I have been assigned the task of analysing a magazine, i chose a gaming magazine, as this interests me and i feel like it will help e with the project; i will be analysing the magazine in what it does effectively to entice some one into picking it up and making people aware of what the topic of the magazine is about, i will be looking at codes and conventions, mise en scene etcetera.
The lack of colour variety is a subtle hint to the magazine having a darker setting/theme could be an underlining indication the magazine isn't suitable for all audiences; however the magazine uses the colour orange to reveal the important points and it stands out to the rest of the magazine. the main image is Joel, which a lot of people would know at a glance as he is a very well known iconic character who is essentially one of play-stations mascots so this would defiantly entice the viewer into reading, and also from my stand point i saw this magazine due to his face being there. i know this due to the last of us having really successful statistics as 17 million copies where sold, and it being so successful on last generation, was later remastered to ps4, then again to ps4 pro, the orange not only stands out against the magazine but we can see there is also a white font; the point of this being, the orange writing on the front is to show that they are the important factors of the magazine. The Masthead is clearly visible whilst also keeping the main image in focus, it draws in the audience, to some one who is a fan of edge, whilst also being easy on the eyes, its not difficult to see, which allows for some one passing by to easily and clearly distinguish what the magazine is saying, as some covers/magazines have strange color schemes which are often very difficult to read, a color that comes to mind is yellow, however i would of also said orange, however it is used very affectively on this magazine cover. Another minor point which is appealing that subtly makes the magazine look better is how some of the text follows the dominant image whilst following a specific distance from the image, although this isn't anything detailed, its just a nice touch to the magazine that i noticed and thought looked very affective.
I want to make a point about the lighting and the positioning of it on Joel's Face, the technique used looks so effective, the left side of his faced is heavily in shadow which allows for the font to overlay his face and is easily visible, not only does the shadow create a sense of mystery or perhaps a darker side, we also see a really macro close up of Joel, which shows a withered man, essentially showing his weaknesses, and emphasizing he is a vulnerable man.
The main cover line 'the last of us' is also a good indication to what the magazines key focus will be on, this could be for people who are interested in the game but are not aware of the character; which technically could increase the amount of people who would read the magazine, also adding to this underneath it explains it is from the creators of uncharted, which had received game of the year and was incredibly popular which defiantly would improve the popularity of the last of us due to the success of there other franchise, this could also be referred back to the color scheme as the uncharted point is in orange which signifies the importance of that bit of information, and it is likely one of the first things that people would read on the cover after noticing the image and the title.
codes and conventions: The magazine goes along with most magazines codes and conventions as the dominant image takes up the majority of the cover, is incredibly eye catching to someone a fan of the game, also the image is looking directly at the audience which creates a personal connection, he is looking subtly lost and afraid, the masthead is also following the codes and conventions as it is at the top of the magazine, just like most magazines as well. The magazine also contains an issue number, however unlike most magazines there is no barcode, so I assume it is on the back instead of the front.
Advantages of Digital magazine -
The digital magazine is ideal for some one who requires ease of access, no matter where you are you only need minimum requirements to view a digital magazine, wifi is needed mostly but sometimes thats not even required as it can be downloaded; meaning you may never loose it, as it can be backed up and stored internally on a computer, which means it can also be forwarded and shared without buying a copy, which wouldn't be an issue anyway as digital magazines are often cheaper, or free all together. A digital magazine is also really good for the fact that no damage can come to it, it isn't something that needs to be cared for, or delicate with whilst reading its a simple swipe to view the next page, with no worry of tearing or damaging it as its not physically there, which could be a advantage/disadvantage depending on the person as some people like a copy in hand as it could be
classed as an experience.
This is a Magazine For Gamers, this is clearly displayed by the masthead PC GAMER, not only is this in bold and clearly stands out But i feel that it isn't the most important part of information on the magazine, and they subtly do this by overlapping the power armor and the metal chain behind it, to signify the importance of the power armor and a indication that this game/object is more important than the magazine itself. The power armor itself is hugely significant and iconic to the fallout Franchise, it is widely known to associate with the game so this image alone, would allow gamers to know if a fan of the franchise they know what the magazine is about. in the background we can see a grungy makeshift work station, however it is slightly blurred to keep the main focus on the power armor, but from what we can see in the background we can make out that fallout is a gritty game; adding to this we can see a very minimal color palette in the background, which links to the game as everything was destroyed from a nuclear bombing, so this fits nicely.
For people who are not familiar with the franchise underneath the power armor is Fallout 4, not only is it really affective in its positioning, allows it to be read whilst keeping other more important things/captions the main focus; but its also good as it uses fallouts actual font so it could give a form of nostalgia, and the font also keeps up with the theme of the game, whats interesting with this magazine it has a few sub images so if fallout wasn't the interest in the reader another popular game would hopefully entice some one and hopefully people are likely to read it for that instead, as overwatch is very popular, along with an advertisement for gaming mice.
Something strange about this magazine is that they use 2 separate colors to emphasize an important point on the magazine, they use red and orange, but in a sense its used effectively as it adds diversity and doesn't make the magazine cover boring as i stated earlier the color scheme is slightly bland so it could work in the covers favor to use red and orange for the colors to point out the important things
Advantages of a print magazine -
the advantages of a print magazines are as follows: a print magazine is in hand, and is a 'experience' people enjoy going to the store buying a magazine and later reading it, as its in hand and not digital more pride could be taken in the magazine, looked after better, and more likely to be completely read instead of skimming through, also a print copy is likely to contain better quality images, since they are often printed to a good quality where as a digital copy is usually a lower quality look. These are some of the reasons why people would prefer it, but from a beneficial stand point it personally say that a digital magazine is more convenient then that of a print magazine.
in this double page spread it is talking about the really successfully call of duty black op franchise with the focus on zombies on the right page, what we can see straight away is the magazine has gone for a dark colour scheme, this could be symbolic to the game being immensely dark and scary during the zombie maps, and also linking to the main campaign as it is also showing a dark time/theme where war is present. the colour scheme of the font is also very fitting to the game, as the title of a black ops is orange and white, and they have successfully captured that in the magazines double page spread, by making the important parts orange, where as in the game the part that is orange would be the number in the franchise in this instance it is black ops 2, so from that we can see the orange parts, although minimal are very effective at differentiating from the rest of the text, as a form of a quote or the Drop cap at the begging of the text, this is also common design element used in magazine double page spreads to signify the beginning of the text.
in the images we can nothing bright, it is all dull, this fits into the theme they where going for, in the image of the zombies we can see a destroyed town in the background, this gives the reader a taste of what is in the game; the use of many images is really good because it can prevent the reader from getting bored and splits up the text, which is what they have done, per photo, they have only included a small paragraph, where as if the images weren't present it would look very bland and may put people off from reading it.
here is a comparison to an image I clearly had inspiration from, to make this very red dead themed, no part of the ps4 cover I used inspiration from was directly copied, I gathered internet sources and manually created the the images within my magazine cover. to see my internet sources please follow this link: https://joshfoundationmedia.blogspot.com/2018/12/emmas-magazine-project-with-pitch.html
