. EMPIRE/ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE COVERS I LIKE

These magazine covers are a few of those featured by ‘Empire’ magazine that I was automatically drawn to due to their use of the horror conventions e.g masks/concealed identities. I chose these magazines, as the characters on the front all play villain’s, Carrie however is an exceptions because she is sometimes labelled as an ‘Anti-hero’. The magazine cover I liked the most was the, Joker edition of ‘Empire magazine’ because it’s the only magazine that uses a long shot, and this shot allows us to see the Joker’s full costume which is extremely interesting. The use of green and purples on the magazine itself correlate closely to his outfits, and the use of these secondary colours attract the audience to not only the character himself but also the actors intentions as normally the colour black is correlated with ‘evil’. The title on this magazine cover is most effective in my opinion because of the superimposition of The Joker over the dulled red ‘Empire’ masthead. The Joker is an extremely important character to the ‘Batman’ franchise, therefore the use of superimposition may be a testament to his effect on the audience.

The most common colours on these magazines are red and white. Red has a range of negative connotations e,g danger, and is the colour of blood. The colour red is closely linked with the horror genre, with blood being a convention also and iconography used in horror films. The Joker edition of Empire magazine lists other films on the cover line, which is a convention horror magazines and an aspect I would like to include also. Elements of horror being included on a cover demonstrate the genre, and allows the audience to also identify the genre.

It is important that he magazine conforms to the main conventions of the genre, this will allow my audience to identify the film as a Horror.

Another favourite cover of mine, is the Carrie edition of Empire magazine. This edition is extremely simple visually, the use of blood on Carrie supports the argument that she is an ‘Anti-hero’ because the negative connotations the colour red has. Red connotes both death and evil, this allows the audience know the character on the front of the cover is evil, and potentially a murderer - an aspect that I would like to include on my own magazine.The use of blood on this character is something I hope to include on the actual character on the front of our magazine. The image however has to link closely to the trailer narrative, and I aim to do this through the use of iconography.

As you can see, the majority of these magazine covers include a range of well known villains, the majority being male characters with concealed identities - this being a convention of the genre tells us the characters on the front page, are in a film with horror-like qualities or they play a character in a horror film. Stereotypically, villains of the horror genre are males however in comparison Carrie is obviously a female and contrasts the ideal of a stereotypical villain. A lot like Carrie, our villain is also female, and covered in blood and scarring. Along with enjoying the film Carrie, I also liked the presentation of her edition of the Empire magazine because it was very simple.