To create my movie magazine I followed the existing forms and conventions of a film magazine over in terms of the layout, I achieved this by researching existing magazine covers including Empire and Total Film.The typical conventions present on all of the covers included a mast head which is the magazine title, a headline, cover lines which are the stories within the magazine, a feature article photo and buzz words such as ultimate and best which aim to excite the reader. When researching magazine covers I was unable to find an issue that promoted the release of a horror film therefore by creating my own cover which promotes my film will challenge existing media products in itself. Within my research and planning I analysed the Total Film magazine cover which promotes Inception, I liked how this institution have edited the mast head depending on the context of the film. I think this is effective as it reflects and represents the headline Inception as well as making it look appealing visually. Having a magazine cover that looks great visually reflects the quality of the film.---------------------------------------------When analysing existing media products I found that the feature article photos looked as though the character was in the action therefore when choosing an image to use for my own film I chose an image that followed the same concept, seeing the character in the action will entice and excite the audience to see the film. The image I chose to use is a long shot of my villain, this makes the audience familiar with this character and gives them the impression he is the bad character throughout, the audience assume this due to the black clothing he is wearing which connotes death and evil..the audience will assume this represents his character. The twist in the storyline is that the younger boy hiding behind the laptop in the image is in fact the false hero (one of Propps seven characters), he appears to be innocent hiding behind the laptop screen, hunched over looking vulnerable, however it is revealed in the film that he is the killer. Here I have challenged audience expectations by making them assume that this male character who looks intimidating and wears all black is the villain.
As I mentioned before, I was inspired by the effect used on the Inception magazine masthead which incorporates a sci-fi effect, therefore on my own magazine cover I placed an image of a motherboard within the masthead text, a motherboard is the inside of a computer and therefore represents the storyline of the film, this is the same image used on the face of the villain on the movie poster. I did this so that my promotional package remained consistent throughout.The headline on my magazine is placed below the image just like in the existing posters, I thought this looked most appropriate as it enables the audience to focus on the image, I also wanted the mast head to stand out as it reflects the storyline so I placed all the other text at the bottom in order to achieve this.Just like in the existing magazine covers I included cover lines which tell the audience what other articles are inside the magazine.Both magazines here use basic font styles whereas I have used the pixel font for my headline, this just like on my movie poster represents and connotes the storyline of computer games, this demonstrates how I have challenged the basic fonts used on existing magazine covers.

Another convention i have used is the buzz words which aim to get the audience excited about the film and the content of the magazine, I have used words such as Win best and ultimate to achieve this. Buzz words are also used on existing film magazine covers to also create excitement within the audience.Both existing magazine covers here have busy background which utilise special effects, I decided not to use this technique as I wanted my text to stand out and not get lost, this can make the magazine look overbearing, I came to this decision from my audience feedback as I learnt that they wanted a product that was simple yet interesting.Overall I have used the existing conventions of film magazines in terms of the layout and specific techniques used, however I have aimed to challenge audience expectation in terms of how I have represented the villain in my product which compares to existing products which give away a lot of the story. I used an attractive male as the feature article photo on the cover to attract a female audience who may not be interested in gaming but may be influenced by the cast, this is similar to the Inception cover which features Leonardo Dicaprio. I also kept the red, black and white colour scheme as it successfully represents horror as well as keeping consistency throughout the promotional package.