Spotlight Textual Analysis

As we have completed our final copy of our magazine, we decided we would each analyse it as we did with the magazines in our research. We named our magazine ‘Spotlight’ due to the fact in has a direct correlation with the film industry. The word spotlight has connotations of limelight, highlighting and drawing attention to, therefore portrays the message we intend to .The genre of this particular issue of spotlight is horror/thriller because it is advertising our film ‘Nowhere to run’. The issue is themed around that genre with it being named a ‘thrill issue’ as we placed a triangle in the top corner to depict this. The colour scheme of the issue is kept constant it has three prominent colours red ,blue and black ,the colour white is briefly used. These colours are eye catching and represent the ideology of a dynamic film magazine, and these colours can be kept constant between genres to create a premise between issues. This was a technique I noticed in my research, it makes the magazine instantly relatable for the target audience. The Masthead is another item that must be immediately recognised. We create ours in Adobe Fireworks .It has a blue and black colour scheme therefore keeping it in sync with the issue. The masthead has an effect of a spotlight shining down on it, this relates to the name and in turn the issue, the title is larger than the rest of the text to make it immediately noticeable.

Under our title/masthead there is the tagline ‘the beginning, middle and end in movies’ this attracts the reader because it gives the effect that the magazine includes everything you need to no about films ,it also loosely relates to Todarovs Narrative structure of films. Beside the tagline there is some information you find on all magazines regardless of type. The price, date, issue number and website are all shown this indicates the magazine is professional and follows the codes and conventions of all other magazines. As I have mentioned at the top near the masthead in the corner there is a caption that says ‘Thrill Special’ this reveals the genre, this particular issue is specifying in, there are some examples along the top of new films to make the issue current and fresh, these films relate to the genre and our film. The main image is a medium close up of the main character of our film ‘Nowhere to Run’. The lighting of the image adds to the ideology of our film and the magazine because there is a shadowed effect on the face adding to the mystery, we knew the central image was important to draw the audience in, and from my research I gathered they were generally the same shot type as ours to allow the audience to connect with the eyes .

The main cover story ‘Escape is futile’ is eye catching because it is in a white font on a black background therefore it stands out ,instead of just doing a block background we decided to do a different shaped one to add a different dynamic to the magazine. It represents our film well because it links in with the title ‘Nowhere to Run’ and represents the ideology we want this issue of the magazine to portray, we decided to use a quote like this instead of just having our title as we felt this was a code and connotation of other film magazines we analysed. Above the cover story it says ‘meet the star Abbie Smith...’ This lets the audience know that inside there is an interview with Abbie and below the cover story is the statement ‘LOCK you doors you’ve got Nowhere to run’ This represents the genre of the film again and also reveals the actual name of our film rather than leaving it off the cover entirely. We used statements to draw the audience in such as ‘exclusive interviews’, we got this idea from our research in which film magazines generally use proclamations like that to draw the target audience in and make them feel the magazine is unique in its interviews. The other stories we used on the cover of our magazine regularly include the mention of celebrities, as people who are fans of these particular celebrities will defiantly want to read about them. We used famous people who relate to both genders to give ourselves a broader audience .For example the mention of Megan Fox would draw males in and Taylor Lautner would appeal to girls. We used a small picture of Taylor Lautner as well as our central image to make the issue of vibrant and less ‘wordy’.

We wanted our magazine to be more entertaining than serious because magazines such as sight and sound are very professional and wouldn’t appeal to our target audience. We used an extra column at the bottom as this is very typical of all magazines. It gives the illusion that the magazine has lots of content and lots to offer therefore making it seem more engaging and appealing .Slightly above that is the quote ‘The most thrilling film in decades’ this is a quote from a film critic which adds extra recognition to our film and make people want to watch it. The word thrilling is underlined to add further emphasis on it. The overall layout of the front cover is quite stereotypical ,it has stories down the side and a central image as many others do. We felt it would be best not challenge these because they generally work. After questioning the audience and making small changes and taking on board their ideas, we created a magazine that represents our film which is what it set out to do.