This issue of ‘Total Film’ promotes the movie Shutter Island, which is a psychological
thriller. This front cover follows general layout conventions; it has a main
image which fills and dominates the frame, as well as a colour scheme
consisting of three main colours. It also features a masthead placed at the top
of the frame, with a main sell-line placed on the middle-left-hand-side of the frame, along with a barcode placed at the bottom. Aswell as this, it features
sell-lines prominently placed along the left and right hand side of the frame.
The image placed on the front is a long shot of
Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor who plays the film’s main character or protagonist,
Teddy, whilst behind him there is a castle/lighthouse on a rocky setting, as
mist enfolds around him. This image relates to the main sell-line which is
‘SHUTTER ISLAND’ as it is Leonardo in the stock location of the movie; the main
sell-line and image put together makes this clear for the audience of the
magazine. The image suggests that the narrative of the film is somewhat
mysterious – the mist makes it unclear as to what is behind and around
Leonardo’s body, and is a reflection of the fact that, throughout the entire
film, there is a mystery that unfolds and that isn’t solved until the very end
when the loose ends of the narrative are tied up. The mist relates also to the
weather condition within the film; there is a storm that hits Shutter Island
and rages more viciously as the film continues. Leonardo’s facial expression
also adds to the mysteriousness of the image, as he looks deep in thought yet
somewhat sad or possible angry, which are the main emotions his character feels
throughout the whole film, therefore it subtly signals to the audience that the
genre is psychological thriller – rather than having a lot of weapons, gore,
masked killer or a final girl on the front cover, the image is of the main
protagonist; it doesn’t need to use iconography to scare the audience as they
are more intelligent. The facial expression worn by DiCaprio is also dark,
emphasised by the dark shadows that fall on his face and, particularly, his
eyes. This represents the dark subject matter of the film and the literal
darkness that falls on the island, whilst equally symbolising the dark mood
experienced by Teddy throughout the film. Other mise-en-scene elements, such as
costume, are also used to signal important details. In the image, Leonardo
wears a grey suit with a long jacket, in a style that looks dated and
old-fashioned, showing the audience the film is set in the past. This is
reinforced by the crew cut style – short at the sides and long on top – that
DiCaprio is sporting, which was popular during the 1940s and therefore suggests
the film is set in this era. The suit also looks makes him look very
professional and the jacket could be argued to be iconography seen in TV crime
dramas, the stock costume of police detectives. Therefore his costume shows
that he is trying to find something out, unravelling some kind of mystery. This
will intrigue the audience, as they will want to find out what the mystery is
and whether Teddy (DiCaprio) solves it. Interestingly enough, the tie worn by
DiCaprio is loosened at the top and the ends do not meet neatly as they should.
This is significant, as it indicates that DiCaprio’s character is stressed and
overwrought. The lack of neatness could indicate an inability to cope and keep
on top of the situation. A complex, unusual pattern can be spotted on the tie,
which could reflect the idea that the situation that DiCaprio is having to deal
with in the film is intricate and complex, which would, of course, explain
DiCaprio’s stress. The grey colour of the tie, and the suit, meanwhile, reflects
the dark mood of the film. The long shot of Leonardo adds to the
authoritativeness of his character, as it allows the audience to see his body
language, and gives the audience an impression of confidence. However, it isn’t
at a high angle, suggesting he isn’t that powerful after all (and therefore it
also subtly hints towards the twist in the film). It could also be argued that
fact the shot isn’t high angle tells the audience a lot about his character; it
suggests that he is honest and decent, if a little flawed. He is someone who is
on the audience’s level, and shouldn’t be feared nor pitied.
When you look at the main image on this magazine
front cover and that on the film poster, it is easily to recognise a clear
symbiotic link. A similar setting appears on both the front cover and the film
poster; we see the lighthouse and building, which is used as the stock location
in the film, along with the main outline of the island. Cloud and mist is
present in both images also. In the film poster, Leonardo’s facial expression
looks extremely troubled and curious, just as it does on the magazine front cover.
Similar colours, such as dark blues, greys and red are used in order to
maintain the symbiotic link across both media texts.
The actual name of the magazine, ‘Total Film’,
suggests that the magazine is an established movie magazine, which specializes
in many a range of different movies. As a publication it is obviously knowledgeable
and passionate about movies in general, and so the title of the magazine will
help to gain reader’s trust, as the magazine knows what it is talking about,
and suggest that the magazine shares the readership’s love of film, thus
helping to establish a bond between them. The word ‘total’ within the title
indicates that this magazine is exclusively about film and will not be side
tracked by any other subject matter, which will also appeal to the avid film
fan readership. There is something very colloquial-sounding about the word
‘total’, further adding to its attractiveness for its core target audience of
young males. Unusually, the word ‘total’ sits inside the word ‘film’, creating
a cool and trendy look and adding a unique touch. This also ensures that ‘film’
will be the word that is seen first, a powerful sales technique, considering
that the target audience is a film fan. The size of the masthead is large, the
largest in the frame, whilst the style of font used for the masthead is a
chunky display font, which ensures that the magazine title stands out to
attract the correct audience, and the largeness also represents that the
magazine is passionate about film; it is a big interest in both the audience’s
lives and for the magazine. The use of uppercase makes dominant and
eye-catching, but also makes it more engaging for a male target audience. The
white colour used for the masthead also helps to make it look bold compared to
the dark background, whilst also helping to maintain a brand identity – most
other issues of ‘Total Film’ feature a white masthead and therefore this
creates familiarity with the audience, encouraging higher circulation figures.
The masthead is also quite plain, which suits the fact it is a film magazine,
as generally they do not tend to have very extravagant mastheads because they
want to draw more attention onto the movie which is used for the cover in order
to attract the audience.
There are not very many sell-lines on the cover
of this issue of ‘Total Film’, which can happen with film magazines and could
be seen as a possible convention. However, the ones that do feature are
“GREATEST MOVIE ART EVER...TOP FILMMAKERS SHOW US THEIR SKETCHBOOKS”, “It’s [Avatar] got everything” and the main
sell-line - “Leo takes over the asylum...SHUTTER ISLAND...INSIDE MARTY’S
MADHOUSE”. In addition to this, more films are listed towards the bottom to
attract readers further. The sell-lines reflect the target audience’s passion
for film, as they are all based around both new movies and cinematic classics.
Since films are such a big interest of the readership, the films listed within
the sell-lines will attract them to the magazine, as they tend to list movies
which have been glorified within the media upon their release, for example, Avatar. The fact they mention “asylum”
and “Marty’s madhouse” in the Shutter
Island sell-line also offers clues to the audience about the narrative of
the film, without giving it away; they will be likely to read on as they will
want to know what role a mental hospital plays within the narrative of Shutter Island. Words like ‘asylum’ and
‘madhouse’ are intriguing in themselves and will interest an audience looking
to read something engaging and fascinating. The smaller text within the
sell-lines is a sans serif font, which allows the reader to see clearly what
the article that the sell-line promotes is about, allowing them to be enticed
into reading it. The larger pieces of text for the sell-lines (i.e. “GREATEST
MOVIE ART EVER” and “SHUTTER ISLAND”) are shown in a red, bold, block capital,
display font, which has an eroded effect upon it. This effect compliments the
fact that Shutter Island is a
psychological thriller (we wouldn’t see this effect if the magazine was
promoting a rom-com or a comedy) and because it is used on the ‘movie art’
sell-line too, it reminds us of the way in which the design of a film magazine
front cover as a whole will be influenced by the film being promoted – this is
a convention of this type of media. The sell-lines are in white and red; both
of these colours contrast highly with the dark, shadowy background. The red
colour could be seen to connote danger and/or blood, representing the way the
movie has a dark edge, and is able to grip the audience with its intensity. The
white could be argued to connote the fact that Leonardo’s character is, in fact,
an extremely mentally vulnerable character. However, its main purpose is to
ensure that the sell-lines stand out in order to entice the audience further.
The layout within this front cover is very
conventional, as the main sell-line is placed on the middle left hand side,
with more movies being listed at the bottom of the frame on the left hand side.
As well as this, sell-lines are placed on both sides of the frame, whilst the
masthead is placed at the top of the frame so that it is the first thing the
audience see. The text to image ratio not equal, as the text is minimal, with
the image covering most of the front cover, and only a few sell-lines in
comparison to other front covers. The layout of the cover is used for effect as
audiences like familiarity; they will be instantly attracted to this front
cover’s layout. It is also effective in enticing the readership as the cover
tends to focus mostly on the main image, as opposed to text based elements,
creating a sense of intrigue for the audience – they will want to know more
about the movie and are more likely, therefore, to purchase the magazine. As
males and as film fans, they will be more likely to respond most significantly
to visuals than text, so this will make the front cover more appealing. It is
important that an image has so much supremacy on a film magazine front cover,
as it is the element that will signal genre and narrative and reveal the
star(s) of the film; these things are so important in film promotion, so, with
this in mind, the image needs to be king. As the image is so dominant, the
audience is likely to be lured in by the main image, and then once they have
finished looking at Leonardo, they take in all of the other elements of the
cover (i.e. sell-lines, masthead, dateline etc). This gives the magazine two
chances to attract the audience; if they are not enticed by the image alone,
then they will look at the sell-lines and hopefully want to purchase the
magazine. In this way, the layout of the cover helps to encourage sales of
‘Total Film’ magazine.
