Desconstruction of Magazine Front Covers

To get a better understanding of how to structure my own magazine front cover for my horror film, I will be taking a look at existing magazine front covers. In the one above, the magazine features what appears to be the antagonist of the horror film advertised. Interestingly, only half of the subject's face is visible. This instantly gives the impression of mystery and uncertainty towards both the character and the film.

As well as this, a key convention of listing other films included within the magazine is present. This will obviously be a key convention that I will carry out in my own magazine front cover.

One of the major things which I have picked up on from this cover is the way in which it contrasts the coverage between the main film (the one pictured) and other minor ones within the magazine. This is done by providing information about the film in the form of either a very short synopsis or a quote etc. as well as items such as "Catering for cannibals" and even behind the scenes information. The other films inside the magazine are present, but in a far more minor and less protruding location/size in the bottom-right hand corner of the magazine cover. 

In this example, the same concepts can be taken from above and applied here, with one film being predominantly the focus of the cover. In this example, however, it is obvious what the film's name is, advertising it as 'Hellboy 2' very clearly underneath the image. This is a convention that I would like to carry forward to my magazine front cover.

On a minor aesthetic note, I like how the position of the barcode has been switched from a traditional horizontal layout to a vertical one up the side of the page. This obviously allows for the text at the bottom of the cover to become more centred and not be restrained by the positioning of the barcode. If ever in the development of my magazine front cover I decide that I would like more space near the bottom of my poster, I will attempt to move the barcode into a position similar to this one to make more room, or perhaps purely for aesthetic reasons rather than purely practical reasons.

Finally, this cover also conveys the subject of the horror film in the exact same way the above one did, facing the camera. While the first differed slightly by having the subject face away from the camera, as well as only showing half of the subject's face, all three have the common similarity of actually showing the subject in a very prominent manner, making them the focus of the cover. This cover, however, appears to be more of a physical horror rather than a psychological horror, hence the reason lighting doesn't appear to be as big of a factor in this cover. Despite this however, the cover is generally dark and therefore still conforms to the convention of a horror film poster.