2. Information
Empire is a British film magazine published by Bauer Consumer Media which is
published monthly. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by
Barry Mellheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased this company in
2008. It is the biggest selling film magazine in the UK and is also published in
various countries around the world such as the US, Turkey, Italy and Russia.
It mostly features current blockbusters and high budget productions which is
what makes it so popular and well known within the industry by both audiences
and critics alike .
3. One of the magazines main features is its iconic title font which is used in every
edition at the top of the page. This repetitive use of masthead is to give the
audience something that will make the magazine easily identifiable and
recognisable within the industry, drawing in the readers attention. This is often
red however can change with the colour scheme of the theme and to fit the
general mood of the film (as seen in the examples included below).
The top of the page also include a skyline which gives the audience an extra clue
as to what may be inside the feature. This is interesting this is more
conventionally used in magazines to include smaller and less significant
articles inside. This however, may be being used to emphasise the importance of
the featured film to the audience which is a good selling point for the film and
concentrates/dedicates the whole cover to it.
4. Colour Schemes
Like Film Comment, Empire uses three-four
colours in total on their covers. This is effectively
used to make the cover aesthetically pleasing to
the eye as well as drawing attention to each
different section of the front cover. Unlike film
comment however, Empire uses much more
vibrant and eye catching shades of colour – often
using red and yellow as their main colours. This
could be to reflect the mainstream films included
and to make the cover more appealing and
interesting to a wider audience, rather than the
others we have analysed which are less generic.
This contrast is shown in the images to the right
where we see one magazine using primary
colours and the other choosing darker, more
subtle tones of red.
5. Secondary Imagery
Empire uses secondary images which show audiences what is included inside
the magazine. This often takes the form of a film clipping which is effective as it
reinforces and reminds the audience of the genre of the magazine. This is a good
technique as it allows for smaller images to show audiences famous faces
which will pull them into the magazine. It also takes up less space on the
magazine in comparison to if they were to write about each individual film
shown in the secondary pictures. This allows for the editors to include more
content on the cover, whilst maximising their space to its fullest.
6. Puffs
Empire uses puffs in almost every edition of its
magazine. Puffs are in defection ‘ short, explosive
burst of breath or wind’ which is represented in a
use of usually about 5 words to draw the reader in.
Exclamation marks are also used here to show the
audiences that the articles are exciting.
The fact that they are often bright colours makes
them seem even more interesting to the readers
as it stands out from the background image
without overpowering i. This is due to the fact that
puffs are often very small in size and so they do
not detract attention off of the main focus of the
cover. This is something we do not see in
magazines such as Film comment which use more
simplistic effects for displaying their text.
7. Male dominance
Empire uses mostly male actors as the cover of their blog.
This is because mainstream films more often than not use a
strong male figure as their main character. This dominance
over women can be seen in many of the covers, as the
women are often placed behind the males.
This may show the magazines target audience to be
majority males, as it reinforces the stereotype of the
‘perfect male’ and makes its audience
aspire to be like the characters. This is a clever
marketing technique which is used
throughout the media industry.
