main task (music magazine) front cover textural analysis

Denotation: A shirtless man with a gun in his hand at the centre of the cover.
Connotations: violence, comic related, music magazine.

Mise en scene:

Costume: the man has no shirt on, which reveals his many tattoos as if it were his clothing, (for example the tattoos on his arms could act as sleeves), the tattoo the skull located at the centre of his chest is the sign of the ‘the punisher’, (crime related marvel comic) which could give the audience a sense that the magazine is featuring the comic.

NVC: the man’s facial expression is serious yet also angry and the use of lighting is used to create shadows capture that, (maybe to show the main character of the comic book’s vengeance)

Lighting: the back ground is low key lighting and the image of the man is high key, so the lighting contrasts each other to make the main image stand out.
Props: the man is carrying a fire arm, which indicates that the magazine is associated with violence.

Setting: the image could be at a studio as the image has no particular background.

Magazine components:

Masthead: the mast head is a red rectangle with the type face ‘XXL’ and is located in the top left hand corner. The type face is in white bold letters which contrasts with red rectangle to make the font stand out. The mast head is basic and recognisable to its potential audiences.
Date line: the date line is located on just above the barcode and was published in “June”; the year is unknown but is fairly recent.

Main image: the main image is the rapper Eminem, the image was taken as a mid shot (camera shot from the waist up) to capture the tattoos including the main one of the skull at the centre of his chest, the image is also large enough to stand out and the rapper is making direct eye contact.

Main cover line: the main cover line is big and bold and is located at the bottom of the page, (where it’s mostly located). It is also the same colour as the mast head to keep it simple and contrasts.

Cover lines: there are no additional cover lines as the magazine is focusing on the main cover line.
Selling line: the selling line is located above the mast head and is short and matches the mast heads meaning.
E.g. “hip hop on a higher level”,” XXL”.

Barcode: located at the bottom right hand corner and it is used for retail purposes.
Website link: it is compulsory that all companies and businesses should have this on their magazines.