer to below the text.

Whilst the texture was selected I hit 'P' which gave positional controls.

This allowed me to move the newer texture thats behind the text further back.

Next I scaled the texture layer up to make it bigger so it wasn't cut out at the sides.

I then rotated it so it didnt look too similar to the first texture layer in front of the text as it looks tiled without the rotation.

I then went to Layer>New>Adjustment Layer and created a new adjustment layer.

I placed the new adjustment layer just above the texture layer I was just working with but below the text and renamed it 'displacement'

With the displacement layer selected I clicked Effect>Blur and Sharpen>Fast Blur

I also clicked Effect>Distort>Displacement Map.

Now I selected the Ice Normal map from the options

I ticked the box for 'Repeat Edge Pixels'

Next I turned up the blurriness to 40 to diffuse the background and give even more depth.

Then I turned down the Max Vertical Displace to -49 and turned up the Max Horizontal Displace to 37

Next I selected the text layer and used the 3D arrows to push it back in space.

Now to make the text clearer I had to duplicate the text layer.

I then toned down the displacement effect.

Then the blurriness needed toning down as well to make it clearer.

Now I lowered the opacity.

Then I changed the transfer mode to overlay.

Next I fiddled again with the blurriness, opacity and displacement until it looked good.

I could then control the camera and animate the text as a 3D looking video if I wanted. I did this using keyframes and you can see my progress in the following screenshots.