Film magazine analysis

The film magazine I am looking at is empire and is featuring the film ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and has a big picture of Robert Downey Jr dressed as Sherlock Holmes with cuts all on his face and hands which suggests to what sort of film it is, that there is alto of violence and fighting making it an action and modernizing a traditional Sherlock Holmes. The background on the magazine rather than the traditional white is a dark and dingy backdrop of showing the sky and dark stone wall, this makes connotations to it not to look like night time but a really miserable stormy day, as the sky has a hint of blue and to make it look like Robert Downey Jr was photographed in this background the lighting comes from above and the clothes he Is wearing are blue coloured and even his white shirt has blue tints to it, the only part that is fully light is his face and top part of his torso with light coming from a high angle in front of him casting a shadow of his glasses on his face and a dark shadow under his chin. Also the shadow caused under his eyebrows and above his eyes makes him look sinister and very serious, as the eyebrows give away a lot of emotion as well as the eyes and the are half cast with a shadow. The clothes that he is dressing are what is stereotypical of Victorian era, so we accept it to be correct. The pose of Downey Jr is unusual in our society and defiantly something the youth would not do as he has both hands together but only touching at the fingertips with his fingers spread. It is more the pose of an upperclass person and seems to portray him thinking, it also makes him look sinister and reminds me of the James Bond villains, and Dr Evil where they have there hands in a pensive stance when they are thinking. This makes him look intellectual and remind us that he is a detective.
The name of the magazine is empire yet on the cover you are only able to see the E and half the m and then the R and E because of Robert Downey Jr’s head is covering most of it this seems to show that the name is not greatly important and that it is not a magazine that sells because of the name but the items featured or its for monthly subscribers and film enthusiast that know of the magazine and do not need to see the full name to recognize it. It is also something that stands out quite a lot against the dark blue grey background as it is a nice strong red and is a large size. Above the masterhead there is a pug which reads, ‘BEST PREVIEW ISSUE EVER!’ but only the words ‘preview’ and ‘issue’ stand out as they are in white against the dark background, and its really had to notice the word ‘best’ as its against the part of the background that is a wall and is a really light white blue, making the grey text Almost blend. Further down the page the same colour font, but larger reads ‘SHERLOCK HOLMES’ in a serif font, and is printed over the torso of Robert Downey Jr thus showing us that he is playing that character, also the word Holmes is larger than sherlock, indicating that people would relate the surname Holmes more to Sherlock Holmes rather than the other way round. Above and below that text there is some more in a typewriter font mentioning the names Robert Downey Jr and Guy Ritchie as they are well know names in the film industry and the audience will recognize them and would be more likely to buy the magazine as they may be familiar with there pervious work as it has been big Hollywood blockbuster.
Also featured on the magazine is extra stories about other big Hollywood films but that don't have as much audience appeal, and the ones featured on this magazine are ‘Prince of Persia’ and the Tim burton remake of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and again it easy to see what actors people will recognize the most as even though ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is the name of the film and is Based around the character of Alice, on the cover they have an image of the mad Hatter, purely because it is played by Johnny Depp and the actress who plays Alice is not that well known. Also it doesn't mention the director Tim Burton on the cover even though he is a well known name and has produced many big Hollywood films in the last decade. The presentation of these is unusual as it has a bounding box of a dark gradient background, but the top part of the picture of Johnny Depp as the mad hatter comes out the box, I think this is done as it doesn’t look like an ordinary picture but gives it more life and makes it look a bit more real. Also I think they have made the whole hat stand out the box as it emphasize the character of the mad hatter. Whereas the on he other side it features the Prince of Persia film and Jake Gyllenhaal which is more of a location shot as its sandy coloured walls, also Gyllenhaal sticks out from the background shot as well but not as much as there is not much emphasis on any part of him.