‘Empire’ is a British film magazine published once a month by Bauer Consumer Media. It was first published in July 1989 and has gone on to become the biggest selling film magazine in Britain, never failing to out sell its nearest market rival, Total film. Although it is a British film magazine, it is also published outside of the UK, in Australia, Russia and Turkey. Empire organises the annual Empire Awards which are sponsored by Jameson, previously sponsored by Sony Ericsson up until 2009.
The denotation of the front cover is a high angled close up of ‘The Joker’ played by heath Ledgers in the film ‘The Dark Knight’, directed and written by Christopher Nolan. It is typical for film magazines like Empire to feature one of the main characters on the front page as the main purpose is to advertise the film to its demographic audience and create a sense of awareness about the characters. The picture consists of The Jokers full face and cuts off just above his forehead where some hair is revealed. His head is slightly tilting down towards the floor, possibly connoting that he thinks he is better than everyone and must look down on people. The lighting on the poster is mainly high key apart from a dark patch situated in the bottom right corner. This connotes The Joker may have a dark background or a bad side to him, which contradicts the smile on his face connoting he is a happy person. The left side of his face seems slightly darker than the right side, this backs up the suggestion that the joker has a bad side to him as this is a common technique used to create a sense of wonder about the character. At a glimpse the average person would just assume he is just a clown; however the lighting allows the joker, at a closer look to reveal his true identity.
Although The Jokers head is tilting towards the ground, he is making full eye contact with the camera and has a slight grin on his face. The non-verbal communication staring eyes connotes that he wants or is after something and there is a great deal of determination involved. The smile on his face denotes he is calm about the situation, or seems to have control. His full face of makeup denotes he is a clown, however also connotes he may have something mysterious about him or something to hide. Due to the close up camera shot, we are not able to tell the setting of the photo, however the calm look on his face could suggest he in a place of comfort, possibly his hideout.
The main colour scheme of the front cover is black and green with a hint of purple, despite The Jokers bright white face. The slightly saturated colours are used well as they create a large amount of contrast which attracts attention.
The masthead which is normal bold sans serif font attracts the reader’s eye as it is very bold and large. The use of neon green to highlight it again adds to the awareness of the poster and makes the masthead stand out. The three chosen colours used on the writing of the front cover are white, black and green, which I believe are three colours which complement each other very well. The chosen colour scheme also acts as a direct link to Heath Ledgers character as The Joker had a white face, black makeup and green hair They also work well with the front cover as there is a fair mixture of colours among front cover. The selling line above the masthead reads, “Two covers to collect” which is used with intentions of increasing sales, as readers will want to buy the other Empire magazine featuring The Joker. The cover lines are also highlighted in neon green, again making a direct link to the film and also used to make them stand out.
Overall the front cover does a good job of catching the reader’s eye and the colour contrast helps to make the magazine stand out. I believe the shot used and the composition of the front cover both help to signify the main character, helping the reader to understand the characters importance which could then result in them buying the magazine to find out more about the character
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