Research: Film Magazines, Empire Magazine- The Dark Knight

Case Study: Empire Magazine

This is the front cover for Empire Magazine.

The immediate denotation given from this image is that there is a scruffy man sitting in the chair, with smugged clown make-up on and he has an evil look on his face.

The connotation of this film is however shown through all these things and as we look at his appearance we begin to think that he must be the evil character, he is dressed in dark clothes. Also the way he is sitting shows that he thinks he has authority and that he is pleased with himself.

Also when people realise that he is the Joker from Batman this will reinforce there horror and make them question what trouble he is going to cause in the film. This is part of a franchise and this will mean there is already a target audience out there for people that have always followed Batman, this is shown through the logo at the top of the page.

The colours used on this magazine cover are very negative and they are all Green, Purple and Black trademark colours of the Joker. This helps to show that it is a serious film, and maybe a thriller or action film. The text used for the word JOKER is almost animated and looks as though it has been cut out of the paper and this is iconic of serial killers, which helps to show the genre again, but also the sort of character that the joker is.

This is also reinforced by the tag line; 'He's a cold blooded mass murdering clown.' This is written across the Joker's chest in white writing which is in an eerie font. It also has big purple smudges behind it and this appears very harsh and helps to illustrate the drama and draw in the audiences attention.