Textual Analysis: Empire

Masthead
The masthead is the recognisable title of the magazine. The masthead for this cover of the Empire is white and is going behind the main image. The white stands out from the background which draws our attention to it. When the masthead can be seen from a far, the cover can be recognised by its audience due to the fact that it's typeface is unique. The masthead is basically like the logo and its seen as visual branding for the title. Empire has such an recognisable masthead as it is so popular and international.

Cover lines
The cover lines are important when it comes to the cover, especially of this magazine. These cover lines are about movie-related things to match the theme of the whole magazine. They are also related to the audience effectively as this is what the audience would be looking for when they pick up the latest issue of the Empire. The colour scheme for the cover lines is made up of red, white and gold. This matches the main image, Iron Man. This is used effectively as it compliments the main image as well as standing out from the background. The way they are laid out give the cover a professional look and makes it seem to be a slightly high end magazine.

Main image
The main image definitely obeys the rule of thirds on this front cover. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is shown in the middle vertical third in his famous and iconic Iron Man suit. He is looking straight at the audience and so is his helmet. This draws the audience in by making them interest in the main image. The main image is what the audience sees before anything else on the front cover. So it is important for the image to look straight at the audience. The main image is a reason why some people buy the magazine. This is due to the fact that some people would just buy it because like the image on the front.

Main cover line
For this magazine cover, the main cover line links with the main image, "Iron Man 3. Downey Jr.'s lethal weapon flies solo". This cover line is bigger than all the others which suggests that it is the most important. This makes the reader interested to know more about Iron Man 3 and Robert Downey Jr.'s role as Iron Man. This cover line matches the same colour scheme as the others even if its more important than them. The fact that it links to the main image might suggest that the theme of this issue is about the 'due-to-release' Iron Man 3. It is a visual promotion of the film and will get the audience to buy it as it will possibly give them as much insight information they can get.

Textual Analysis: Official Nintendo Magazine

Masthead

The magazine's masthead is the actual logo for the company that the magazine is about, Nintendo. By looking at the masthead, we recognise it and realise what it is about. The masthead is very unique as it's a logo for a company at the same time. Most gaming magazines are like this. Its the visual marketing of the magazine by the fact that we know the target audience just by looking at it.

Cover lines

There aren't a lot of cover lines on this magazine cover. The cover lines are very spaced out from each other and they don't make the cover look busy and overcrowded. It makes it look more mature for it's audience. The cover lines have all sticked to the same colour scheme, which is orange, brown and white. These have been chosen to match the main cover line which makes the magazine look professional. The colours that have chosen have made the cover lines stand out from the image. This makes them easier to read and easier for it's audience to view them. The cover lines appeal to the audience very well and tell us about certain topics that we might want to know about. They interest the reader which makes them intrigued to buy it.

Main image

The main image is what draws in the target audience. The way the main image is on this cover is slightly different to how most magazines. The main part of the image is towards the bottom of the cover. This is pretty much unique but however it still obeys the rule of thirds as the main characters are in the middle vertical third. The main image is of the latest Animal Crossing game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Anyone who is interested in this latest release, would be wanting this magazine. This links in with the fact that the main image attracts the audience.

Main cover line

The main cover line is the largest cover line on the cover and usually links with the main image or is the  most important topic within in the magazine. The main cover line captures the attention of the audience first after we see the main image. For this magazine cover, the main cover line is the most unique I have seen. They have put the main cover line in the middle of the cover which is different to most magazine covers. This causes our attention to draw to that first before that main image that is below it. The main cover line is also made up of the official logo for the game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The fact that it says "A whole month inside Nintendo's glorious new world!" tells us what the topic is actually about. This would interest the audience as it will give them an insight of what you can do on the new release. This will make it the major component of success of the magazine due to the fact that some people would just buy the magazine just for what it says in the main cover line. 

The Official Nintendo Magazine

The Official Nintendo magazine is normally targeted at a young audience normally between the ages of  13 to 30. As this magazine is about gaming, the audience would be mainly built up on males. But however, some females do buy this magazine. The Nintendo Magazine has a very niche audience. This is because it is very specific and the people who would buy this magazine would buy it as they know a lot or are interested in Nintendo. For example, Mario is a very, very iconic character and has practically became the face of Nintendo but, people who may recognise him might not know a lot or not even anything about him so they are less likely to buy this magazine. 

The 'Rule of Thirds' has been used very effectively on this cover. Mario's face is in the middle horizontal third, the masthead is at the top, etc. The cover-lines on this cover target the audience very well. They tells what is within the magazine and they relate to the magazine's theme, games. The cover lines feature game titles for upcoming games such as, Mario Kart 8 and Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. These attract the audience, some people might want to buy it because they are a big Zelda fan and are interested in the latest Legend of Zelda game that is due to release for the 3DS. The main cover-line stands out the most due it being in bold and that it's background is in yellow. It catches the audience's eye. E3 is mentioned in the main cover-line. It is every gamer's dream to go to E3 and the fact that its information is from E3, people would be eager to know what is said. The cover-lines are in black and red which stands out from the white and makes them more noticeable for the eye. 

The representation that is being used on the front cover is hard for me to tell in a way. This is because it doesn't have a real person on the front, instead its a game character. But however, there is still representation on this front cover. The game character, Mario, is shown in an 'epic' pose with a fireball in his hand. This gives a feeling of 'awesomeness' when we look at it. The cover seems to be represented to be aimed at people in the working or under classes. But I could be wrong. Due to the fact that its layout is very professional looking as its laid out neatly and not over crowded, it could also be aimed at the middle class. Magazines with a specific theme, like games or cars, don't normally have much representation that is easy to see when looking at its cover.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Visual Codes:

Star Trek: Into Darkness is a Sci-fi movie and the expected clothing and appearence would obviously be 'space' related. The crew members on the starship Enterprise wear different coloured shirts and different styled badges to represent what area they in. Yellow means you are part of the command, Captain Kirk is the captain and is part of this area. Blue means you are either within medicine or science, you can tell the difference by the badges they wear. And finally, red means that you are part of the engineering facilities. These are iconic to the franchise itself and have been very recognisable over the years it has existed. Khan, however, is spotted around wearing a black trench coat. This suggests to the audience that he's possibly the main villian due to the fact that trench coats are very suspicious looking when worn.  The setting of this film is set within space, on a distant planet or in futuristic Earth. The setting fits very well within the film's genre as space is normally a main sci-fi setting. The use of colour is very good. When the characters are on different planets, they use a wide range of colours to represent how different the planets are from eachother and to bring out a sense of beauty. During the course of both the film and trailer, the film makers have added in an great amount of Lense Flares. This is used to create effect to the film and reflect the fact that they are mainly based in space.

Technical Codes:

The mise-en-scene of Star Trek includes a lot of sci-fi related props. Holograms, starships, space weapons, the lot! Basically the mise-en-scene just sums up what the visual codes are but the performance of the actors are very into their roles. Zachary Quinto, for example, portrays his role as Spock very well and always keeps very serious throughout. But he also shows himself as a reliable and loyal companion to Captain James Kirk, who is played by Chris Pine. The lighting is pretty much high key throughout. Mainly on the planet that features the red trees, this brings out the beauty behind what has been created. Sometimes low key lighting has been used if the current area is a dangerous or just to make the audience slightly on edge as they want to know what is possibly lurking within the shadows.

Audio Codes:

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound are used within the course of the trailer. The diegetic sounds are mainly the dialogue that is send. We know this as it is happening within the film world itself. The non-diegetic sound is the music that has been added onto the trailer to bring effect and to make things intriging to it's audience. The music keeps the viewers interested and also helps to make the viewers watch the full thing.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Visual Codes:

The visual codes of this trailer include many different aspects. The clothing and physical appearance for this is pretty obvious and you could tell what they would wear by the title itself. The costumes would include formal suits, leather spy outfits, a lot of black, etc. Take Agent Phil Coulson for example, he generally wears a suit and tie and thats his main outfit for the entire running of this trailer. Suits normally represent class, formality and personality. What he wears, also shows off his authority as an agent. The whole thing is set in urban areas as this is where most action normally occurs in the Marvel Universe. Urban areas like big cities (for example, New York), normally have crime happening within it. Cities like New York have always been a key setting for majority of the Marvel films, e.g. Avengers Assemble, The Amazing Spider-man, etc. The use of colour is mainly built up on dull formal colours and a lot of black as its S.H.I.E.L.D.'s signature colour.

Technical Codes:
The technical codes of this video covers a lot of things. The lighting is key in this one. The type of lighting is used is either high key lighting or natural lighting (which in a way is classed as high key). For someone who isn't familiar with this type of programme or Marvel itself, they would normally think its more of a low key lighting based project. But as its part of the Marvel franchise, Marvel enjoy having high key lighting quite a lot unless the setting needs low key lighting to make this more dark and dingy. At the start of the trailer, the producer used a few close up shots of the iconic weapons that belong to the Avengers. They used this to show that it is based around the Avengers and after what happened from the events of Avengers Assemble. Also close ups were used to represent the expression of newest protaganist's face when he found out that Agent Phil Coulson was still alive. The mise-en-scene includes quite a bit such as cool gadgets and holograms. It shows off what genre it is in too. We can this due to the fact that they use holograms and hi-tech gadgets that would be found within Sci-fi.

Audio Codes:
Audio Codes is basically the sound of the clip. The trailer features both diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The diegetic sound is anything that is within the film world itself such as the dialogue, sound of car doors shutting, etc. Like all trailers, they feature non-diegetic sound that goes over the top. This is used to keep the viewer intrigued and interested whilst watching. Also the music makes everything more epic and makes the viewer want to actually watch what the trailer is advertising to it's auidence. At the start of the trailer, there's a voice over, this comes under non-diegetic sound as it isn't within the film world. The voice over tells us what the programme's story is based on and people can tell that it is a follow up from where Avengers Assemble left off.

The Legend of Korra

The main intended audience for this programme would have to be someone aged 8-13 years old. This is because the programme is aired on Nickelodeon. But however, many people watch and enjoy this TV programme. It has a very large audience regardless of age. Most people who watch this are very fond of cartoons or the japanese equavilent, anime. The uses and gratifications of this would be for entertainment, social integration and personal identity. Social integration and entertainment uses are the main ones as people watch it to be entertained and they discuss it with their peers. But however, personal identity is a key use within this show and franchise. This is because the people who watch it and enjoy it like to show that they watch it and enjoy it. Whether it be merchandise or groups, it's audience want to show off and want to let people know that they are part of that audience. The programme is constructed so it tells a story. Most fictional television programmes are made and constructed so it tells a story. 'The Legend of Korra' is mediated so it focuses mainly on the main character, Avatar Korra, and her fight against Equalist Leader, Amon who is wanting to berid benders from the planet by taking away their bending. The programme also focuses on Korra's relationships and conflicts with herself and the rest of the new 'Team Avatar'.

X Factor

The audience that is intended for this TV programme is a family based audience. This is due to the fact that it is a typical saturday night television programme that all the family gather round and watch it together. The uses and gratifications for this programme is very easy to point out. This programme is mainly for entertainment purposes. People watch the 'X Factor' to be entertained and laugh at the bad audiences. For example, the clip I have posted has been constructed in a way to make the person to seem more bad than they already are and this entertains many audiences. The programme can also be used for social intergration due to the fact that it gets people talking about it and it publicly gets recognised as many discussions are taking place. They construct the programme so that they make the bad acts into laughing stocks whilst the good acts are being shown as 'amazing'. The show also mediates onto certain acts to show their story and perspective during the course of this journey they have to take in order to hopefully win the X Factor.

Clip is from the X Factor 2013 on the first week of auditions.