This cover of ‘Empire’ magazine is promoting The Dark Knight, the sequel for Batman Begins. I have chosen to analyse
this front cover as, although The Dark Knight isn’t a horror, it has extremely
scary elements within it, and I found the character of The Joker (pictured on
the cover) extremely frightening.
The image on the
front cover is of the film’s antagonist, The Joker, sitting down in front of
what appears to be a prison cell. The image relates to the main sell-line,
which is “meet The Joker...ONE-ON-ONE WITH BATMAN’S NEW NEMESIS!” as it
introduces the character in the main image to the audience who may not know him
already – therefore it provides anchorage. The main image presented on the
cover is quite complex and has many different elements to it, which could be
representative of the fact that The Joker is an extremely complex character too.
The image suggests that the character presented, The Joker, will be the root of
Batman’s problems within this film; this is due to mise-en-scene elements, such
as facial expression, make up and setting – all of these look really sinister.
His hair and body language are also significant factors within the image; his
hair looks dishevelled whilst the way his body looks very restricted, with his
arms placed on both of his knees in the same place, feet pointing inwards,
looks almost unnatural, and the way in which his head is slightly pointing
upwards towards the camera gives him a sinister edge. Therefore, all the
elements within this long shot could connote horror to the audience, although,
the Batman logo placed at the top of the page would signify that the film is an
action film – the logo ensures that the magazine attracts the correct audience
of Batman fans. The graffiti featured within the image (a pink line in the
background and a bright green cross near the lower right sell-lines) also
reinforce the idea that the character presented is a badly behaved. Although
there are many different film posters for The
Dark Knight, due to an extensive marketing campaign, the magazine front
cover still manages to link with every single one of the posters through the
use of colour, costume and make-up; the colours featured on both the film
posters and this magazine cover are very dark and gloomy (blacks, greys, navy
blues) but are contrasted by The Joker’s costume and make-up. In this poster,
the dark colours are contrasted with further through the bright use of colour
with the masthead (red) and sell-lines (bright green). The Joker is always
wearing an item of purple clothing within all of the posters; similarly, he is
wearing purple on this magazine front cover, whilst his face is always white,
with red smudged around his lips and cheeks, and black eyes. Therefore the
colour scheme of purple, green and red is always clearly associated with The
Joker on a promotional media text in order to maintain a symbiotic link between
the texts. The use of a long shot for the main image will scare the audience
further; although he is sat with his chest open to the audience, and so isn’t
trying to hide anything sinister from the audience (such as a weapon), the fact
he looks very open suggests that he’s very openly evil – he will not try and
hide the fact he’s a villain. It also makes him look much more authoritative,
as his whole body is being shown – it is important that the audience see all of
him. The lighting used within the main image also helps the audience to see The
Joker and his sinisterness clearly; it is shadowy in the background, with
clear, bright, artificial lighting used around the area where The Joker is sat.
This also signals his authoritativeness when it comes to who he is as a
character (an evil, ruthless killer) as well as the narrative (without him,
there would be no narrative – the antagonist plays such a significant role
within The Dark Knight).
The masthead of the
magazine is ‘Empire’ written in bright red and placed conventionally on the top
part of the cover. The word itself ‘Empire’ suggests that the film is an
established film magazine, as the word itself literally means “an extensive
group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch/an extensive sphere
of activity controlled by one person or group”. The audience is therefore more
likely to trust the information presented within the magazine, helping to
create a much more loyal readership, in order to maintain high circulation. The
font used for the masthead is a sans-serif, display font whilst the size is
large. The font and size combined ensures that the masthead catches the
audience’s eye, and therefore encourages them to buy the magazine. The colour
of the masthead is a bright red; this is conventional of ‘Empire’, as well as
other magazines in general – not only does it, again, make the magazine stand
out, but it also links in with the colour scheme of this particular issue. It
could also be argued that it encourages a loyal readership, as audiences like
familiarity and therefore it maintains brand identity, as they can instantly
recognise their favourite magazine if the masthead is red every month. The fact
the masthead is also quite plain helps to signify the fact it is a general film
magazine as opposed to a magazine which focuses on a specific genre (for
example, if it was a horror movie magazine it would be more likely to have a
creepy display font as opposed to a plain one). The information inside covers a
wide range of genres (subtly hinted by the title) and the masthead represents
this. This masthead would appeal to the audience as it is very understated and
sophisticated, reflecting the majority of the readership.
The sell-lines
featured on this front cover tend to feature subject matter based on big
–budget, blockbuster movies, such as “I AM LEGEND” and “SWEENEY TODD”, as well
as giving the audience a sense of exclusivity, such as “AND WORLD FIRST LOOKS
AT...THE MUMMY 3, 10000 BC AND WANTED!”.
The main sell-line (which follows conventions) is “meet The Joker...ONE-ON-ONE
WITH BATMAN’S NEW NEMESIS!” which again, features reference to a big-budget,
blockbuster film. Therefore the sell-lines reflect the interests of the target
readership, as they mainly talk about movies which have a big hype surrounding
them, or are directed by acclaimed directors. They also tend to feature action
movies and thrillers, as opposed to rom-coms or comedies, which could suggest
that the majority of readers are male. The sell-lines are used in order to lure
in audiences by using persuasive devices and mode-of-address such as
allitteration (“NEW NEMESIS!”) and the rule-of-three (“HE’S A COLD-BLOODED,
MASS-MURDERING CLOWN”). Allitteration is a device which makes words roll off
the tongue, and the rule-of-three is used to describe something in detail, yet
keep it short and readable. Therefore, both of these devices imply that
‘Empire’ is easy to read and doesn’t babble on, getting straight to the point,
so these will help to attract and encourage them to buy the magazine. However,
‘Empire’ has broken conventions by not using direct address at all within this
cover. The fonts are all very different in appearance, although the main
information when it comes to sell-lines on this cover is in a white, sans-serif
font, whilst “meet The Joker” is in a medium sized display font, and “HE’S A
COLD-BLOODED, MASS-MURDERING CLOWN” is in a scrawny looking script font. The
basic sans-serif font is used to show that it is important information that the
audience need to know, whilst the script and display font are used to look
aesthetically pleasing, adding to the scary feel of the front cover, and thus
attracting readers. The colours of the sell-lines also reflect this – the basic
white highlighting the sell-line showing it’s importance, whilst the purple and
green add to the colour scheme and relate to the character in the main image
(he is wearing both purple and green) and therefore make the cover look more
aesthetically pleasing. The colour scheme in general also echoes the signature
colours of the film featured on the front cover, and in this way follows
conventions.
The layout is very
conventional of a film magazine; it features a masthead placed at the top of
the page, with the main sell line placed in the middle of the left hand side of
the page, with other films listed on the bottom right hand side of the page,
and a puff placed in the middle right hand side. The text to image ratio is
equal, although the placement of the text on the page makes it look like there
is more text than there actually is. The layout helps to provide familiarity as
it is typical of a film magazine – the audience can recognise by the layout it
is a film magazine (i.e. the films listed on the bottom right hand side are a
significant clue, as on general magazines there doesn’t tend to be sell-lines
presented in a list format). The mise-en-scene elements within the image also
help to signify that The Joker will be the enemy within the film; the villain
in Propp’s character types. The bars behind him, which reminds the audience of
a prison-like setting, and thus subtly suggests he is a criminal; a fearful
character. As well as this, his positioning of his hands on his knees suggests
that he means business, and will succeed on his mission to cause chaos.
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