Ancilary task- Magazine cover

As part of our ancillary tasks, we are going to created the front cover of a TV listings magazine/Soap opera magazine with our story on the front. Before creating the front cover, we had to research some that are already avaliable to buy in the shops now.

Below are numerous soap magazine covers in particular that we looked at in detail to see what features needed to be included on the front of our own magazine.

Looking at the soap magazine covers, they all look rather similar. They use bright, bold colours mainly primary colours, large and eye catching font and have large images of the main characters on the front. They are all very busy which makes them much more appealing to read and allows the reader to be interested in the magazine. Soap Opera Weekly, is the most appealing due to the big, bold main cover line on the front of the magazine which dominates the cover. Soap Opera Digest, is one that did not inspire us too much for our own production, the masthead of the magazine is not really eye-catching and just blends in with the rest of the magazine, also the fonts arn't too attractive and overall it does not look as interesting to read as the other soap magazines. Inside soap, is the magazine that is most inspiring for our own magazine, as it has a bold, striking masthead, good positioning of the main image and it looks busy with lots of cover lines.

This magazine cover for 'Soap Opera Weekly,' caught my eye when researching soap opera listings magazines, as it is much more dramatic and attractive than others I found. The use of the close up image allows the audience to feel connected and involved in the image. The vector shape, creates extra detail and drama to the cover of the magazine and makes the storyline appeal more exciting.

Above is a magazine cover from the 'all about soap' magazine showing a similar storyline to the one we are promoting in our own production: a love triangle. The positioning of the characters is essential to convey the storyline clearly to the audience. The male character in the middle of the two women, shows that it is the man that is in the middle of the triangle. The characters facial expressions also add to the clear presentation of the characters for example, sonia on the left hand side, makes it clear that she is his girlfriend as her face conveys a sense of anger and sadness, Zoë on the right hand side, is clearly the love interest, as her facial expression shows her character as being sly and conniving . The body language of the characters has cleverly been constructed in the image, to get across the storyline with the two women characters slightly back to back to show they are rivals.