For our magazine front cover, we were considering making ours more in the style of The Hollywood Reporter than the conventional Total Film and Empire designs. The standard format for The Hollywood Reporter front covers is that they show the cast and crew of the film, rather than a snapshot from it. The design focuses more on the people behind the film than the actual film itself, and this is something that we were considering doing. This sort of campaign helps the audience to connect to the film on more than one level, as they connect to both the characters in the film and the people who made the film, wanting both sides to succeed. It would also grab the more serious film fans who are interested in all aspects of film by opening up to the audience and telling them about the production process. This works well within the context of the campaign, as the poster works to promote the film as a story, whilst the magazine promotes the film for the people behind it.
However, one issue with this approach is that it is not so easy to establish the film's recognisable brand. To counter this, we have decided that the photo on the front will be of the film makers (us) posing looking at the camera, but around us is the set of the film, so within the frame will be two umbrella lights, and the people in the photo will have dirt and blood on their faces with balaclavas and guns hanging loosely from their hands. This would bring the brand of our film back into the magazine front cover through making it obvious that it's on a film set and also giving the audience a sense of the tone of the film. It also establishes that the article inside isn't going to be the standard celebrity gossip, but it will be about the filmmaking process, appealing to a wider audience.
The people that we want to include on the cover are myself, Philip, James and Zubin, all wearing suits, to establish that we are out of character. We will probably be posing around an armchair, with one person in the chair and the others surrounding them. The above magazine front cover offers some ideas as to how we would all be posing in the photograph. The key feature seems to be the use of proxemics, with one actor lying along the floor and another half way up a ladder. We may have someone sitting on the floor in front of the chair to give our magazine front cover a similar tone.
Overall I think that this could be a strong idea for a magazine front cover. It would compliment the poster and trailer by showing the behind the scenes side of the film, and it would allow our audience to connect with the film on two levels. It also looks very smart, and people wouldn't judge the film on its visual effects or plotline, but just see a smart picture and assume that this reflects the film's quality.