Conventions of film magazine covers.

I have noticed several conventions in film magazine front covers that I must include when creating my magazine front cover to insure that it represents the industry. The conventions are audience expectations and therefore must be included so that my magazine is a success. The magazine front cover has to promote my film, in order to do this I must make sure it correctly represents my film but also make sure it includes magazine conventions so that the magazine will reflect the industry. If my magazine successfully reflects the industry then consumerism will be higher, therefore promoting my film to a larger audience. The main conventions used in a film magazine front covers are:

• A masthead. The name of the magazine is always placed at the very top of the magazine and is in a large and bold font. It is the biggest font on the page because it is iconic to the magazine therefore must stand out for audiences to see. The masthead always remains the same, however the colour may vary throughout issues. Sometimes part of the masthead is covered up by the image, this is usually done by successful magazines because it shows that audiences know what the magazine is despite part of the name being covered.

• Main headline. This will be a headline about whichever film is being featured on the front cover. It is normally placed over the image and is in large font, however not as large as the masthead.

• Strapline. This is placed underneath the headline and gives audiences some indication as to what the article that is featured includes.

• Sub-headings. Subheadings are plugs as to what other features are going to appear within the magazine. Some magazine may only include one subheading or perhaps none. However most magazines include two or three, and sometimes place pictures with these subheadings.

• Feature photograph. There is always one main image used and this is conventionally an image of the main character/s of the film. The actor or actress that usually appears on the front cover is well known and easily recognised by audiences. They will also represent the film, they will be in a costume that also represents the film rather than casual wear. The actor and costume is an audience expectation as this is convention signifies what genre the film is.

• Three main colours. I have noticed that all magazine covers stick to three conventional colours. The colours used on the front cover depend on genre of the film because the colours reflect it. For example a magazine cover featuring a horror film would use dark colours because darkness is a convention of horror. The colour red might also be used because this represents danger and blood. White also represents the horror genre because it reflects the unknown and the mystery.

• Other conventions included are, barcode, price, magazine website, date and issue number. All of these are expectations of the audience and help make the magazine reflect the industry because they are expected.