Monday, 11 November 2013

stardust front cover and contents page analysis

The front cove background is light dark brown. Plus the masthead is with white and golden colour, the masthead is behind the artist which implies that the artist is more important to read than the magazine. The artist used on this front cover is famous actress and actor shahid kappor and Shraddha Kappor. The magazine had covered the whole page by putting the artist in front of it as that shows that it’s more about the artist stories. The magazine only has few teasers and that is in the top of the magazine. The mise-en-scene used for this image is close medium shot; which makes it more attention and appealing for the audience. The artist dress colour matches with the whole setting of the background because since it has light dark brown in the back and in front it has yellow and white which connotes the contrast of the magazine as yellow suited more to the female artist and white suited more to the male artist. Up above there’s a small teaser saying about Rani Mukherji engagement: this headline will certainly catch the audience focus since she’s more famous than the front cover artist. Even though the image size is small it’ still easy enough to capture the audience look as direct mode of address is used to maintain our eye contact with her. There’s also a small puff in the left side of the star which is “Free Shah rukh khan” poster”, the idea that it’s assaying “free” it will immediately make the audience want to buy the magazine as the magazine target audience is divided both genders, females will more attempted to read and buy it. In general  the magazine only wants its reader to focus on the main headings , this technique is quite unique than other magazine for instance in some music magazine rather than having the main masthead they also have other teasers around the magazine to make it more interesting for the audience to read. In terms of layering the whole page the magazine only placed the images to and the headings and this tells us that the relationship between the between the images and texts is that as with direct mode of address, the texts speak more about the artist curious life which connotes with the images face appearances because the looks of the images are more formal, compassionate and royalty.
 As the colour perfectly match with it as well.  This indicates that the connotation of this front cover is that it’s mainly trying to link with success, achievement and triumph, abundance, prosperity, luxury and quality; with sophistication, elegance, value, quality and status, Innocence, wholeness and completion. The fact that female artist dress is yellow and gold it implies that artist is a confident, positive and has a warmth personality as she’s  tells us how she doesn't mind romancing with older actors, it’s as if the artist is almost inviting us into her love life making us feel more exhilarating to read it. Additionally the white colour of the male artist it shows his new beginning with his love life since the audience already knows that he was once in a deep relationship with Kareena. As a result the white colour connotes protection and encouragement for him and to us audience that there are other people whom he can find to confide into, offering a sense of peace and calm, comfort , hope, helping alleviate the emotional upsets that he had to face with his breakup of his love life. This reassures us that the artist is searching for his life partner as this directly links with the double page spread headline. But surprisingly in western culture, too much white can be cold, isolating and empty, whereas in other cultures it’s a recall of youth and innocence. This Demonstrates that overall both of the artist are trying to make new steps of their life and make a new beginning since the male artist is trying to make his future more into famous whereas the other begins her world into the Bollywood world and her first step is about her love life, which is what every artist has before they become famous. Therefore the magazine is trying to tell us that it’s new life, new term and it’s better to make our own moments as that’s what the artist are trying to do. The denotation is that the both artist trying to fit themselves with the life of Bollywood as every start in the magazine has its personal life story.
The tone of this magazine is quite chill and peaceful and we can see that the music genre is represented through the artists as each of the movies that these entire artist have done has famous music, which we can find inside this magazine. The music genre is Bollywood and we can see that because of the title as stardust is most of the time famous for its selection of the music in the Bollywood industry. The audience for stardust is for young audience and it’s from 18+ and it’s a monthly magazine. Stardust is famous since the beginning of the Bollywood industry. It’s Publishes by the famous Magna publishing which is famous other Bollywood music magazine. There are other ways in which the magazine can be brought: apps, internet, and newspaper (sometime in certain Hindu celebration it becomes free to buy if you buy 2 newspapers), it also has its own website where you can buy there too. News-stands or supermarket etc. This magazine is always in competition with other magazine called Filmfare. The magazine has also other features to cover; in fact it covers more than about Bollywood life such as health issues, beauty tips, young teenager’s issues faced by the artist etc. The language as usual  in this magazine is sophisticated , informal and passionate but in different terms they change their use of language style depending on the type of audience available for certain time , for example even though this magazine is aimed from younger audience above , it puts itself to middle and higher class people category.

The contents page of this magazine is traditional Indian way because stardust follows the traditional roots of India tradition style way like it did before. The magazine like to challenge the idea of typical codes and convention of magazine, it layered it out completely differently, writing it like bullet point so the audience knows what’s there to read and what interesting is there to read. It’s in a small layer page , where it outlines properly what special features is there and what special interview is there to read, in Bollywood magazine they don’t have the music list ; they have it inside it with some page linking to it. It’s either at the end or start it depends on the type of audience as I said before available for certain time. The fonts are use is bold back font which implies the direct connection to the magazine because it’s more formal and easier to read. The other teasers are quite small to read but it mainly tried to stay in one direction trying to catch the audience attention at the same time rather than having it spread out the whole page.  The inside layer is done in a square box and for stardust they always like to try something new because they want to follow the typical was for outlining the contents page. The masthead is red which quickly makes us gaze through the contents page to read more, plus the lines within the contents page are mixed with red and white. And red and white makes it more vibrating plus appealing to read and lively to keep the audience ongoing as red and black isn't something that we always associate to see together. The masthead is placed on the top of the contents page which stands out and it removes the confusion if it’s a contents page, the magazine doesn't even say it’s a contents page, this makes it more shocking but fascinating. This makes the choice of the magazine outstand, than the other magazine. Surprisingly, it doesn't have any images which I think quickly attracts our focus on the headings only. If I was to read the contents page I would have find it interesting to read not because I love Bollywood but it’s an exclusive contents page that I've never seen. So therefore the overall layout of the magazine and its positioned of the magazine obviously it challenges our thinking of the contents page but at the same time it also makes us want to read more and look into the magazine. Moreover, the other features are highlighted in bold so this gives the audience the choice into what to read. Denotation/connotation:  the use of connotation of back and red represent the seriousness and bold statements that the stardust magazine is about. The connotation of the interview may attract both male and female genders but it will be mainly female as there are hotter actor stories than the females. The issue lien downside after the features as it is not main priority of the magazine, the colour used for is black which stands out. Usually in magazine there’s a subject to focus on but however in this magazine there’s no subject to focus on because it gives the individual choice to pick what to read or what not to see. Hence the magazine layout suggests individuality and it’s balanced with all the others texts. The font’s size throughout the contents page is relatively small as there is lot of information /headings that needs to be stated. The colour of the fonts is black in white yellow background, its’ neither dark nor brighter. Its relatively plain yellow background with back black formal Ariel font which is eye catching, the colours automatically go together and don’t clash. It’s a simple effective way form outlining the whole features.
The contents page as a whole looks completely different and creative than other magazine; it actually challenges the codes and conventions of a contents page. And therefore I believe this is what makes it inspiring to read about it. Sometimes with images it takes our attention into something that we are not meant to read in magazine contents page with all the texts messed around. But this magazine makes it easy for me personally to understand what is going on and it does forces me to read about it.


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