Magazine Cover Review

    Most magazines will feature a celebrity over a recognized logo to capture the reader's attention. Author Michael Scherer says magazines are “filled with color, oversized headlines, graphics, photos, and pull quotes” to draw attention to the cover. My initial impression of magazines was just a colorful cover page exposing current drama, but now I recognize the hard work and dedication put into the featured articles, and cover pages.  

    Magazines generally directed at women appear to share common characteristics. These characteristics include appealing fonts, a positive outlook, and a more cautious approach to controversial topics. The brand names of popular women's magazines may change in color but rarely change in the font so it is still recognizable to the reader. An example of a known magazine would be O, The Oprah Magazine. The cover of this magazine radiates positive emotions with its variety of bright colors. An adorable dog is shown being held by the main celebrity, Oprah, herself. Oprah can be seen on the cover of every magazine published under O, The Oprah Magazine, except for a single edition that presented Breonna Taylor, a young black woman who was killed by police. Oprah’s magazines are mostly directed a middle-aged white woman after she became famous from a popular talk show in the late 1980s. Another popular women’s magazine would be Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan uses a celebrity to hook its readers, while subjects such as ‘sex’ are shown in bold letters to draw attention to the contents of the magazine. A featured article starring the actress Joey King, as seen on the cover, uses bold and bright letters to draw attention to her name. The Cosmopolitan makes the name ‘Joey King’ appear as though a movie poster would to interest the readers. These magazines use color coordination to match words and outfits throughout their pages. 

    Male magazines use subjects such as health and muscle to grab their primarily male audience's attention. Common characteristics found among male magazines would be their approach to controversial subjects head-on, their use of bold fonts, and their tendency to have a plainer contents page. The magazine Men's Health focuses on a healthy body and mind. Its cover page is filled with bold red and black text with highlights of yellow. This contrast among the cover can draw the reader's attention to the contents of the magazine. The articles featured in this magazine are lengthy and lack much color contrast among the text. Red is used throughout the contents page and featured articles to accentuate the headlines. Another magazine, Motor Trend, uses cars to attract male attention. The contents page advertises high-quality car brands and motor engines to readers. They compare the values and prices of different vehicles to conclude which is the better vehicle. This magazine focuses on the aspect of advertisement to attract a mainly male audience. These magazines targeted at males include plain text, unlike women's magazines who utilize a variety of colors and fonts. 

    A specialty magazine by the name of Rolling Stone targets the general public as their audience. The cover features the rapper ‘Lil Baby’ standing on a brick wall graffitied with the words “Black Power” along with a red magazine title that matches the red subheading, creating contrast against the blue sky in the background. The cover also approached the controversial subject of our current president, Donald Trump, to establish to the audience their political views are more left-leaning. The contents page uses the colors black and white to match the image shown. Their featured article in the Rolling Stone magazine uses shapes and patterns to correspond with the subject of the article. For example, arrows pointing upwards harmonize with the subject of an uprising. The articles within this magazine are long and compact even though the editor, Ed Needham, admits that “he doesn't even bother to read long articles in magazines”. Needham states “people just don't have as much time to read." This specialty magazine uses bold words to connect with their audience.  

My current position is to select a magazine as my portfolio project based upon class viewing and discussions. 

Title Sequence Clips Review

    My initial impressions of opening sequences in films are that opening films were only an introduction to a movie. I did not know of the time and effort put into the launch of each film. For example, in the movie Se7en, Kyle Cooper, a title legend, was said to have “meticulously scratched the celluloid by hand with a needle, adding more edge to already disturbing images...” This is confirmation of the hard work it takes to create an opening sequence. Author Miles Merril states, “the best film typography isn't superfluous or incongruous, but fundamentally helps to tell the story.” 

    In Saturday Night Fever, red was represented throughout the opening sequence appearing as the color of the title and the protagonist's shoes and shirt. Camera angles draw attention to the man’s outfit to highlight the red contrast. Camera angles also give the appearance that the audience is walking with the main character, Tony. Tony’s name is revealed by the local pizza worker, informing the audience that he is a resident and known around his city. Tony is portrayed as a loose and unrestricted man who values himself over his job. The lively music and easy attitude of Tony foreshadow the dancing seen during this movie.  

    In the 1975 film, Jaws, the filmmakers choose dramatic music while filming through a peaceful underwater reef. This could be viewed as the shark's point of view, linking the shark with this music to let audience members know the shark has arrived. The dramatic music can foreshadow the dangers that the great white shark poses among the people. Before the shark’s first attack, many young adults can be seen gathered around a campfire, protected by its light. But when the two people separate from the group of young adults, they appear to be covered in shadows and darkness. This could be foreshadowing the young woman's death at night in the ocean. The producers seem to take advantage of the shark's point of view to create suspense and tension in the audience. After clips of screaming and drowning, the scene immediately becomes peaceful and quiet as if nothing happened. This might indicate to the audience how the shark avoids capture and suspicion throughout most of the movie. When the opening sequence of Jaws was first seen, my initial impression was a thriller movie starring a shark as its antagonist. But when further explored, it is a movie made to create suspense in the audience's heart by foreshadowing the attacks of innocent people during this movie. 

    In the film Pulp Fiction, filmmakers first approach what looks like a pleasant couple having a nice breakfast. Their conversation develops into a plan to rob the restaurant at gunpoint. This dramatic change in the story can foreshadow the filmmaker's style with future plot twists. The stimulating music that plays while the credits roll is used to create excitement within the audience, preparing them for the movie. 

    In the film Apocalypse Now, a soldier from the Vietnam war battles with PTSD and flashbacks from the war. The producers seemed to layer different clips together to be viewed as memories of battle. This soldier deals with his troubles by abusing alcohol and hard drugs. The filmmakers counteract the destruction of the war by playing peaceful music referencing the end. 

    In the film Scream, there are traits common in most horror films such as the eerie phone calls or the suspenseful music, but Scream takes this a step further. The film starts as an innocent phone call appearing as a wrongly dialed number. But as the music gets more dramatic the story gets darker. A close-up shot on windowed doors indicates to the audience that it is nighttime. These windowed doors foreshadow the chilling and bloody events soon revealed to the audience. This film will frighten its audience with its camera angles, the camera is sometimes handheld and following the character, making it seem as though you are in the film with the victim. 

    My current position is to select the magazine rather than the film for my portfolio project based upon class viewings and discussions.