Conclusion of results

From our questionnaire we can create the following specification for the front cover of our magazine:

-Our magazine should be issued once a month, and therefore include a wide range of information covering this span of time, rather than short weekly information

-Our front cover should be attractive and eye catching to attract the most amount buyers, it should also cover interesting topics.

-Our magazine should be priced at £2-£3

-Our magazine should be aimed at a target audience aged between 16-20 years old and therefore should cover films that this audience are allowed to view

-Our target audience has an existing knowledge of the creation or technical processes of film as the majority work with in the film industry and therefore we can cover more technical information. The technical process of creating films also appeals to them, so this is a topic we should cover.Visiting the cinema is a hobby of the majority of our target audience and therefore they have a wider knowledge of films and have higher expectations. Our magazine cover should feature up and coming film releases and up and coming artists.

-Our audience doesn't become attracted to freebies or offers with in magazines, therefore they are more interested in the content of the magazine.

-The majority of our target audience prefer the genre of horror, followed by action, this means that films of this genre should be the features of our magazine cover.

-Our magazine should focus on independent film productions rather than blockbusters as this is what our audience is attracted to. This may be due to the fact that the majority of film magazines cover blockbuster films and our audience would like to see something different.

-Our magazine should feature a person rather than props as this is what the audience is attracted by.

-The typography on our cover should be creative, unusual but legible.

Results from questionnaire

Our Questionnaire to discover audiences artistic prefernces and buying habits in relation to magazine front covers

Buying Habits Questionnaire

1. How often do you buy a film magazine?

Once a month Every 2 weeks Weekly

2. What attracts you to a film magazine?

Interesting Topics

Attractive front cover

Someone famous of the front cover

Latest gossip

Factual information

3. How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine?

Less than £1

£1-£2

£2-£3

£3-£4

£4+

4. How old are you?

10-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 30+

5. Is your occupation film related?

Yes No

6. Is visiting the cinema and watching the latest films one of your hobbies?

Yes No

7. Does the technical process of creating films attract you to a magazine?

Yes No

8. Would you like a magazine to feature up and coming films?

Yes No

9. Would you be interested in free offers, ‘Freebies’ or discount voucher in the magazine?

Yes No

Artistic Appeal:

1. What is your favourite genre of films?

Horror Action ROM-COM Comedy SCI-FI

2. Would you prefer to be presented with a high budget blockbuster or a low budget independent film on the front cover?

Blockbuster Independent film

3. Would you be interested in a magazine that reviewed film latest technology?

Yes No

4. Does the image on the front cover play an important roll in your decision of buying a magazine?

Yes No

5. Would you prefer an image of people or objects?

People Objects

6. What style typography would attract you to a magazine?

Bubbly

Unusual

Creative

Easy to read

Simple

Curly

7. Would you prefer and eye catching magazine front cover or professional front cover?

Eye catching Professional

8. Would information would you like to see inside a music magazine?

Reviews of the latest technology

Reviews of latest films

Interviews with famous actors

Interviews with up and coming actors

9. Would you be interested in bright colourful magazine covers?

Yes No

Action Plan for the magazine cover

2nd April:

We are going to design the title, logo and colour scheme of our Magazine cover in order to then create drafts of the entire cover. We will brain storm different title names for our magazine to see which name fits in with our target audience and portrays what the magazine is about. We will then find different font types to see which one is most suitable for our audience, as we want it to be unique but legible. The colour scheme is also very important in order to reflect our main themes in semiotics.

4th April:

We are going to design three mock up magazine covers and then gain feedback. This is important in establishing our initial ideas and finding what works with our target audience and what they don't like. We can then build on our ideas and create a draft from this.

6th April:

After deciding what our magazine cover will be, we will then do a photo shoot and capture the main image for our cover. This is important as this is the main aspect of the cover that grabs attention and needs to be very effective.

10th April:

We will then choose our image from our photo shoot to see which one has been the most successful and can then begin to edit this photo and manipulate it to fit our ideas.

11th April:

We will create our magazine cover, offering two alternate drafts and then gain feedback to see which one is most successful.

12th April:

We will then have a completed Magazine Cover that is appropriate for our audience and concept.

Notes on conventions of magazine covers

Through researching magazine front covers we have discovered many conventions that we should include in our own front cover.

Each magazine cover had a masthead, which is the title of the magazine, which is usually placed at the top of the page. This is usually the largest font size on the page to show the audience the magazines individual identity against its competition. The font style, colouring and appearance becomes almost like a brand, which is important to get right as this is what will make your magazine recognisable to the audience.

There is a selling line/tagline, which is usually a couple of words long that gives a brief description of the magazine. This is important to give a unique selling point and show why the consumers should buy your magazine. This is usually in a small font placed near the title to show its about the magazine and not a story.

There is also a main cover line, which is the main story that the magazine is covering. This is shown in a big font that is different to the masthead. It is often linked with the main image and is noticeably different from the rest of the text.

The main image is the biggest image on the magazine cover, which is often a star such as Megan Fox. This is often linked with the main cove line, which helps to instantly tell the audience what the magazine is about.

The cover lines are text on the front cover that aren't the main story but still describes what is in the rest of the magazine.

There is also a barcode on the cover along with a price and a date. There is also often a website to the magazine.

Analysing Film Magazine covers

This is two covers from Empire magazine covering the two main characters of the film, the antagonist and the protagonist. They have made these two covers collectors edition, this makes a general hype of the film. The information on the cover is minimal and identical for the two magazines, the only difference is colour theme and the image. This is different to the other covers i have looked at as there is no other imagery on this cover and the text is so small that there is nothing detracting the audiences eyes from the image. Both images are of the character looking directly into the camera lens, with the Batman cover he has white spots in his eyes, and in the one of the Joker- he doesn't. This makes the Joker appear more sinister and alien in behaviour. Both facial expressions are intimidating and serious, leaving the audience to speculate is either the 'goody'. As the image is almost exactly the same for each character it leads the audience to believe that their is possibly no difference in character between the two roles. By looking directly down the camera lens it engages the audience with the magazine, although this is often difficult to create as the tendency is for the audience to gaze back at the cover with out actually engaging with them. The difference in colour leads the audience to believe that there are striking differences between the two characters. The blue used for Batman makes him appear to be calm and collective, this is contrasted well with the black. The use of the green makes the Joker appear alien like and different, his make up reinforces this idea, and his red lips make you think that it possibly could be red with blood, this is also the colour that he wears throughout the film, and can connote jealousy.

This film poster focuses on the main character from the film, Johnny Depp is clearly the USP of the film, as his name is referenced on the the cover. The end of the gun meets at Johnny Depp's face, this centres the focus of the shot and draws the eyes to his face, this is done intentionally as he is the USP for the film and therefore the designers are. The shot looks like it could possible be a still that has been taken from the film. This helps to portray the action genre as it looks as if he is in mid battle with someone and gives the image movement rather than it being static or posed. They haven't used any other large or striking props or characters again reflecting that he is the key focus of the film. They have also mentioned the co-writer and director of the film- reflecting that this is another selling point for the film. The image of Johnny Depp makes him to appear sinister and shady as he is looking away from the camera. It is a very clean cut image, his whole appearance is sharp and striking making it an impacting image. It reflects this aspect of Johnny Depp's character. The image fades to smoke at the bottom reflects mysterious aspect of his character and the genre action. Through mise en scene- costume and props it sets the era in which the film was set (1930's), this automatically will draw in fans of this genre instantly. The use of red connotes danger or blood, areas of importance are highlighted in red to make them stand out from the grey, white and black. This is also reinforced by the gun as it reflects danger, death and violence. relying on the audience recognising who he is. The company 'Empire' are clearly confident in the audience recognising the title of the magazine, as the have put the image over the top of the title. They have used captions such as 'First Look', 'Exclusive' and 'Inside' to reflect the exclusivity of this magazine and to compete with other magazines for the best stories. They have included a website URL, linking the other forms of media relating to Empire together and so that they sell each other. Within in the web page the audience can become interactively involved with the selling of films and participate in quizzes and view blogs, reviews, videos and track the latest news. This shows the the mass media institutes are becoming aware that audiences are becoming more technologically aware, and that slowly everything is moving to the Internet. They have chosen images from other action films, this relates all images chosen back together and as they will have captured the attention of a specific audience who likes action through the largest image of Johnny Depp, and continue to sell films that may appeal to them as they fit into that genre. Initially I felt that it was unusual for the title of the film to not be in red seeing as this is the emphasising colour of the cover, but I then realised that this would have detracted from the magazines own title. This is a clear difference between creating a film poster and then creating a film magazine cover- that you have to share the attention of the audience with another media institution.

This image of Megan Fox focuses on the sexuality of the actress. This is the key selling point for this male orientated film. The audience for this film know the storyline and therefore are relying on the actors or some other aspect to draw the audience in. The film follows a male gaze and often focus's on her body. The fact she is topless makes the image raunchy and will instantly draw the attention of men with a male gaze. She is making eye contact with the camera lens and is therefore drawing in the attention of the audience and making the look back at her. Again there is minimal other information on the front, and therefore they are relying on the image of Megan to draw their audiences in. Women will be attracted as they want to aspire to be her, and males will be attracted due to her sexuality. The name of the film is highlighted but the name of the actress is larger than the name of the film, clearly showing that Megan Fox is the unique selling point of them film. They have used words such as 'hot' and 'sizzeling' which reinforce the images sexual nature. The other films that have featured on the cover are ones that are of a similar genre, or have a similar audience, for example Star Trek and Wolverine. Both these films are generally teen movies, based upon action but with an alien like aspect to them. The colour palette for the writing that goes around Megan is really simplistic, this leaves the focus on the image. The text that stands out the most is 'Empire', so therefore the two standing out features are the title and the image of Megan. The text goes around her as she is the focus of the magazine cover.

Final poster analysis

In our poster we have used a conventional layout by using a central image to capture the audience's attention. We have also placed the text at the bottom of the poster, which is conventional, as in our research we found that the text on the poster is usually placed at either the top or bottom part of the poster. We have also put 'Coming Soon', which is conventionally in film posters so that the audience can identify that it is a film and can lookout for the release of the film. We have also encorporated the production logo and the film certification on the poster to reflect that it is advertising a film.

We have used varied text within our poster. The title of the film was written in blood on the hand of our main image. This is very unusual and stands out, and as it is on the central image it draws more attention to it. This also makes the title of the film obvious to the audience, which is important for them to gain recognition of the film. In our text we have used the same 'scratch' font that we have used in the trailer in order to create synergy between the different mediums of advertisement. In our tagline we have also used a bigger size font on the word 'hurt' to emphasise the themes of violence in our film.

Final Poster Feedback

After completing our final poster, we presented it to our peers in order to gain feedback on any final changes.


Our peers said:

• They thought the red nails worked effectively, as it projected a scary image of entrapment and also the colour of red connotes the colour of danger and blood. The red nails also help to present a feminine character, which helps to narrate our storyline.
  
• The title of 'White Lies' stands out on the poster as behind the title it has a bright colour palette. The title is also in the middle of the page which clearly shows that it is the title.
  
• The 'Coming Soon' was in red, which links it to the title because of the colour of red. This worked effectively as it drew your eye to the title and to the phrase 'Coming Soon', which helped you to instantly recognise it as a film poster.
  
• The background is black, which our peers thought was effective as it made them question what was behind the hand. It also helped to create a sense of uncertainty and a fear of the unknown. It also intrigued people into the poster, which will entice them to find out more by watching the film.
  
• They also commented that the genre of horror was very clear due to the motif of blood, the colours, the tagline and the image.
  
• There was a narrative enigma, which intrigued people into the storyline and and attracted them to the film to find out more.
  
• They liked the fact that 'hurt' was bigger then the rest of the tagline, as it drew emphasis to the theme of violence and made them want to find out what happened.
  
• They also liked the heavy contrast in the image as it made the image more defined, which attracts the eye to the poster. It also highlights the main theme of violence and emphasises a struggle.

• They also like the colour palette of the poster, as the only colours featured on the poster are white, black and red. They liked the simplicity in the colours, however they felt that these colours created a bold impact on the audience as they contrast well and also reflect the themes of the film.

• They felt that the bruising and the blood on the hand were created well and looked very authentic. This also emphasised the main themes of violence, as people associate blood and bruises with danger.

• Our peers also stated that they thought our poster overall looked very professional. This is important to create a higher status for our film and to ensure that people can relate it to the macro media. This is important as it will encourage people to relate our film with macro media and encourage them to see something that they think will be of a similar quality.

focus group

Myself and Amy gathered a group of people together who were students at Walton High aged between 17-18 years old. We decided on this age range as it is a suitable demographic from our target audience therefore the information we gain is valuable.
The majority of people felt that the hand in the centre was extremely effective, and individual. They felt that it clearly portrays our genre through the scratchy writing and blood, and that it is effective. They felt that the title was clear, and that the red and white colour theme works really well and that everything with in the poster compliments each other, and everything has a purpose and no space is wasted. They felt that the black background makes the hand stand out and makes the poster more striking and eye catching. We showed them the original image and they felt that it looks a lot better with out the writing saying 'coming soon' on the hand. There was a few criticisms, some people felt that the fingers looked computer generated, and the image is a bit too depressing. A few people found that the writing could of been messier, that the word 'hurt' is too big and may create confusion for the audience on what the title is. Some people found that the writing at the bottom is too small and that more members of the cast and information about the film should be added in. Other people felt that the audience may not understand why we have used the image and the relevance it has too the title, or what other advertisements they should look out for in other media. Although these criticisms are valued a lot of things they criticised where things we created on purpose, and many of them didn't understand the difference between a micro and a macro film creation and the effects it has on the campaign. We have concluded that the cast is irrelevant for our trailer as we have no leading actors or actresses, that's why it is very small and many people didn't notice it. The fact that they felt they couldn't work out what the film was about from our trailer was our intended effect as we wanted to create a narrative enigma and therefore make our audience question what they see, creating the 'buzz' before and therefore creating audience gratification. Some people have provided constructive criticisms that we could follow up on, but it was a minority of people who stated these improvements and therefore if we changed it, we wouldn't be pleasing the majority, as the majority said they preferred it as it was.

Second Poster option

We have decided to create an alternative option of our film poster that includes our production company logo and our film certification on it. These are some aspects that a film poster ususally has on it and as we have already mentioned we felt that the poster itself was a clear film poster due to the 'coming soon', the tagline and the title and therefore didn't need the logos. We have also put the credits of the people involved at the bottom of the film, which is a convention for film posters. We felt that the logos took away the impact of the image and the poster as a whole, although we have also created this option to fit the requirements of a film poster.

Final Poster- how we created it

To create our final design we initially began by using the 'smudge' tool on PhotoShop to remove the 'coming soon' writing on the bottom of the palm as we felt that this ruined the image as it was too weak and it took away from the 'White Lies' impact. We then used a 'magnetic lasso' tool and selected around the hand, we inverted the selection so and then used a paintbrush tool and painted the background in black. This removed any imagery in the background and enhanced the black of the background. This makes the hand stand out more and leaves no other distractions to the hand itself. We then enhanced the brightness and contrast to make the shadows harsh and to make the center of the hand brighter. This again makes the hand stand out from the background as it is brighter. Using the 'scratch' font from 'dafont.com' we create the lettering. The initial lettering is quite messy and so we cleaned it up on PhotoShop using a paint brush tool in a separate document, as the writing was in black and the background was in white we inverted the colours to make the background black and the writing white. We altered the size of the writing by changing the size of the whole image to make it the correct size, we then selected 'Sometimes they' and dragged it over to the document with the image in it. We then enlarged the document again to make the writing even bigger and dragged 'Hurt' over and positioned it in the correct place. We then did the same thing with 'coming soon', opened a new document, pasted it over, simplified the lettering, inverted the colours, filled the letters in with red using a 'fill' tool after matching the colour with the blood on the hand, change the size of the document to make the writing small, and dragged the writing over to the document with the hand in it. For the final stage of our creation we used the 'text' tool and created our production and cast list using 'impact' font, we choose this font as it was simple and easy to read and could be small and still legible. We did this in a separate layer and moved it to the correct position and manipulated the size of the font.

Idea Development

After choosing our initial idea as design 2, we decided to develop it further and create alternative ways in which we could construct this poster. We used photoshop to create a realistic draft of each poster and changed certain aspects to see which one we thought would be the most successful.











In this draft we have changed the text of the tagline by placing 'hurt' underneath the rest of the text, which creates a greater impact. We have also placed the 'Coming Soon' in red, to emphasise the theme of violence and blood. This also creates layers of white and red, which helps to reflect the contrast of innocence and violence shown throughout our trailer. However, we felt that the placement of 'hurt' crowded the poster and took away the impact of the whole tagline.

In this draft we have kept the tagline the same size and haven't emphasised the word 'hurt'. This still gives a big impact, however, we felt that this didn't draw enough attention to the violence in the film. We also felt that by having all of the tagline on the same line, this created a bigger impact and didn't draw the attention away from the image.

In this draft we have kept all of the writing in white and kept the word 'hurt' in a bigger size. This is to emphasise the theme of violence, in which we think works well in anchoring the image of the hand. However we felt that the 'coming soon' appeared more striking in red, which is important in order for it to be identified as a film poster.

In this draft we have placed the word 'hurt' underneath the rest of the tagline, to draw an emphasis on the theme of violence. However as we previously mentioned we felt that overall it took away the impact of the tagline as you had to look at to many sections to read the whole sentence. All of the writing is in red, which we used to emphasise the blood and theme of violence in the poster. However we feel that it doesn't make the tagline stand out, as there is too much red on the poster.

In this draft we have changed the placement of the word 'hurt' and moved it underneath the rest of the tagline to draw emphasis on the theme of violence and struggle. However, we felt that it took away the impact of the tagline, as your eyes were attracted to too many places, which meant you didn't absorb the information. We kept the tagline in white as we felt that it stood out from the rest of the background and reflect the innocence in the film as well.

Our Photoshoot

Here are a selection of our images that we took on our photoshoot. To create the blood on the hand we used fake blood, and black eye shadow to emphasise the shadows to make the image more striking. We experimented with flash on and off to see the differnt effects it created. We also experimented with lighting with in the room to see how this effected the image. We decided that the most effective was when we turned the light off in the room and left the flash on as it lit the hand up and made everything around the hand dark and emphasised the shadows. We experimented with differnt postioning of the hand and using another hand to hold the hand to see if it created a scarier image. We decided that the 'coming soon' wasnt effective and planned to get rid of it once we began to edit them on photoshop.


We decided that this image was the most effective as the positioning of the hand looks as if its coming to wards you. It fill the majority of the shot and is centered therefore making it eye catching. The area around the hand is dark and therefore means that it will be easier to edit. The lighting has worked as the flash has reflected on some of the writing making it stand out and the shadows will be easily enhanced. We plan on enhancing the brightness and contrast to make it more shocking, and we would like to remove the 'coming soon' writing as we feel that it is not effective.

Draft poster feedback

After producing initial design ideas on Paint, we showed our class what we had designed in order to choose one idea and develop it further.

First Draft
Our peers felt that this draft gave away too much information, as in the trailer you are not able to see the man's face, whereas in this image although it will be dark, it still will show too much of the man's identity. This will diminish the narrative enigma and mystery created in our trailer. They also felt that whilst it was a striking image, it didn't stand out as much as the second draft and in comparison was 'boring'.

Second Draft
Everyone thought that our second mock idea would be the most successful film poster. The reasons they said for this was that it was an unique design that would grab people's attention and stand out the most from other film posters. This is important in order to attract an audience to watch the film, instead of them watching competitors films. People also said that our genre of horror was extremely clear, which is important to portray a story and attract people who are interested in this genre. By using conventions of a horror genre such as blood and low key lighting we are able to attract audiences that are engaged by this genre. People also said that as the title is on a hand it creates mystery as that is the only feature you have surrounded by darkness, which makes people question what is happening. As the title is in the middle of the page it stands out, which makes the title memorable. Although people did say that they think there should be more blood surrounding the hand to create a bigger impact.

Third Draft
Our peers believed that this draft also gave away too much information, as whilst the image is shocking and striking, it doesn't leave enough mystery to entice an audience in. They believed that if you were presented with this image you are given the climax of the film and receive the same emotion as if you were too watch it, which defeats the object in promoting it. They also stated that by using this image we would ruin the narrative enigma that we created in the trailer. As we used this image in a short flash, the audience were not completely aware of what the image was, which created a mystery and a want to find out. So by presenting this image we are diminishing this effect and ultimately not achieving our goal of attracting an audience.

Final Decision
Myself and Amy have decided that we are going to develop our ideas for our second draft, as this received the most positive feedback and everyone voted for it as the best idea. We also thought that this would be the most successful idea ad our feedback has encouraged us to develop it further.

inspiration

Myself and Amy where inspired by this poster due to its simplisty. It has a single image, and the key colour is red. The image fills the page and everything around the image is black. There is no production logos, just simply the title. This creates a narrative enigma and leaves the audience questioning what comes next. It doesnt rely on quotations, or captions to define its genre, as you can see through the image that it is a horror film. This shows how a macro media has used a simplistic style and we have taken inspiration from this.

Poster Mock Ups

After analysing other macro media posters for films such as 'Orphan' and 'The last house on the left', myself and Ferne have come to understand conventions within posters and techniques used to attract specific audiences. We have designed three different posters that we could use in order to promote our film, taking into account our research and its relevance to our own film.


Here is our first draft:








This draft focuses on a main image of the antagonist, which will grab peoples attention as they may feel like the figure is looking at them. The image of Bowe remanis sinister, as the poster will have low key lighting and as his hood is up it hides his identity. This helps the audience to recognise the genre of horror, as a dark colour palette and a mysterious figure are conventions of horror. We would have a dark background and the writing would be in white in order to stand out from the background. The white colour for the text would also reflect the title with connotations of innocence. We also placed 'Coming Soon' underneath the title so that the audience are able to relate this as a film poster.

This draft focuses on a main image of a hand. We wanted to use a hand to represent the girl pleading for help. We decided that as the main image we would put the title on her hand in blood to create a bigger impact. The hand would be in the middle of the canvas to ensure it is clear that this is the title of the film. This approach is a unique way in displaying the title of the film, which will help our poster to stand out. The genre of horror is clear through the image of blood and low key lighting, which are conventions of the horror genre. This will help to attract an audience that is interested in horror films, which are part of our target audience. We will also place the 'Coming Soon' underneath the image of the hand to ensure that the audience are aware that it is promoting a film. The simplistic poster creates a greater impact as people can focus on the image of the poster. We have used a limited colour palette of red, black and white. The colours of red and white are very ambiguous and create alternative meanings of the poster. These colours also contrast with the black background, which has universal connotations of evil and the unknown, which are themes our film portrays.

This draft uses a main image of Sophie who has been beaten and in distress. This is eye catching as it is an unusual and disturbing image to see. This will intrigue people and persuade them to watch the film. This image is also shown in the trailer which will create synergy between the different promotional mediums and build awareness of the film as a whole. The white lies will be in a black font as the image will not be black and this will help the title to stand out more than it is in white. This also creates a juxtaposition with the title as it uses the word 'white' and uses the colour 'black'. This can help portray the sinister aspects of a white lie, which is the concept behind our film. We have also used a tagline to reflect the concept of the film, which also makes the audience relate their own experiences of 'white lies' to the film and may encourage them to see the effects.

All of our drafts sell our film through a main image. This is because it is a horror genre and the images in the film will grab people's attention. As our film is in the micro media we have not used cast as our unique selling point as due to our budget we have not used anyone famous and people will not be able to recognise them.