Magazine Front Cover Analysis

This is the Empire magazine cover for the 6th Harry Potter film.

The title is bright red, attracting the onlooker onto the magazine. The text type is quite distinctive, making it stand out against other magazine.

The image shows the main character from the film, Harry Potter, it is effective because it shows that the film is about him, and makes the magazine more attractive because people will recognise the character. The quality of the image is very good, in the way that the light is hitting his face, and that there is blood on his face, this insinuates something bad goes on in the film, making it look more exciting. The background is simple, focusing it all on him, there is some smoke coming across in the background, could mean that there is something spooky happening.

On the other parts of the cover there is other films being advertised, the names of these films are to the left of the cover and are in smaller writing so the main focus is on Harry Potter. Above these names is a feature of the magazine, this is the 'massive preview special' in bigger font than the rest, showing the reader that it is a special edition of the magazine, this could make them want to read it more.

This is the cover of Total Film magazine for the Star Trek film. It is very simple, with just a black and white image of the main character from Star Trek. The whole cover is in black, white and red, very simple but also very effective. The text is quite similar to Empire magazine title, because the 'M' looks the same. However, the lettering is in white, this makes it stand out but not as much as the red of the other words on the cover.

The image itself is of the actor from Star Trek, it is a very strong close up head shot. His facial expression seems almost mischievous, as if he is up to something, with a slight smirk on his face.

The rest of the cover features other movies at the top band, they are in red and this makes the attraction draw away from Star Trek but onto these other films. There seems to be a prize or competition this may lure the reader into reading the magazine and being more interested in it. The other text on the page is smaller and in white font, this makes it quite hard to read.

The whole cover flows very well together because all the colours go with each other.

This cover is of Entertainment Weekly for the film Sweeney Todd.

The title is in a bold blue font, along with part of the title of another part of the cover.

The image is of Johnny Depp who is the main character of the film, this makes the whole cover about him, as there are no other movies mentioned on the cover. His facial expression is very angry and serious, showing that the film is not going to a fun comedy, but something very much more dark and sinister.

His name is in a bold white font. Some words are in red italic font, this makes it different to the other text, breaking the cover up a bit.

The whole cover is very plain and simple, with not much text on it at all, making it more minimalistic compared to other magazines.