Magazine Cover Analysis: Total Film

This magazine cover is the cover for Total Film magazine’s August 2010 issue, #170. It features Angelina Jolie as its cover model advertising the film ‘Salt’. The main feature of this issue is the ‘total access!’ of information related to the film ‘Salt’. Total Film magazine was first released in 1997 and is published every 4 weeks, totalling to 13 times a year. Owned by Future PLC, it is sold for £3.99 per issue and has a circulation of 60, 912.

 This cover follows the common conventions of magazines by having a masthead (Total Film), a strap line (The Modern Guide To Movies), a cover photo (Angelina Jolie), an issue number and date (August 2010, #170), cover text and a barcode (bottom right).

The colour scheme of this cover focuses mainly on black, white and orange. Black and white is used to covey the idea of secrecy, since the movie it is advertising features a spy as the main character. This can be learnt from the cover text, with the largest section reading “Cinema just got a new spy”. The orange is used predominantly in the background in a blurry effect, to represent something moving past at a high speed. With the model clearly visible and the rest of the photo blurry, it could be assumed that this character will be the centre of the film and the subject of the audience’s attention. It could also show that the character will show a high level of focus and concentration in the film, further enforcing the ideas that they are a spy. The rest of the cover text and ‘stickers’ are in black and white, standing out clearly against the background. The masthead, however, is almost transparent and has a broken/shattered effect applied to it. The breakage focuses around the models head, almost looking like the result of a gunshot. With the presence of the gun being held by the model, we can assume that the character will be in a firearms-fight at some point. It could also allude to the possibility of this character dying in the film, or killing another character. It may also represent their effect on the world around them and the people they encounter.

The cover photo of this magazine is of Angelina Jolie as Evelyn Salt in the movie Salt. The main focal point of this photo is the subjects face. Framed by her hair and clothes, her skin stands out brightly against the black and dark brown around it. This stark contrast also makes it stand out against the brightly coloured background that it may have faded into. The positioning of the model is very straight, almost making the photography symmetrical. This straight-line down her face and along her arms and gun draws the viewer’s eye-line continuously up and down the cover, almost forcing them to take in every detail.