Magazine front cover: Empire Magazine
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Empire is a British film magazine, possibly one of the biggest in the industry. It is brought to us by publishing giant Bauer consumer media and issued monthly.
This cover depicts the late Heath Ledger’s Joker from the 2008 blockbuster “The Dark Knight”. The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan won numerous awards for it’s near perfect cinematography and grossed over $1,000,000,000 worldwide making it the highest grossing film of 2008, and the 10th highest grossing film of all time.
Heath Ledger’s Joker is vastly different from the different Joker we have all grown accustom to. He is a much darker, far more insane joker than in any other Batman film. The raw insanity of the joker helped propel The Dark Knight to its status today. On the front cover we can see the worn out lipstick smeared over his face, the black circles around his eyes and the famous green hair. However this Joker’s green hair is far grungier and all these attributes connote the madness inside his head. The make up symbolizes he is hiding a number of things from the world. Moreover universally when people see red it tends to be used as a warning (an obvious example being the red traffic light). The same is true with The Joker, once people see his bright red lipstick they know they are in trouble.
I believe the new look for the Joker works as a warning to the younger viewers, those used to the fairly innocent Batman that appears on television in the morning. The overall darker tone of the film is connoted through the re-design of the joker. A single glance at this Joker and immediately we know this isn’t going to be a typical Batman film. The roughly applied lipstick helps add to the utterly insane look. The bright colouring of the red lipstick is said to connote aggression, anger and fear, three attributes that The Joker embodies. Finally the black rings around his eyes emphasize how mysterious and secretive he is, as the colour black connotes a sense of mystery. . In Western countries black is the colour of death, thus making him look for more evil and sinister. The pitch black rings on top of the pale white make up ensure that he is symbolizing death all over the world./
It uses lighting to great affect blacking out most of the background yet perfectly lighting his face. This denotes the character itself as the Joker is surrounded by mystery, yet he is never shy to show his war-paint covered face. His white make up is an attempt to hide his identity, and successfully does so. The colour white could also connote death, especially if seen by Asian viewers – as white is the colour of death in countries such as Japan, where they wear white at a funeral. The lack of background lighting reinforces the fact there is much about The Joker we have yet to discover. We see a glimpse of his signature purple suit, also connoting that he is a very odd individual as it is a rarity for someone to wear a purple suit.
Through an extreme close up we are shown each and every minute detail of his face. These include the wrinkles and scars, telling us how much he has suffered in the past. The Joker’s non-verbal communication depicts a total lunatic. He appears to be smiling, but is clearly not very happy. It’s a very menacing half-smile. This kind of smile is seen by The Joker fairly often, but only when he is either inflicting pain on people, or thinking about inflicting pain. His eyes are wide open with a slightly upwards inflection. This look is very typical of The Joker and once again exemplifies how insane this man truly is. His eyes accompany the infamous half smile very well and are the most Joker-esque features of the overall non-verbal communication. Although deadly serious eyes would never be seen on someone with a smile on their face, The Joker executes the look flawlessly. This is because his smile is far more menacing than any other smile, and his eyes are pure evil. His eyes are clearly on the same wavelength as the smile, possibly hiding a wicked and intricate scheme behind them.
The colour pallet Empire have used for this issue are simply the colours that represent The Joker. This is quite typical of Empire, using the same colour scheme as whatever film character they are.
This cover depicts the late Heath Ledger’s Joker from the 2008 blockbuster “The Dark Knight”. The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan won numerous awards for it’s near perfect cinematography and grossed over $1,000,000,000 worldwide making it the highest grossing film of 2008, and the 10th highest grossing film of all time.
Heath Ledger’s Joker is vastly different from the different Joker we have all grown accustom to. He is a much darker, far more insane joker than in any other Batman film. The raw insanity of the joker helped propel The Dark Knight to its status today. On the front cover we can see the worn out lipstick smeared over his face, the black circles around his eyes and the famous green hair. However this Joker’s green hair is far grungier and all these attributes connote the madness inside his head. The make up symbolizes he is hiding a number of things from the world. Moreover universally when people see red it tends to be used as a warning (an obvious example being the red traffic light). The same is true with The Joker, once people see his bright red lipstick they know they are in trouble.
I believe the new look for the Joker works as a warning to the younger viewers, those used to the fairly innocent Batman that appears on television in the morning. The overall darker tone of the film is connoted through the re-design of the joker. A single glance at this Joker and immediately we know this isn’t going to be a typical Batman film. The roughly applied lipstick helps add to the utterly insane look. The bright colouring of the red lipstick is said to connote aggression, anger and fear, three attributes that The Joker embodies. Finally the black rings around his eyes emphasize how mysterious and secretive he is, as the colour black connotes a sense of mystery. . In Western countries black is the colour of death, thus making him look for more evil and sinister. The pitch black rings on top of the pale white make up ensure that he is symbolizing death all over the world./
It uses lighting to great affect blacking out most of the background yet perfectly lighting his face. This denotes the character itself as the Joker is surrounded by mystery, yet he is never shy to show his war-paint covered face. His white make up is an attempt to hide his identity, and successfully does so. The colour white could also connote death, especially if seen by Asian viewers – as white is the colour of death in countries such as Japan, where they wear white at a funeral. The lack of background lighting reinforces the fact there is much about The Joker we have yet to discover. We see a glimpse of his signature purple suit, also connoting that he is a very odd individual as it is a rarity for someone to wear a purple suit.
Through an extreme close up we are shown each and every minute detail of his face. These include the wrinkles and scars, telling us how much he has suffered in the past. The Joker’s non-verbal communication depicts a total lunatic. He appears to be smiling, but is clearly not very happy. It’s a very menacing half-smile. This kind of smile is seen by The Joker fairly often, but only when he is either inflicting pain on people, or thinking about inflicting pain. His eyes are wide open with a slightly upwards inflection. This look is very typical of The Joker and once again exemplifies how insane this man truly is. His eyes accompany the infamous half smile very well and are the most Joker-esque features of the overall non-verbal communication. Although deadly serious eyes would never be seen on someone with a smile on their face, The Joker executes the look flawlessly. This is because his smile is far more menacing than any other smile, and his eyes are pure evil. His eyes are clearly on the same wavelength as the smile, possibly hiding a wicked and intricate scheme behind them.
The colour pallet Empire have used for this issue are simply the colours that represent The Joker. This is quite typical of Empire, using the same colour scheme as whatever film character they are.