Magazine Cover 2 Production Process

(LO4) Olivia Lewis-Brown

Magazine Production. Picture Editing- Mise en scene and lighting

For my first step I began with creating a portrait layer for my main image and then added a black and white background of a city landscape to convey the genre of my magazines featured film included in this months issue which is also the movie my main cover star Harry will feature in. As my featured film of this months issue is a period action/ crime thriller Called Gun Smoke I have designed the magazine cover to conform to film genre conventions of a crime thriller and edited lighting to make the overall image black and white to again reference to the time period the film is set in and re establish the classic film era codes and conventions. I then added gun shots cracking glass to signify the featured films action connotations linking to the films name Gun Smoke and create a rugged look, this design feature inspired by such cover photos as Empires James Bond Skyfall issue. As my film is called Gun Smoke i have created a smoky effect with my main images opatency, fading the stars form to give him a smoky ghostly look as though disappearing into the background conveying the stealthy personality my stars portrayed as the character. I have made sure the stars costume is black and white in pre production to fit with my magazine genre. I have then added a film reel at the bottom to contain images of other featured cover lines within my magazine to be added later.

Step 2Adding key shapes and a bold Title

I continued to add key shapes and banners to my cover image as well as a masthead and skyline which relates to important events in the film world ( The Oscars) in an iconic graphic font adding an extra element of interest to the advertisement of my magazines publication. I used the opatency tool to fade my main banner/ shape cutting across the middle so the image beneath is still clearly visible taking no attention away from the main image cover star as he is the focal point of my magazine. I proceeded to use the magic wand tool to erase the white boxes inside my film reel to make room for other images relating to my sell lines and added a splash/puff outlined in gold to signify importance as used with the gold skyline, gold connoting glamour and wealth as well as importance.

Step 3Adding Text/ Sell Lines

Sell lines and a sub heading were added including a bar code and and visual effects such as the bullet through the sub heading to connote action, the bar code added to keep with the traditional layout of a magazine cover and include a price element for publishing needs. The fonts included kept with the overall genre conventions and classic film era text taken from the online website DaFont.com, the text was then screenshotted from the original homepage, cropped and then the magic wand tool was used to erase any remaining white background behind the text. I have repeated this technique for the rest of my main sub text and for smaller sell lines have kept the white background behind the text and used the paint pot tool to change the background colour to make any remaining text stand out no matter how small so all sell lines are given equal importance on the page. Any remaining imperfections such as incomplete cropped text boxes or copy and pasted images edited with the magic wand tool are corrected with the eraser tool.

Completed Cover

Final cover- with pictures for sell-lines and bar codeFor my final touches to my completed cover I have added key images to draw the attention of my target audience such as through the previews for different films and ads on my puff for included merchandise inside when buyers purchase my magazine, adding an extra element of interest for my consumers as they feel as though they will be receiving ‘more for their money.’. For other sell lines such as for my bottom right ‘Previews’ Heading allows audiences to see a wide variety of genres featured which appeals to all personal preferences instead of only the genre featured through my main cover image. Bullet pointed stars have been added to signify importance and iconic symbols such as the Oscar ties in with the featured Oscar gold edition news. I have also taken away any other primary images which were not mine and replaced them with more cover lines and anchorage texts.