Codes and Conventions of Film Magazines

FIlm magazines are a way of celebrating the film industry and gives the film fanatic fans details on newly released films and exclusive interviews with the biggest actors and directors of our time. The most successful film magazine in the UK at the moment is 'EMPIRE', the target audience for film magazines are leaning more towards the male audience; 'EMPIRE' is mainly image orientated with little text as men respond more to pictures rather than words which is why 'EMPIRE' is such a popular magazine amongst the male audience.

Depending on what genre of magazine you are looking at, you will notice that fashion magazine front covers are different to film magazine front covers. For instant with fashion magazine, the shot that will be used as the front cover will normally be a medium shot of the model, but with film magazines, it mostly depends on what film is featured on the front cover and on how many people are going to be in the shot.

The front cover image can be anything from a long shot, to a close up or medium shot with one or more people characters on the front cover.

The shot can be a long shot, close up or medium, depending on what the editors want the main focus to be.

More than one character can be on the front cover. 

The main colour for the masthead on EMPIRE is red, which is leaning more towards the male audience but the colour and the theme of the front cover can change if a big film is featured on the cover as it grabs the target audiences' attention.