The magazine cover features Captain Jack Sparrow as the central image. Text is arranged around the image to highlight key information without overlapping too much. Bold fonts draw the eye to important words and details about upcoming films. Subtle fonts provide additional context. Color and layout create a calm yet engaging composition that effectively showcases the featured star and entices readers to learn more inside.

1. Film Magazine Front Cover

2. Layout
• The masthead is placed at the top of the cover.
• Cover lines on the right hand side are right hand aligned and cover lines on the
left hand side are left hand aligned. This is to make sure that only a small
amount of lettering overlaps the central image to allow the image to stand out.
• The central image is placed in the centre of the magazine cover. The image stops
just before it reaches the top of the cover. It takes up a lot of the space to make
the character stand out and be noticeable.
• The barcode and price are positioned in the bottom right hand corner. This
makes them the most unnoticeable factor on the cover.
• Buzz words are placed at the top of the cover and at various other
places to catch readers eyes in a variety of places.
• The central image overlaps text from the mans chest and upwards.
Text overlaps him in the bottom half of the cover.
• Text doesn’t go right up to the edge of the cover. There is an invisible
border to keep text inline and not too close to the edge of the cover.

3. Masthead
• The masthead is placed almost at the top of the magazine
front cover taking up almost a third of it.
• It is a short masthead which makes it easy to remember and
means the lettering can be big. The lettering is all the same
size.
• The lettering is bold and in capital letters which allows the
magazines title to stand out so regular readers can spot the
magazine easily.
• The masthead is written in red. Red isn’t used in any
other places on the front cover which allows it to
stand out instead of getting lost in the background.
• The “M” and “P” are partly covered by the central
image. As it is a well known magazine and only parts
of a couple of letters are covered, you can still make
out what the masthead says.

4. Price, Date and Barcode
• The price of the magazine is placed in the bottom right hand corner just
above the barcode. The magazine costs £3.99. It is written in a small
font as it isn’t important information which would grab readers eyes
and persuade them to buy the magazine. As it is written in black and on
a white background, the colours allow it to not stand out compared to
the other components.
• There isn’t a date or issue number on this magazine front cover.
However, we can work out that this magazine will focus on films coming
out in 2011 due to the text “Essential 2011 Preview” on the
right hand side.
• The barcode is placed in the bottom right hand corner below
the price. It is placed in the bottom corner instead of a
noticeable place like the centre as it isn’t something that will
help to sell the magazine or draw readers to it. Therefore, it
doesn’t need to stand out.

5. Colours
• There are three main colours of the magazine front cover plus the red used for the
masthead. The main colours are yellow, blue and black.
• Yellow is used to make certain words, such as in the cover lines, stand out. As the
yellow is very bright compared to the other colours used, the eye is drawn to these
pacific words.
• Blue is a neutral colour which is used in the background as part of the sea and sky.
The colour isn’t vibrant so it allows text to stand out even more and not blend into
the background. Blue can be a cold colour but as the sky is blue and the sea looks
calm, it creates a calm feeling for the front cover.
• Black is used for some of the text, the fill colour of the circle which is the
background for some buzz words and is a colour that features in the
central image. Black stands out on light or bright backgrounds.
Therefore, words in black stand out and are to catch readers eyes.
• The cover lines which are partly written in white are in this colour as
they are not important words which needs to be what readers first look
at. They are just words that provides extra information once readers are
already interested in the magazine.

6. Font Type
• There are a couple of different font types on this magazine front
cover.
• One of the fonts is bold and is therefore eye catching. The lettering
is in capitals and all the same height. However, the font size varies
depending on whether it is one word or number, such as “2011”
standing out or a couple of words put together. Words that would
catch readers eyes are written in this font. For example “Movies’
Biggest Year Ever!”.
• The other font type doesn’t stand out as much making the words
more subtle. It is used for less important words which are
not needed to stand out as much as others. For example
the small headings on the side such as “Staring”. The font
only has a capital letter for the first letter of the word and
the whole word is italic.
• As there are two main fonts, the magazine cover is more
interesting to view and therefore suggests that the
magazine will be interesting to read both for the content
and looking at layout of the pages.

7. Central Image and Star Personal
• The central image is Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the films Pirates of The
Caribbean. He is in costume wearing his pirate clothes, hat, accecories and holding a gun.
• Lots of people would recognise the character as the Pirates of The Caribbean films were very
popular and well- known when they were released. Therefore, advertising the film on the front
cover by showing one of the main characters would attract a lot of attention and draw interest
towards the magazine.
• The central image helps to add a bit more colour to the cover.
• The image covers quite a lot of space on the page so there isn’t an area that looks empty. It starts
at the bottom of the page and finishes just below the top of the cover.
• The photograph was taken from a very slight low angle making it seem like he is looking down on
viewers a little and looking into our eyes. This portrays him as a powerful character.
• It is a medium/ long shot as we can see all of the characters upper body but his legs
cannot be seen. This allows readers to feel like they are up-close to the character
but not too close to hide his body language.
• The body language of the character is open and therefore creating a welcoming
feeling so readers feel like they are welcomed to read the magazine. If his body
language was quite timid it could have given the impression that the magazine is
boring and not outgoing in the way it is written.

8. Anchorage Text
• The anchorage text isn’t that noticeable but it is placed to
the left hand side of the central image in a circle. Placing
the text inside a circle with a different background
compared to the other texts allows it to not get lost in the
background.
• The anchorage text says “First Look! Pirates 4. The On-
Set Exclusive”. The word “Pirates” links the text to the
central image as the character is dressed like a pirate. It
includes the buzz word “Exclusive” to persuade
readers that the magazine contains information
you can only find out by reading the magazine.
• It doesn’t give any information away and
therefore leaves viewers of the magazine front
cover wanting to find out more.