Avatar Magazine Cover Research

We have three parts to our main task: a film trailer, a magazine cover and a film poster that all relate to each other. In order to complete to three task properly I need to research the products that are already out there. I have previously researched two film trailers, one for ‘A Single Man’ and the other for ‘Fight Club’. However I feel as if I did not analyse these trailers in full detail, therefore I am going to analyse the trailer, the magazine cover and the film poster for the same film. I am going to do this for three different films so that I can get a good idea of the finished products and gain inspiration for my own products.

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. It has been one of the best-selling film magazines since its first issue in July 1989. Empire also organise the annual Empire Awards, sponsored by Jameson; the awards are voted for by the readers of the magazine. Similar to most magazines Empire makes the majority of its money from advertising. Every month Empire magazine has the newest film splashed across its covers, with in depth reviews of the top films for that month, plus interviews with the directors, the stars and the stories from behind the scenes.

In 2009 Empire magazine was lucky enough to be given the chance to have the first look at James Cameron’s Avatar which went on to be the highest grossing film of all time. The main feature title of the film is shown at the bottom of the page with the director’s name above draws in the reader, the capital letters attracts attention. The words to the left of the cover ‘The planets first look at the movie even of the decade…’ also draws in the readers, the words indicate to the reader that the film is going to be a massive hit, the use of ellipsis shows that there is more inside and will make the readers want to buy the magazine so that they are able to read on. The cover photograph is a shot taken straight out of the film; this is interesting as other magazine covers normally have a separate photo shoot just for the cover. The whole cover is quite minimal, there is very little writing; the photograph of Neytiri, is the main feature and therefore not much else is needed on the cover. 
Here is a link to the Empire website - www.empireonline.com