Total film magazine cover analysis

For my first magazine analysis, I have found a copy from the English brand, “Total film”. Starting in 1997, “Total film” publishes their magazine 13 times a year, having a circulation of 75,491. Basing their magazine around films, referring to the latest films that have come out, talk on the stars and film reviews, Total Film manage to fulfil all film fans dreams by giving them the full gossip on the interesting areas in film and sharing the most wacky photographs, and occasionally posters, with the buyer.

When studying the codes and conventions used to produce such a complimentary cover, features including the masthead, the main image, headlines and colour scheme, to name but a few, have been studied and influenced by the conventional techniques that are seen in the typical comedy based film, such as this.

To begin my analysis, I have noticed how the focal point on this specific cover appears to be the main image of Johnny Depp, playing the mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland. His wild, outgoing and enthusiastic appearance is presented with bright colours including his orange hair and pink eye make-up. Seeing as the background is a fairly dark colour, I feel that the colours have been arranged to enable the mad hatters face to be the main focal point and extremely eye catching. Another way in which his character represents his wild nature is the obscurity of clothing. Wearing a brown leather coat, a long sleeved puffy shirt, a liquorice allsorts patterned bow tie, a top hat and checked gloves, Johnny Depp has been transformed from his typical attractive persona to a socially awkward, unsettling, mad person holding a giant rabbit.

The masthead for this specific cover has been covered up by part of the main image. By doing this, it is clear that the brand is evidently well known, enough to the point that when it is covered up in sections, the spectator can still establish what magazine it is. The font used is a bold, sans serif that helps all aged viewers to be able to understand and clearly recognise the magazine when close up or at a distance. Using the colour white creates unity throughout the poster, linking with the white text and Johnny Depp’s face.

Above the masthead, a promotional point of sale quote has been written, stating that there is a “free giant iron man poster” included within this particular issue. Including this statement on the front cover persuades the target audience of film fans to purchase the magazine purely for the free gift. A gift such as this is bound to get the spectators interested. Having this written in a bright colour, yellow, and positioning it at the top of the page means that the audience will see this near enough straight away.

Between these two important features is the Total Film website with the price of £3.99 for the magazine, the issue number and the date it was published. These bits of information are a lot less important than aspects such as the masthead, promotional lines, and main image, and so are a lot smaller than all of the other written content. Despite being less important, they have been written collectively at the top of the page for anyone interested and for anybody purchasing the magazine.

Other written content including “Welcome to Wonderland! Johnny Depp heads up our MASSIVE 2010 PREVIEW” and “Starring…Iron Man 3, Harry Potter 7…” have been included to inform the spectator of the valued features and regulars included within the magazine.  Involving this information on the cover means that the audience can get a better understanding on the contents and whether they want to purchase this particular issue.

Below this information, more stars are listed in a larger font, hinting that they’re the bigger articles and ones that are likely to be of more interest to the majority of people, acting as a selling point.The barcode is positioned to the right of the main image and is adjusted to fit in the free space, altered to a portrait orientation.

The general colour scheme of the poster is eye catching and colourful to enable as much representation of fun to be shown as possible, linking in with the film “Alice in Wonderland”. The format of the contents are organised in a tidy way, having all of the information in a column on the left, the masthead at the top and the main image filling the whole page.