Vanish front cover

Below is a prezi explaining how I have constructed my magazine front cover.

 

 

Movie Magazine Front Cover

After extensive research into front covers of movie magazines I have begun to produce the cover for an edition of 'Total Film' promoting my movie 'Vanish'.

I begun with using the original logo from 'Total Film' as I decided to work around this. I have noticed that movie magazines tend to adapt the their logo to fit the specific themes of the movie that they are promoting on that issue. As shown in the examples to the left and right. For this reason I played around with the logo for a while until I found an effect that I feel best fits my movie. To create it I just used the recolouring effects on Microsoft Power Point on a plain white version of the 'Total Film' logo. The effect that I have selected, I feel, gives the impression of blood splattering across the bottom. This I feel is appropriate as it fits with my horror genre.

Once I had produced this logo I then when about producing a suitable background. Again, I decided to play around with the effects on Power Point, however, I was very careful when selecting the background that the colours did not detour away from or wash out the main logo. I felt that all of the potential backgrounds produced this way made the front cover look cheap, low budget and very unprofessional. After much experimentation I thought that it may work if I were to use a screen shot of the film footage that I had already gathered. From this I used a screen shot of the outside of my house as it is a central location of the film and adds a very eery feel to the poster. In addition to this I have added a black and white filter to it for more impact.

Absence of horrors and thrillers on magazine covers

Comparison to mainstream movie magazines

 From doing research into horror movies used for magazine front covers, I have discovered that it is rare for publishers such as Total Film and Empire to go down the horror movie route.This could be due to several factors. Firstly, horror movies may not need the same promotion as other genres such as action as they may either use other methods such as TV advertising or the genre is already very popular so not as much magazine publicity is needed. Secondly, the absence could be due to the fact that horror movies are not taken seriously or are not deemed appropriate for the front cover of a magazine. This is a potential gap in the market that my magazine could fill. I will produce a magazine front cover featuring my horror movie 'Vanish' but rather than following the normal conventions of genre specific magazines such as 'Scream' I will apply the genre to a more mainstream magazine such as 'Total Film'.

  

  In addition to this I have also found that the mainstream movie magazines focus on either recent or upcoming releases as oppose to the genre specific magazine who can sometimes stray to older releases. For example on the cover of the 'Scream' magazine shown above shows the character Freddy Krueger from the film 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' which was originally released in 1984 (30 years ago).

Introduction to Task

 For my advanced portfolio I have been asked to either:

-Produce an entire short film, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or  animated together with two of the following three options:
 -a poster for the film;
 -a radio trailer for the film;
 -a film magazine review page featuring the film

OR

-A promotion package for a new film,to include a trailer, Together with two of the following three  options:

 - a website homepage for the film;

 -a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;

 -a poster for the film