Magazine Cover Analysis - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The main eye-opening feature in this
magazine cover by Empire is the medium shot of Bilbo Baggins as the main
subject, and Gollum in the background. The magazine has been edited such that
Bilbo Baggins sits in front of the magazine title. Cropping the main subject in
front of the title is a common theme in movie magazines, and creates a 3D
feeling, allowing it to be more easily recognised by an audience. We have the a
golden ‘Empire’ logo that lays behind Baggins, and above the magazine title
says ‘Precious Exclusive! When Gollum met Bilbo!’. Fans of the previous Lord of
the Rings Trilogies will know this reference of ‘Precious’ to the character of
Gollum. This suggests that this magazine is more directed to Lord of the Rings
and Hobbit fans due the text shown, images and references to previous films. Above
the ‘M’ in the title, we can see the website link, issue date and price of the
cover in a very small font.
The medium shot depicts Bilbo
holding a sword while his facial expression suggests he’s fearing from
something. The frightening stare of Gollum towards Bilbo suggests Gollum is the
evil in this shot, and Bilbo is scared and venerable. The sword is a genre
indicator for an action film, and the character of Gollum is indicating a
sci-fi because of this monster-like features. The environment they’re in seems
like a dark cave which suggests an adventure, and with the use of low-key
lighting, this suggests Bilbo is vulnerable in this shot.
Above the title of the film is a
golden badge with ‘The Dark Knight Rises The Verdict!’ cut out into it. The
gold and badge shaped suggests this is exclusive, and therefore the audience
must purchase the magazine to read more about it. On the middle left of the
page we have the barcode and the ‘PLUS’ list which is a commonly reoccurring element
in a magazine cover. These usually list special content that may interest the
target audience who are less keen for The Hobbit content. This allows the
magazine to reach out to a larger target audience because it contains other
content that will appeal to other people.
At the bottom of the page we have
the title of the film in a golden serif font, and a smaller white font underneath.
‘The Hobbit’ is one of the biggest, noticeable, texts on the cover. Under the titles,
says ‘The finest middle-earth coverage continues inside. . .’ in a thick gold and
white font. This is used to attract a target audience that are fans of the
film, as they want know as much as possible about the film. The ellipsis are
almost used to subconsciously make the reader want to turn over the page to
read on. After an ellipsis, we expect more content but this is the last thing
the reader will see as it’s in the bottom right of the page, and therefore they
want to read on.
Share story
0 comments: