A magazine cover is free publicity, given by the publishers of the article. You get free publicity for your movie, they get money for selling their magazine with your brand on the front. The bigger the film is going to be the bigger the magazine that will use your product. This is why a High Concept film like Batman; with almost a guaranteed success rate, a star-studded cast, a big time director and a large sum of money funding it will get more publicity than a film like Trainspotting, This is England or our film, Wonderland that are British films, with a high risk success rate, a British relatively unknown cast, a successful director and a limited sum of money. In both magazine covers we see the main actors of the both films, Ewan McGregor and Thomas Turgoose, looking at the camera and acting as their characters. However as you can see Trainspotting's cover is a photo of Ewan McGregor by Empire and calls it 'The Year's Hippest Movie'. Compare that British film's magazine cover to he This is England magazine cover and you see it's a sketched drawing of Thomas Turgoose simply saying 'The This is England Issue'. I would prefer my film Wonderland to be getting offers from Empire instead of Little White Lies because it means that our film will attract a bigger audience due to more people buying and reading Empire.
Posters are advertising and will cost the producer money to produce and distribute. However unlike a magazine cover you can distribute your product where ever you want and grab the attention of a wider audience with a well placed poster. Also as a producer you can create what you want for your poster. Usually with low budget British films the emphasis of the poster is on the cast, introducing the characters and actors to the audience with characteristics that would appeal to the audience. With Trainspotting we see the five main actors posing as their characters to attract an audience who will find at least one of them interesting enough to go and watch the film. With This is England we see the whole main cast together as a group again positioned and acting as the characters they are playing. This is usually done because their is no main star in the film so their is no need to show the main character by themselves and to get a wider response with multiple actors on show. If Trainspotting was a new film out now, the posters would have Ewan McGregor as the main picture with Robert Carlyle possibly in the background. With the film poster I am creating I would again like to go with Trainspotting, individual shots of the cast; Will, Elle and myself in character either with a white background or a This is England urban background.
