Ancillary Task: Producing the Magazine Cover

Our ancillary tasks are meant to match our main task- the trailer. This is a convention of film distribution, all the elements of marketing match so as to give the audience a distinct idea as to what the film is about and why they should go and see it. 

Making a magazine name for our Magazine Cover:

 

We had brainstormed ideas for names of our magazine as we felt it was important to get it right so it would sound professional and like a real magazine- to match our professional Hollywood style.

 -Elite Magazine: This name sounded too arrogant for a magazine, although it was an attempt to emanate Empire Magazine in the style, it also sounded far too much like a fashion magazine.

-Debut Magazine: We agreed that it sounded too much like a music orientated magazine, or a magazine aimed at giving their audience the upcoming films. As a Hollywood company we would want an established base to work from.

-Sense Magazine: "Sense" could apply to any kind of media or topic, the name was too vague.

-inSync Magazine: The use of the "sync" links more with a technology magazine rather than a film magazine.

-View: Again, this was too vague.

-Scene: Although, the name is specific to TV, Theatre or Film, it was also too vague sounding and did not have the catch that a magazine name needs.

-Picture-House Magazine: Although it is long-winded we loved the name as it was specific and sounded like it would be an interesting magazine, but another group had announced they had planned on using that name for their magazine, so it was back to the drawing board.

-Flix: This related to cinema but the name did not sound professional enough, probably due to the colloquial nature of the word, other countries would be unaware of the meaning. This would go against the conventions of an international and conglomerate owned magazine.

-inShot: The name had neither the right sound for our magazine but again it could be more related to photography than film.

-Reel Magazine: We did not like the name as it was a pun and did not sound very professional.

-Red: This name was too vague (it was meant to relate to the red carpet at film premieres).

-Silver Screen: We really liked this name, but another production team was planning on using it.

-The Premiere: We found this name was very relevant to the film magazine. But, that is the name of an existing magazine, we wanted to be original so we kept thinking of suitable names.

-Box-Office Magazine: Now this name fitted really well with the idea of Hollywood institutions making money from the Box-Office in the cinema. This meant it was a great name for our magazine and it also had a good ring to it that made it memorable. We decided our magazine would be called Box-Office Magazine.

We drew out this initial draft so we could try and make the main image so it would fit into a similar cover-structure. We chose a random magazine name we had made because we had not yet decided which name we were going to use. But, we knew we wanted to incorporate our AS work- Parallel- into the cover.

The main-image

We decided to take a group photo of the main four characters: Michael and Eve (the "good") with Haden and Selene (the "bad"). Now it is not conventional to have characters in profile on magazine covers, as that conflicts with the idea of direct address. Also, we did not want a repetition of the teaser posters we had designed. Originally, we planned to have the main image taken outside at a play park so the empty swings would carry the semiotic meaning that they are now the adults. We liked the idea of this and so we took several images at the play park. However, we also took photos of the park itself and then took the group image inside as well. This was an experiment to see if we could Adobe Photoshop the characters onto the backdrop of the park. This was mainly due to the fact that we had been mostly squinting in the outdoor photos due to the wind. Below is the video of us using Photoshop to cut out the characters ready to be pasted onto the image of the park.

 However, even though the cutting out of the characters and pasting onto the different backdrop was successful, it looked false. This is probably due to the differencing in lighting, but even after experimenting with altering brightness, contrast and exposure.



So we decided to use the real image because it was a lot more professional and realistic. We increased the contrast in the main image and decreased the brightness and added a cool temperature filter to the photo. We had made a list of film magazine names since earlier on in the year, that we could possibly give our magazine. This was so we weren't left deciding last minute, here is the list of names and the reasons why we did not use the names. 

Producing the Magazine-cover

We began adding in the anchorage text, masthead and made spaces for the inset-images. But, we soon realised the our image did not fit the magazine because of the cantered-low angle and also because although we were in focus and properly exposed, the backdrop was very over-exposed and selective-adjust could not fully rectify this. We were happy with the magazine layout and the masthead logo. We knew that if used a different image we would have to alter our existing colour scheme. But, we decided that it would be better to try an indoor photo for the main image of the magazine as this was more conventional and also it meant that lighting could be more controlled.

 

 We had the idea of using the corridor which was used in the trailer. This would link more directly to the trailer and the lighting would be easier to control and change. After we had taken the photo, we darkened it as a whole, adding a cooling filter as well and then selectively adjusted each face so that they were visible despite the decrease in brightness. We also knew that we wanted the main-image to be tightly framed like the magazines that had influenced us (particularly the X-Men: First Class cover). We had positioned ourselves so that Michael was at the front and Eve was directly behind him and holding onto him, thus showing their connection. Haden was a little further back then Eve on the other side of Michael, because he and Selene are further back their height is slightly more equal to the two "good" group leaders. Although Selene is giving direct address her head is leaning to the ear of Haden, suggesting their connection and the fact that she serves as an advisor to Haden. Then, we added a slight blur towards the very top and bottom of the photo so that it would focus the attention more on the faces and text on the magazine cover.

To see if the new image would look good on the magazine, we decided to insert the new main-image in our existing magazine template that we had made. We liked the way this image look as opposed to the outdoor image and so we set about editing the main image to match the genre of our film and we also thought about how we could change our colour-scheme to match the new image.

 In order to alter the image and make it fit into the genre more, we used the application Google Snapseed to add a cooling effect and darken the image. We also blurred the very top and bottom of the photo so the focus of the eye is brought to the faces and torsos of the characters. But, by making the image darker, it meant the faces were less visible. We overcame this by using the selective adjust feature. By selecting the area (the face) we could increase the brightness and increase the contrast slightly so the faces became more visible. It also meant we could make the edges a little bit darker, to make the masthead more eye-catching.

 We used the existing layout from the previous magazine cover we had been producing. But, we changed the mast-head colouring to white and orange, swapping the blue to the colour scheme instead. The Orange added a feeling of warmth to the cover and orange is a contrasting colour to blue, so it grabs the audience's attention. We noticed it is a convention of magazines to use contrasting colours in this way.

We then decided to try out a duller colour scheme to match the poster and a more solid kind of Puff as well. But, we thought the grey did not add anything and was not bold enough. Although we liked the idea of the more sticker-like puff.

We then changed to a green-blue colour scheme with buts of orange that both contrasted with the blue but also extended the warmth of the masthead. We then added an image of the Mockinjay poster, as magazines tended to show what was inside. We had the idea to add our AS Thriller opening "Parallel" as one of the films featured inside the magazine. We also used the cut-out tool and layering to make Haden's head come in front of Masthead, we were influenced by the magazines Total Film and Empire Magazine to do this and it made our cover look more three-dimensional and as a result it looks more professional.

We then altered the "Free" text in the skyline in order to make it less obtrusive. Issue number, price, date and barcode were then added as information for the buyers of the magazine .We then filled out the rest of the inset images using real films due out this year and other film news such as the OSCARs. We stacked the sell-lines to the left using a themed look so they tied in together, but were clearly separate due to the subtle differences in font. We then used the Total Film Hunger Games cover as an influence to add a tricolon relating to the film on the right side. Using the colour red to tie into the puff. The puff now has an outer ring which makes it stand out more than before and we made it red as well, this was to also stand out. We used a quote from the article as a anchorage text/sell-line as well as a mention of the film being a blockbuster- linking to our Hollywood-style film. We then added in some little details such as the little OSCAR award which we had to cut-out in editing (using Serif DrawPlus), and we included the plus sign as part of the strapline, as we had noticed a number of magazines doing this, to draw attention to the strapline and the text within it.