Film magazine analysis - Entertainment weekly

I have decided to analysis front covers of film magazines so I get a good idea of how one is created before I create my own. I decided to analysis the film magazine ‘Entertainment weekly’ as it has a wider target audience, relating to most ages. The title again on this front cover sticks to common conventions taking 1/8 of the page. The title is very bold and is a sky blue colour, which more stereotypically seen as a boy colour. The ‘weekly’ word in the title is again hard to see like the ‘total film’ magazine. There is also a date at the top of the page telling the audience when the magazine was issued. However nomally the masthead would have its own seperate colour however here it doesn't there is also the number 39 in the sky blue. The masthead is the biggest piece of text but not by much as holiday movie preview is almost the same size and is quiet close to the masthead, this could confuse the audience.

The image on the front cover is a close up of the star vehicle in the film he is in. The image is very well light helping the audience to be able to recognise the actor. The image has the characters actual name underneath thus helping the audience even more. It would also help them if some of the audience didn’t know who he was. The key characters in a film are usually white, male, straight, middle class which was said by Medhurst this links to this film magazine front cover. The character in the image looks angry which could tell the audience more about the film they are advertising. However the magazine is missing the common convention of the bar code, it may be on the back but is usually found on the front. Although this magazine could be free thus meaning it doesn't need a bar code.

Some of the text is in bold lettering which is the key information. This makes the key information stick out to the audience without having to focus to read it in small writing. The text is laid out around the image to make it not to complex and so we can still see the star vehicle. The text is mostly laid out around the side and underneath in common conventions; this is exactly what ‘entertainment weekly’ have done. There is also text under the stars name which is compact together however tells the audience what else is inside the magazine thus making the audience have to pick it up to read it. However I don't like this feature as it is very small and compact which makes it hard for the audience to read it without picking it up. The other two magazine I have looked at have had much of the text around the outside of the magazine and image, this one however seems to have more down the bottom. Magazines main purposes are to entertain which is links to the theory of uses and gradification. The entertainment weekly sticks to common conventions well apart from the bar code.