The central image of the magazine front cover is a portrait mid-shot of the three main characters (Patrick Dempsey, Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth) in the film 'Bridget Jones's Baby.' Therefore the whole cover is focused around the film and the characters themselves. Each character is dressed in a different attire to portray their personalities and even their professions. An example being that Colin Firth is dressed as his character, Mark Darcy who is seen to be wearing a suit. Therefore, without even having to have seen any of the films, the audience are immediately aware of his high status profession and that he is a smart and well achieving man. This is in comparison to Renee's character who plays Bridget Jones herself and Patrick Dempsey's character who plays Jack who are dressed more casually. Bridget is dressed in a mix of colours, ranging from purple, pink and green. This shows her personality to be very bubbly and outgoing as purple has connotations of power and ambition, as well as green that was connotations of growth that links to her character very well. Overall, the suggestion through her colour choice is that Bridget is a confident woman who despite being in between two men is very strong minded and as shown through the previous two films in the trilogy has shown a good character development. Finally, on the left hand side is the character of Jack who again is dressed very simply. He is seen to still be dressed quite smartly through the collared grey shirt he is wearing which has been dressed down with the navy bomber jacket to show the simplicity yet sophistication of his attire.
The use of the language on the magazine cover is centred towards the target audience which consists of all females. An example is 'Bridget Jones IS BACK!' and through the use of the font, they have added a heart over the dot on the 'i', which adds the aspect of the femininity. It also shows the casual and friendly language that is being used to attract the audience as they will respond more to language as this as they feel included. However, the magazine also use language such as 'Our Favourite Wanton Sex Goddess Returns...' when describing Renee which shows the popularity of the actor and how she is still portrayed positively throughout the film, defying the stereotypes for the women her age. As mentioned before, this cover specifically only mentions issues associated with the film as that is their main focus. Moreover, they suggest an 'Exclusive First Look' which immediately draws the attention of the audience as they instantly want to discover any new insight from the film. This cover in particular, I wanted to focus on in comparison to the other Entertainment Weekly cover as it only focuses on the film and does not provide any taglines or puffs surrounding the image. This is unusual as in many of their other covers, they are more focused on the headlines as well as the main image however for this film, they were aware of how successful it would be and therefore honoured it with a whole front cover spread.
The lighting on the front cover is light and radiant, it allows the actors and actress to be seen in a light of reality and they are not seen as over exaggerated with their features. It is really natural to again portray the image of the casualness of the characters and how natural they are with their work. The framing of the image as mentioned previously is portrait and is a mid-shot so the audience can see their attire but also see how squeezed together the three are to one another. This is in reference to the film itself and with the use of the prop which adds to the title of the film, as it evidently gives indication that Bridget has a baby and the teddy is shown to add emphasis. Especially, as she is wedged between Mark, a familiar character and Jack who is unfamiliar, which causes the audience to create their own suspicions for the film. The mode of address is also shown through the image as all three characters are looking directly to the audience, especially as they are all smiling and look really happy. Therefore, this has been purposely done as the female gender are more likely to purchase the copy due to the perfect image as they all look content despite the odd situation. The actors such as Patrick Dempsey and Colin Firth also add to the female gaze as they would be attracted to the men and perhaps then be more willing to buy it, as well as the fact that the idea of the love triangle can be relatable to many readers.
For my own magazine, I am inspired by this cover as I want to recreate a similar central image with my main character placed up and close in front of the camera. I may also include a prop in the image although there isn't a significant prop in the trailer so far, I may add one in to link into the magazine cover. The prop in the magazine gives a suggestion of what could happen within the film and I do want to create enigma codes for my audience therefore I look forward to figuring out if I could include one.
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