Draft Four - Magazine Cover

This was my second attempt at creating a film magazine in photo shop, with this attempt i tried to go with all conventions of normal magazines, whilst keeping it interesting and action packed, so that people would want to buy it. It also needs to show off the genre and feel of the film. Things that i have improved on since the last draft magazine are the image. i have edited Kate's image and added a background image to it also, which i also had to edit. this was so that the magazines images fitted in with the conventions of other film magazines, film magazines usually have some sort of background image behind the foreground image, this is because it makes it look like a snap shot from the film, so that the front cover can easily put across the type of film it is covering and also it looks interesting, as it looks like it is part of the action making people want to buy it and find out more. The background image had to be dark and fit in with the horror genre, so i have used a dark black background to represent the night and a tree in the corner to show the woods, as if it is a still from the film. this image also had to look plain enough so it wouldn't distract from the main image of Kate, so i edited the tree to look blur in the background and slightly ghostly. i also moved Kate's images position, as before i felt it was the wrong size and looked really out of proportion, even though i did like having Kate's head over lap with the Masthead a bit like some magazine do, to make the image really look like it's coming off the page and part of the magazine, but i felt having the right proportions and a good looking image were more important to the magazines final look. I have also worked on the left hand thirds plugs, which are a very important part of a magazine as they put across extra information about what's in the magazine, so they have to be as interesting as everything else so people feel more encouraged to buy it. I felt the last ones i did looked to plain and not as eye catching as they should be, so i added more and worked with different texts and effects in photo shop.
Exclusive - With the exclusive information, i added a layer so that i could use one of the paint bushes to create the yellow star behind the text, as i felt this would make it stand out more and fit in with the idea of it being an exclusive. The text on top "Exclusive" i put in white to contrast with the background, i chose the font Rockwell as i felt it made it look important and official, then to make it stand out against the background further u added bevel emboss and a drop shadow, so it really caught peoples eyes. "The Oscars winners list" was written on Gothic heavy and i added a red stroke around the background to make sure people also noticed it and it was over powered by it's title. I think this piece of information works well as it does look like an exclusive. The saw sign i created when using the font chiller to type "Saw" and "3D" on two separate layers and then using the liquefying tool, to make them look even more like blood and to make them look really defined and like blood the bevel and emboss tool. I put this information like this, as on posters the movie title looks a bit like this and i felt i wanted to imitate it as it's a well known brand so people would recognise it. But i put the extra information after the saw bit in much more similar text as people had to be able to read it and i didn't want to distract from anything else on the magazine. "Can you take the blood fest in" for this text i used the font Franklin Gothic Demi Cond, as i felt it was clear and readable, to make the text look interesting but not distracting i used the blend mode on the texts effects to lighten the text, i also gave it a drop shadow so it still stood out. With 50 Films i decided to make this look alot more fun, as the magazine isn't all about horror, so to change it a little bit i used the custom shape tool to create the blob to put the text on, so it would look different to everything else and it also highlights it. to make it look more three dimensional, i choose the colours silver and purple and used the satin effect on it, it looks a bit like a sticker, like a puff of added information. with the text i used Rockwell Extra Bold font, with a drop shadow to make it clear, also as i didn't want to whole magazine to look to dark i used a gradient overlay of a rainbow pattern, which really juxtaposes with the rest of the poster, but to stop it from being to over powering i put a black stroke around it.
I also changed the way the film title looks on this magazine, it isn't very drastic, all i have done is change the way the P is used, instead of having two i make the P bigger enough for both of the words, i felt this was more interesting than just having the two words, as it highlights the alliteration, but this might not be our final title, but this is the way i would like to present it, i am also using this way on my film posters so they match and also look a little more interesting. I also had to work on the extra information i gave for the poster as before i felt it lacked a little bit so i for the main bit of extra information "The next cult horror film" i used the font Frankiln Gothic Demi cond, as it is clear to read and not distracting. i choose to put it in red to fit in with a sort of colour scheme that seems to have appeared which is red, yellow and white, so it can stand out against the dark background, so that this extra information stood out against the title and the other information i pit an outer glow around it using the text effects. Then with the other information underneath i used the same font and colour, but made it smaller and put a inner shadow on it, so it juxtaposes against the bright information on top, but still stands out well enough.
Lastly i changed the bottom plug, instead of it being a solid block, i thought it would look good if i used the same sort of brush i have on the text to make it look slightly dirty, the Dry Media 29 brush, i also chose to put it in red to fit in with the theme and i used bevel emboss on it. The text font is Arial, so it's good and clear.
i think this is very close to my final magazine cover, as i am very happy with it, but may tweak it a little more as i don't feel the left hand third is strong enough.