Anciliary Text - Textual Analysis

This EMPIRE magazine front cover is very old, I believe it's from 2001. I am going to do a textual analysis of this front cover and compare it with another EMPIRE magazine from 2009.

I have annotated the conventional features of the magazine; which without wouldn't look very appealing. The Masthead of the magazine is the magazine name; the font of the masthead is sharp as well as round. The sharpness of the pint connotes evilness where as the round connotes soft and gentle. These connotations are opposite in meaning and therefore could cause confusion for the audience.The colour scheme of the font is just red; this colour connotes blood, danger and devils. However this colour could also symbalise love. Similarly on the Empire magazine of Twilight the masthead also has the colour scheme of red and the alphabet 'M' is still the same font; sharp and chunky. This suggests that this magazine is still carrying on its iconic style but the only difference is the font has changed a little.

The main image, is on the right side of the front cover and it's only showing half of the face to make the cover look more creepy. The red eye colour matches the colour scheme, which indicates that the magazine is about his character. There's low key lighting on one side of his face and high key lighting on the other side. Once again this gives ambiguous connotations and suggests the character has two personalities. The main image also also informs the audience that he's the main Character of the film. However, on the Empire magazine of Twilight is different, the main character is seen making direct address whilst the camera angle conventionally is a mid close up. This tells me that the style of Empire magazine has changed over the recent years. However the background; low key lighting hasn't changed, this could be because the iconography of horror/fantasy uses a lot of black to connote death.

The Sky line is always above the masthead and usually advertises important information such as 'free posters' and other information. Magazines always have different features and styles when it comes to the sky line. There isn't a iconic style that gets carried on.

From the 2001 EMPIRE magazine the sell lines/cover lines have decreased a little bit, this could be because the magazine doesn't want to give too much information away and keeps the audience focused on the main image. However the colour scheme has been carried through as the colour of the writing is still white. This is so that the black background and its deathly connotation is emphasized.

The date and price hasn't changed its position on the magazine and it's still placed on top of the 'M' even after 9 years. However the price has increased rapidly from £2.95 to £8.95, this could be because the magazine has developed and improved in its quality, over time. This is also a very conventional feature on any types of magazine, because without it the audience would not be able to decide whether they should buy the magazine or not. This also suggests that the audience are going to be C2 (possibly D) and above as this table below demonstrates. This is simply because they'll be earning and it'll be easy to accept the price. However, the price also identifies the target audience of the magazine as to be a skilled worker you need to be 18 and above in age. Twilight the film has age certificate of PG 13, the young audience would have not been able to afford an £9 magazine because they're not earning.

The bar-code is still at the front left bottom corner of the magazine. This is also a conventional feature which without it wouldn't look like a front cover but rather a magazine. Also the web address is also a conventional feature which allows the audience to read the magazine but in a different format. One thing that has changed about the web address it would be that it's gone from '.co.uk' to .'com', meaning that the magazine's institution has developed and improved and have gained audiences worldwide.

Hand Drawn Magazine Front Cover

This is my first draft on my magazine front cover I will produce in the up coming week. The background will be black and it will look like a horror magazine. I was inspired by EMPIRE magazine as it's very simple but appealing. My main image would be of my main character in her Halloween costume; because it's conventional of the magazine to have the main actor of the film featured on the magazine front cover. 

I have also included conventional magazine features such as; Masthead, Main image, bar code, price, web address, cover lines, tag lines, sky line, date etc. Without these features, the magazine won't look like a magazine as it will lack in detail and information.

The colour scheme of the masthead and tag line is orange because it's a Halloween theme colour. However there would also be other colours such as red and black blended in with the colour orange on Photoshop so that it looks more professional and not cheap. My overall colour scheme would be white for font, orange and red and hints black.  

Research; Film Magazine Questionnaire

Film Magazine Questionnaire

1) Age?

2)          M           F

3) Do you know of any film magazines? If so, which one?

4) Can you suggest me a name to call my magazine?

5) At which price would you buy the magazine for?

• £2- £4
• £5-£8
• Non above

6) What are your usual reasons into buying a magazine?

7) Would you buy a film magazine based on a horror film?

8) What would you like to see in my this film magazine?

9) Do you prefer a digital magazine or a hard paper copy?

Thank you for your time


Although it's personal, I've chosen to ask about age and gender because it will help me judge on the price as it will define which age belongs to a social group as they choose the price. I've also asked for magazine name suggestions because I can't think of any.  I gave them a list of prices because stereotypically, I know that teenagers would choose the low price and adults who are possibly employed would choose a high price. Also question 6 might sound weird but what I meant was that sometimes the audience choose the magazine because of what's featured or sometimes they're just a regular customer. Question 9 will tell me which age range commonly use web 2.0 and proliferation.

Potion Tutorial and Inspiration

These are some videos I found on YouTube on how to create a potion using juice and dry ice for the extra effect. It's easy and harmless and will not be dangerous to be carried out in college.  However if I 'm doing it in the green room then I must be cautious for safety reasons, I don't want to spill any juices when there would be wires around.

I will have to purchase the dry ice from online somewhere and buy juice from local shops. I quite like the idea of the twigs in the bowl so I might also find some twigs outside and stick it in too. To make the fog green I might have to use green spotlights which I can get Ben (Media Technician) to help me with the lighting.