Magazine Analysis: Empire (The Dark Knight)

This is a magazine cover from the film specialist magazine ‘Empire’, featuring the joker from the Batman Phenomena ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. The film is clearly evident from the main central image dominating this front cover. The well-known character ‘The joker’ takes pride of place in being the USP for this magazine, as he is easily recognisable in his distinct look. Having him as the main image will immediately attract the demographic of Batman Lovers, as well as others who have never seen the Batman trilogies.  

This character is positioned at the fore front of this magazine cover overlapping the title suggesting that the image is more important than the magazine itself. This is something I am aiming to replicate in my magazine as it is a common convention of all magazines no matter what the genre. The joker has been cleverly positioned in a way that advertises his devious traits and personality, by the simple positioning of his hands on his knees.

Despite being slightly overlapped by the main image the title is written in sans serif font and is the largest text on the page, giving an indication that it is important for the potential buyers of the magazine to identify the magazine company first, in this case Empire, as this may be a reason why people would purchase the magazine – due to this company being highly established and an extremely popular film magazine. The title is written I red which immediately advocates the genre of the film being thriller, due to common connotations of the colour red being, violence, brutality etc, all things we are expected to see in a film of this genre. The red title also complements the black background, making everything on the foreground of the magazine cover stand out.

None the less the Buzz Words have a big impact on the attraction of an audience. Words such as ‘Plus!’ ‘World Exclusive’ imply that this is a magazine that is direct and exclusive for you as a reader. These words are conventions of magazine front covers as they entice the potential readers by making them feel as if this is a one chance opportunity to find out the inside gossip on the magazine. 

The dark low key lighting highlights the jokers hands and face contrasting his pale complexion to the dark and solemn colours of his costume. Therefore this supports the genre of the film and replicates his dark personality, that fans of the Batman series would know about. And for those who don't, this is something that has been done so the audience want to get to know the character.