Magazine Analysis - Sight & Sound Magazine

When looking at this magazine, the first thing that stands out to me is the feature article picture and in general the brightness of the magazine. The picture, as you can see, is of a man and a woman walking. By just looking at the picture at one glace – I can read that these people are in a relationship. I can tell this as they are walking very close to eachother, the man’s shoulder is touching the woman’s and you can see his other hand, which gives the impression he maybe has his hand on her back. Also the fact that the man is staring at the woman and she is smiling looking at the floor, almost showing she is the more shy and venerable character.
Also, by looking at this front cover, makes you feel very relaxed and almost “yourself”. When looking at some magazines, you may feel slightly intimidated by the models or the way that the magazine is set out – however, this magazine to me seems very casual, which personally makes it easier for me to understand and read. This is as they are both in very casual clothing, the man has one side of his shirt untucked and it’s just a very natural shot. The brightness of the background makes the magazine also seem a lot friendlier and it makes the audience feel relaxed and tranquil. The brightness of the front cover, for me, portrays a lot about the magazine and tells me what the magazine, in a way, is about. For example: a magazine, whose front cover is all dark colours, with a male model with dark sunglasses on and gold chains etc. gives me the impression it’s about horror/action/thriller films as the colours gives off a much more vicious and aggressive sense. However, these bright, delightful, delicate colours give off a much softer feel, which gives me the idea it’s all about Romantic comedies or romantic dramas.
The masthead of this magazine is quite thin and dainty compared to the other magazines that I have looked at. All of the film magazines that I have looked at have been in big font sizes, bold fonts and all in capital letters – however, this magazine masthead is following conventions of having the first letter capital letters with the rest lower case, and it being quite a natural font and again, in soft colours. Although, this was still eye-catchy due to the red and yellow colour scheme, it fitted well with the genre of the magazine. It fitted well also with the brightness and the “softness” of the magazine; it wouldn’t have looked right with a big, bold and clumpy masthead.
Again, unlike most magazines, this magazine hasn’t got cover lines covering the page. For me, I don’t think this is a good idea. I personally think by having cover lines big and quite noticeable. It gives the potential buyer more of an idea of whether they want to buy this magazine straight away – instead of having to flick through the magazine and see that way. However, I think the picture portrays a lot about what is in the magazine, that it is all to do with romance. However, then I went on to look at the bottom of the magazine and it has a few cover lines down there, but they are very small and not greatly visible. However, they give some of an idea of what stories are in the magazine, this would give the potential buyer more of an idea of whether they wanted to purchase this magazine or not.
Overall, this magazine is slightly different to the conventions other magazines use, and is very plain, but it suits the genre it is.