Film Magazine Case Study + Analysis

EMPIRE MAGAZINE

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly

by Bauer Consumer Media.It is the biggest selling film magazine in the United Kingdom and is also published in the United States, Australia, Turkey, Russia, and Portugal. It reviews both mainstream films and art film, but feature articles which concentrate on the former.

• They have a Readership 735,000 (Jul-Dec '13)
• Circulation 147, 980 (Jan- Jun ‘14)

The Empire reader is predominately men at 77% where women readers are at 23%.The dominating age range of readers are 15-24 year olds at 34.8%.

Within the front cover of this magazine one of the sell lines states " Heroes of 2010" in juxtaposition to the main headline " Public enemies",  there is a clear contrast within this front cover of evil vs good. This can future be seen through the contrasting colour schemes as the headline is in grey connoting pureness (morally) as well as dullness possibly towards the "Public enemy , where as for " heroes of 2010" its in the colour red connoting danger as well as bravery. The main image is a mid-long shot of Johnny Depp in all black from his long oversized coat , fedora, tie and gun the colour black connotes a feeling of death , evil and mystery but also contrast extremely well against the background which is blurred out causing all are attention to be focused on johnny. More over johnny character represents the public enemy as he is holding a gun which is a symbol of violence , death and destruction  , whilst facing away from looking at the audience along with a pensive look on his face which projects a sense of disconnection with the audience. 

Entertainment Weekly

The front over of entertainment weekly has an extremely conventional layout where the name of the magazine is placed above 

Audience Interview Research - Gangster Crime Film

Gangster Crime Mood Board

The Bonsai Tree - Celina, Jasmine, James and Chandler from celinalaureta

Film Website Analysis - The Maze Runner

  As soon as you enter the film website for The Maze Runner your presented with partnered sponsorships such as 'Yahoo Movies' and 'Fandango' advertisement for ticket buyers, and once you've ex'd that it takes you straight into the trailer allowing customers who know of the movie or don't a  chance to see what the movie is about. And if the customers have still yet not been informed well of what happens in the movie they have tabs above the page such as , 'About' giving us a brief synopsis as well as character list , 'Videos' which features the second trailer , 'Gallery and Characters' which are a series of cadet shots from the movie along with separate profiles of the characters.But I my favourite part of this website is the tab labeled 'WCKD' which intertextualities with the main body of this film, where a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D look out onto these characters within their habitats in which they trapped them in and keep a close eye on their activity through a bird eye view camera visualised as spy lenses (as seen in the movie). Which is exactly how that page has been set up to visually represent,allowing the the customer to feel as if they are a member of 'WCKD'. Allowing them the ability to locate the characters through that birds eye view as well as sneak a preview of some  characters files and personal information. 

 Within the top right hand corner of the page it allows us to select the country the customer is from allowing it to be advertised to a world wide audience as well as promoting the social media platforms that they use such as twitter , Facebook and instagram allowing future social media promotion for the movie. 

Repertoire of elements + Christian Metz's genre theory

A repertoire of elements are the key features that are repeated throughout a certain genre. Each genre has its own specific repertoire of elements, which help to distinguish it from other genres. They all come under these categories:

Iconography : Different genres of films contain different visual as well as audio images  that become iconic and recognisable with the genre. For instance Icons for the Western genre of films includes ten gallon hats, spurs, horses, saloons, guns, jails, and the badge of the sheriff.
Style : Refers to the way in which the items in iconography are presented, such as camera angles, editing lighting as well as the use of colour.
Settings: Genres has a distinct location as well as time period. ( e.g horror - dark places such as isolated houses and forests )  
Narrative : this refers to the story structure as well as specific narrative devices, which genre employ. Narrative theories explain the underlying structure, which inform the way audiences make meaning from narratives. 
Characters : Narrative is usually developed through characters and their functions. Some characters are so closely associated with genre that they become generic types. ( e.g horror - demons, monsters, killers and creepy children )

Christian Metz's genre theory

Christian Metz was born in 1931 and died 1993. He was a French Film Theorist who is renowned for his genre characteristics theory. During the 1970's his work had a great impact of film theory in France, Britain and the United States. Metz’s claims there are reoccurring expectations where there are 4 development stages that can be applied to a genre :

• Classical-structuring on narrative, mainly victorious/define era.  (e.g  Dracula - 1931 ) 
• Experimental-This is where the genre is established and experiments which different sceneries and scenarios. ( e.g scream )
• Parody- Conventions have been reformed where thriller scenes and movies incorporated comedic effects watering down expectations of the film. ( scary movie 4 )
• Deconstruction- Where other genres elements and sub genre's are introduced. The thriller genre has now evolved into a stage where hybrids are evident. The thriller has now fused with several other genre creating sub-categories the most established being sci-fi/thriller or horror/thriller hybrids. ( e.g - The sixth sense )

Analysis of film Trailer - The Equalizer

 Within the beginning of the trailer we are instantly told that it is set in America signified by the establishing shot of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge during the evening creating a very chilled city vibe. It then transitions into a close up shot of a book called " The old man and the sea" which we soon find out plays part of an extended metaphor in which Denzel Washington uses to tell his 'past ' story through out this whole trailer through voice overs.But another important part of the beginning of the trailer is that within the shot Denzel we are introduced to a stereotype of a prostitute who is a teenage girl dressed in a  skimpy tight short dress and black fringed wig all this black connotes sexiness as well a mysteriousness.This is important as Denzel decides to tell her about his past and seems to want to hide it from someone else, we soon find out she plays an important part of the movie. This story about his past is a bit of a mystery ,which is the selling point of the movie as the audience is left with the question of who he was in his past and why he has tried to change from being that person,was he a former FBI ? ex-cop ? criminal? possibly an undercover agent ?.The question of his past identity is further cryptic throughout the whole trailer not once was his characters name mentioned at all, again leaving us with a missing puzzle piece of his identity.

It starts of at a fairly steady pace and stays steady through the begging where we see his character works at a home de-po established by all the crater carts, stoking shelves as well as uniform which states 'home mart', there fore the audience is left with am impression of a normal everyday working guy. Until we see a crime take place within his workforce where him and one of his employs are robbed from at the till, the robber takes this women's ring which sis extremely important to her as she stresses to the robber its her grandmothers ring. After this we see multiple close up shots of Denzels pensive facial expression which we see multiple times through out and each time within the next scene of this there is actions scenes taking place. More over throughout the trailer there are multiple close up shots of weapons and as well as exaggerate diagetic sounds of gun shots or guns being reload infers as if Denzel has this special sense of being able to have an instinct that magnify his awareness of these things but also the pace starts to pick up. 

It is clear that the target audience is aimed at adults as well as young adults as its got a lot of violence and acting establishing its genres are action and thriller. More over mainly for adults who are fans of Denzel Washington, a well known prestigious american actor who will appeal to a older crowd due to his iconic action packed characters in previous movies, which is why his name is the only on that appears in the inter-titles.The music really starts to pick up from the middle fighting scene where they start to play a song sang by Eminem and Sia, were nearing to the end one of the ending lyrics are " its too late to start over ", these words are forced upon Denzels current situation.