Magazine cover analysis

Magazine cover conventions

A magazine has to advertise as much of the contents inside the magazine as they can to potential readers. The best way to do this is to use the magazine cover to present short and concise teasers of what will be inside the magazine, so that someone who passes by the magazine can easily tell what will generally be in the magazine.

To make key points stand out from the rest of the magazine, the magazine can use different techniques to achieve this. For example, they may use different coloured, bright text to make it stand out. This technique can also be used in pugs. The masthead  is typically always in the top third of the page, and centralised.

This brings me to the 'rule of thirds'. The rule of thirds is a technique used in many media texts. It is a technique which provides a layout which most magazines follow. The rule of thirds is shown best by laying a grid over a magazine cover as shown below:

This is a brilliant example of the rule of thirds. We can see in the top third of the page, the masthead as to the rule of thirds is present. The main picture of the cover normally takes up the centre of the page. If there is a main cover line, it is typically also laid out in the centre of the page. The bottom third of the page is typically taken up by banners as shown in the picture. On either the left or right side of the page, the secondary cover lines are normally laid out.

Film poster analysis

Film poster conventions

To be effective, film posters need to contain short, concise points of information which people can understand easily and quickly.

Posters can be used for different effects, and like trailers, can be broken down into two types:

Teaser poster:

Theatrical poster:

As you can see, like the trailers, there is much more information in the theatrical poster than in the teaser poster. For example, the release date, the name of the film, and the billing block.

But what else do we typically see in a thriller poster?

If we look at either of the two posters, we can see a man in a suit, who in each poster is wielding a gun. In the theatrical poster we also see someone who looks to be a typical 'femme fatale'. 

The typical conventions we expect to see would be typical to the conventions of the sub-genre of thriller the film is categorised into. So for an action thriller poster, we could expect to see iconography such as guns, suits, attractive women, and urban environments.

This is shown in the poster of 'Shoot em up':

Another typical convention of a poster for a film is a billing block. A billing block is a block of text, usually at the bottom of the page in a plain space where some of the credits of the film are added. As well as the billing block, the main actors' names are normally on the poster, this is done so that if someone likes a particular actor, they can easily see the actor's name even if they are in costume on the poster. If the film has a tagline, this is also normally added onto the poster. For example, the tagline of 'Shoot em up' is "No name, no past, nothing to lose."

Campaign effectiveness

Before a film is released, there is typically a campaign to promote the film and raise awareness to the potential viewers of the film. To do this, companies may use many different promotional materials to advertise their film.

However, to make the campaign truly effective, it is widely accepted to make the campaign products related through some form so that we can instantly associate the product with the film.

Inception's promotion campaign was, in my opinion, a particularly effective promotion campaign. Here are some of the products the campaign had to advertise the film:

Poster:

In this poster we can see the film name, Inception. It is all in capital letters, and in a blood red colour. The colour scheme in the poster is in a blue hue. Blue is a colour which can represent solemnity and also sadness. The use of this colour helps the viewer understand the key emotions in the film before they have even watched it. There is little detail about the film displayed in the poster, helping to create an enigma. By creating a mystery about the film, it will potentially create a hype over the film and get people talking about the film. We can also see that this film could be a thriller film through the iconography and setting. The characters are all wearing suits, and some wielding guns. Also, the setting seems to be an urban city, with tall buildings and cars surrounding the characters.

Magazine cover:

We can instantly see similarities between the magazine cover and the poster. Whether that is in the block capital and blood red film title, in the blue hue, or even in the typical thriller iconography of suits and guns. Another subtle similarity is in the distorted background, which seems almost like it is being sucked backwards.

Trailers:

Teaser trailer:

In the teaser trailer we can still see the iconography and settings remaining similar, and we can see the consistent use of the same font as the film title had in the poster and magazine cover. It uses the same block style font in full capitals. The film name is not shown in the blood red this time however, as the name is embedded into the surrounding (and similar) buildings as the camera zooms out from the setting. We also see a slight difference in the colours. It is no longer always a blue hue, but still keeps a generally consistent, darker tone to the trailer.

Theatrical trailer:

The theatrical trailer is typically released as one of the last advertisement products, as it gives the most information about the film. By the time the theatrical trailer is released, the advertisement campaign aims to have established the elements that the audience can connect to the film. Such as the block capital font, the dark colours, and the iconography. In the theatrical trailer, we can see these elements presenting themselves, but we can also see much more entering the trailer. We can hear character voices, we see more scenes in the film, the plot is now being elucidated, and more importantly, the release date is now revealed. The enigma created in the advertisement campaign is now starting to be broken down slightly as the film approaches it's release date, and this helps make the viewers want to find out more information, hopefully leading to them wanting to watch the film.

Overall, I would say the advertisement campaign Inception had was extremely effective in achieving what was desired, and used many techniques to achieve this.

Trailer analysis

Trailers are usually seperated into two categories. These are 'teaser' trailers, and 'theatrical' trailers.


The difference between the two is that a teaser trailer normally is released earlier than the theatrical trailer, and shows little information about the film. However, the teaser does aim to give an enigma so that people want to find out more about the film. Accurate information is not normally provided in a teaser trailer, an example of this is in the release date.

Paranormal Activity 3 is the third film in the Paranormal Activity trilogy. It has both a teaser and theatrical trailer, which will be shown just below.


Teaser Trailer:

Theatrical trailer:

So, other than the particular footage in the trailer, what makes one a teaser trailer, and another a theatrical trailer?


Personally, in what I consider the teaser trailer, the only information we are given about the film is that it is released in October. However, in the theatrical trailer, we are given an exact date of October 21, and also provided the address of a website designed for the film. (Click here to visit the advertised website). We are also told that we can visit 'Twitter', a website where somebody can follow things of interest such as new movies.


The theatrical trailer, even though it is only 10 seconds longer, seems to also show more footage, through faster editing and cutting between each clip.


Overall, I would say the main difference, as I said before, is that a theatrical trailer tends to give much more information to do with the film.

Trailer forms and conventions

Characters:

In a trailer, we need to establish the key characters of the film and their characteristics (traits). We have to establish all of this in just a few minutes, and outline the plot of the film in a way that makes the viewers want to watch the film. One way we can do this is by using key moments of dialogue.

After watching the trailer for 'Insidious' shown above, I could personally understand which character plays what role in the film. For example, the mother and father, the son in the coma, the elderly women who seems to know how to solve the problem, and also the villain(s) of the film. We can tell this from the dialogue. FOr example, when the woman says "Sweetie" at 0:26 we can then assume that she is some form of relative to the child. We can also assume the man and the woman mentioned before are partners as they are in the same bed at 0:27. At 1:08 another man begins to talk in detail about certain tests that he has ran, this makes us seem like he is the person who knows how to deal with the problem.

It is the small moments of dialogue and key frames in the trailer that allow us to associate people in the film to the role they play in the narrative.

Editing:

In a trailer, we must show the narrative, characters, and establish the setting of the movie all in a short period of time. To do this, a trailer uses little 'continuity' editing, the camera cross-cuts frequently, and fast. A trailer achieves achieves these fast transitions through a range of transitions techniques. These include:

-Sound bridges
-Wipes
-Flashes
-Dissolves
-Fades

The graph shown below is a representation of a commonly seen thriller trailer formula. At the start of the trailer, the pace of the editing is slow, and normally contains moments of dialogue. In the middle of the trailer we normally see a sharp peak in the pace of the editing, showing much more action, and then a sudden drop in the pace of editing.

Visual Style:

In a trailer we must establish many characters, to do this, we can use certains shots with the camera. For example, close-ups allow us to see the characters in detail and connect with each person specifically.



A close-up of a character in a thriller film.

Music:

The music naturally sets the mood for the trailer. We can convey many emotions through the music, such as fear, or alternatively joy.

This is the trailer of The haunting in connecticut used previously to show the use and effects of music in a trailer.

Continuity:

In a trailer, due to the jump cuts and transitions involved, there is little 'continuity'. This means that in a trailer we need to use different techniques other than the visual style to convey continuity in the trailer. For example, we can use voice-overs, credits and titles, and key moments of dialogue to explain the plot to the viewer.

Narrative:

Narrative is used in a trailer to convey the plot of a film, we do this by showing (as mentioned previously) key moments of dialogue between the main characters, and voice-overs.

Narrative also is used to create an enigma in trailers.  We can achieve this through action sequences such as fights, kisses, arguments, chases, and explosions to leave the viewers wanting to see what happened next.

In the trailer of Immortals, even though we see a lot of action, we also receive dialogue throughout, and captions in between many scenes. This is a method used by many trailers to convey the plot and narrative of the film.