Magazine Cover - Process - First Draft

Our next stage was to create the magazine front cover; I have had some experience doing this before because I had to make one for my GCSE media coursework. In order for us to follow the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover, we all analysed examples of a front cover, this helped us when it came to deciding what to include on our front cover. As a group we worked well together to create our first draft, we all made creative decisions in order to make the most effective front cover. The software we chose to make this on was Serif DrawPlus X6 because I am very familiar with it and feel confident using it.

We took several pictures to use for the poster and the magazine front cover, ultimately we decided to use the picture below. We liked how the main actress, Leanne, was looking directly at the camera because it will make it feel more personal for the reader. The direct eye contact will also attract the target audience to buy the magazine.

When it came to making the magazine we wanted the masthead, the magazine name, to go behind the main image because this is a convention of most magazines. It shows that the actress is more famous than the magazine, encouraging the target audience to buy the magazine. We tried two different methods in order to get the desired effect. The first method was to cut Leanne out of the picture, put the magazine name on the main image and then place Leanne back to where she was cut out. We found that trying to get the two pictures to match up again was probing to be difficult so we tried another method. Our second method was to again cut Leanne out of the picture but instead we placed the cut out of Leanne on top of Leanne on the original image. This allowed for the magazine title to be behind Leanne but also the main image did not look distorted because everything matched up.

To get the image of Leanne’s body on its own we used a tool called ‘cut out tool’.  See the yellow box for a brief explanation.

In this image you can see a breakdown of what it looks like when the cut out tool is opened.  We have annotated the three main sections used and explained briefly how they were used and what they were used for.

From this you can see that it was a rather tricky and fiddly process.  However, as we had some previous knowledge of the programme it was easy to navigate around so our product looked detailed.  This was reasonably time consuming but still less than we previously anticipated.

Our next step was to add the other conventions of a magazine front cover. We have already done some researching and planning into the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover. We added things like anchorage text, the title of our film (which would be the feature in the magazine), we added other names of films and actors relevant at this time of year, cover lines, straplines etc.  Here is an image (below) of what the text and other conventions we wanted to put on our magazine looked like before we put the two images together.  We carefully planned out where we wanted it to go on the page.

In this image you can see what our first draft looked like once we had pieced it all together.

This is just our first draft so we expect that changes will have to be made. We will give out a questionnaire to members of our target audience to see what they think about our magazine front cover and from there we will make our amendments.

For our feature article cover line we chose a quote from an interview which we would include inside the magazine.  This quote is from Leanne; she is also featured on the front of the magazine and also is the protagonist in our trailer. This will grab the audience’s attention so that they will want to read more about it and therefore buy the magazine. We aimed to use one enigma code in the quote so that the audiences are more compelled to read it.  By doing this we aim to spark interest in the reader so that they also want to watch the film.  

For our magazine front cover we wanted to use the same colour scheme throughout.  We wanted it to be exciting and eye-catching but also not too ‘busy’ in case it drives readers away.  We chose to use yellow, black and white.

We used a sticker image on the left side to promote free posters, we did this to encourage our target audience to buy the magazine. It is a selling technique but it will also catch the eye of our target audience because it is saying the magazine contains free stuff.

We wanted to have a variety of fonts to keep the target audience interested in the cover but still wanted it to look professional. We kept the fonts spaced out so that it would not be confusing. However, we used the same font for the same topics, for example, anything to do with "Guilty Suspects" was in the same font. This was done to keep a sense of continuity within the magazine. 

The main image on our front cover is of the main protagonist in our trailer. We decided to do this so that the target audience will know what the main article will be about. The main image indicates that the main article will be about "Guilty Suspects" and particularly about the main actress, Leanne.

At the top of the magazine we have used a strapline that includes aspects from other articles in the magazine. This is a convention of magazines because if people are not interested in our main image or main article then they might find something they like in the strapline. It also allows people who may not know about "Guilty Suspects" so it is bringing in a secondary audience.

We hope to receive feedback from our target audience on how to improve our first draft.