total film magazine analysis

'TOTAL FILM' is a well established film magazine therefore it will be read by a lot of movie fans. I can tell that this film magazine is well respected because it includes an image from a well known film 'Inception', and the image is of the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The masthead is very bold and blends in well with the blue colour scheme as it is white and blue which stands outs against the blue background. It is a bold and chunky typeface with lots of little images on it which has a masculine look as it has sharp and bold edges. There is a button which is positioned in a place next to the image so that the audience can view it easily and quickly as it stands out on the magazine as it has red and black writing on it and these are the colours that stand out on the cover. The main cover line is 'INCEPTION INSIDE THE ULTIMATE HEAD TRIP', this is in a big and bold silver typeface which almost looks 3d as it is positioned right in front of the center of the image, it is in capital letters which also makes it stand out to the audience and makes it recognizable  The typefaces used on this magazine cover match the genre of the film as they are very unique, Total Film magazine usually changes the typefaces they use to suit the film that they are featuring, unlike Empire which keeps the same typeface.


The Skyline says 'THE MIND BLOWING ISSUE', this is a clever play on words because the film Inception is about the human mind therefore it relates to the unique selling point of the issue as it has lots of articles inside the magazine about 'mind-blowing' things, for example some of the cover lines are 'THE 27 MOST MIND BLOWING MOVIES EVER' and 'MEET THE MASTERS OF MIND FLICKS', these are in a capital letter white simple typeface however 'MIND BLOWING' stands out even more as it in in red which also matches the skyline therefore the audience will realize that the skyline is connected to the inside articles too. 

This is a still image taken from the film, it is a long shot so that the audience can see the characters whole persona which is shown through his costume as well as his facial expressions and body language. The image is mysterious as the character's face is in a shadow and has a serious facial expression which makes the audience want to watch the film to find out about this character. The colours scheme of the magazine is effective because the bits of white and red text stand out against the blue/silver background, this gives the magazine a very futuristic look which gives the audience an idea of what the film inception would be like and this is promoting the film so that people would want to go and watch it. 

The bar code, price, issue number, date and website are all included on the magazine as they are essential but they are all quite small to keep the audiences focus on the more important features of the magazine such as the things that will draw the audience to buy it, this includes the skyline, image, etc. 

The layout is quite conventional of any magazine because the image takes up most of the space as it is the main selling point however the sub articles take up most of the rest of the space because these are what the audience will be most likely to be drawn in by. However there are some empty spaces on the magazine which is quite common as it will not be appealing to the audience if there is too much text because that is seen as being boring and too tiresome to read. The spacing out of the text is done effectively because there is enough information to know what is included in the magazine but there is not too much to make it seem boring for the audience.