2.1 Undertake Research for an Assignment or Project
Task 1 & 2
Kitty Rimell
10/10/18
Target Audience
My target audience would probably young adults and teenagers. I feel I would be unable to cater successfully to older or extremely young audiences as i would not know as much about them. My questionnaire will help me understand how I could potentially cater to an older audience, so I can maybe include a few more features for that particular age range.
Marketing
My magazine would be sold online, as that’s usually what people are focused on. In my opinion its easier to subscribe to a magazine online then go on the streets to search for it. However, for those who may not use the internet that often my magazine would be sold in little newsagent’s shops and kiosks on the street, as well as the larger chain shops, like Tesco or Sainsburys. I would try to make my magazine accessible in all formats so that it increasing buying potential.
Costs
Upon research I discovered that creating a magazine is roughly £15,000 a month, each issue costing around £7,500. The writers in a magazine usually get about £3000 from the magazine, the rest mostly goes to the copy editors, illustrators, photographers and editors. In my magazine I would include ads because people can pay between £200 to thousands to get their ad in a magazine. If I were aiming to get a £10,000 profit I would have to sell each magazine for £2.50, making 10,000 copies.
Contents
It will have a more visual approach to displaying movie related news. It will have a mixture of bold lettering with a minimalistic page layout and a classic theme of red, black and white. I want the homepage to have a picture of the headlining/ most popular article, for example of an actor or an interesting scene from an upcoming movie. I would have an anticipation, enjoyment and must watch rating as I think this gives the reader more information about the movie. I would include links to popular podcast as well as radio links. My magazine would also have a page dedicated to exclusive clips and trailers from current movies. It would have a small bar at the bottom of the page where you can easily subscribe to my magazine.
Purpose
The purpose of this magazine is to get people interested in reading movie reviews and upcoming news stories. Most of the people i interviewed don’t read movie magazines because they haven’t found one interesting enough. I think it would be interesting to see if I can create a magazine that people will gravitate towards and want to pick up.
At the bottom of the page you will find a bar where you can sign up to BFI London Film Festival emails, where you will receive news, competition and ticket release updates.
Empire Magazine is another British film magazine that takes a completely different approach to offering information about film and tv news. Empire uses a more visual technique that grabs the readers attention with bold lettering and short titles. There is a bar at the top of the page that provides subsections for movies; news; reviews; features; gaming; pilot episodes of certain TV shows; awards page and a subscribe button to receive the empire magazine.
Starburst magazine, like Little White Lies, has a more visual approach when presenting movies or TV news to an audience. In big, red, bold lettering it shows the title of the film and underneath, comedically reveals -by making a slight joke about the movie- that they have made their review, with a small ‘read more’ button in the lower left corner.
Task 3, 4 & 5
Task 6
FILM MAGAZINE RESEARCH
The BFI Magazine provides detailed synopsis's of various movies and has many movies advertised for rental along with a brief description of what the movie is about. The BFI are able to supply a range of films selected by critics, which I would recommended for an older audience as most of the films are usually black and white. The BFI page also includes various themed movie categories with 10 movies for each category so that people are able to have a wide selection of films across all genres. If you scroll down the BFI page, you will come across the latest stories section where you will find a detailed summary of what actor will be in which roles in any upcoming movies.
At the bottom of the page you will find a bar where you can sign up to BFI London Film Festival emails, where you will receive news, competition and ticket release updates.
Empire Magazine is another British film magazine that takes a completely different approach to offering information about film and tv news. Empire uses a more visual technique that grabs the readers attention with bold lettering and short titles. There is a bar at the top of the page that provides subsections for movies; news; reviews; features; gaming; pilot episodes of certain TV shows; awards page and a subscribe button to receive the empire magazine.
The page provides the latest news for upcoming movies as well as exclusive clips, even suppling a podcast link, widening the audience of the Empire as they accommodate people who like podcasts. At the bottom they have a series of various movie reviews, followed by the latest TV show reviews.
Unlike the other magazines, Little White Lies magazine has a much more colourful and visual approach to movie and tv show news. It usually features a stunning painting or drawing of a particular actor, relevant at that time, and has that as the main cover, with little detail of what could be inside. The magazine captivates the audience with its bright colouring to make reader want to look inside. Online, the page is very clean, social media handles are placed to the right of the page, opposite the reviews, features, podcast, magazine and subscribe buttons. On the centre page, in the highlight review section it features an image of a film, with the title and author of the review beside it on the right, with a brief description of the movie itself.
Little White Lies magazine also includes an anticipation, enjoyment and retrospect rating for each film review they do, which was not included for any other magazine I looked at. Also, the brief summaries of the film include the authors opinion in the title, for example ‘Why I love … in this film.’ I think adding the authors opinion is a good idea as it immediately lets the reader know which actor played the role well in which film. It also includes a list of most popular articles down the side of the page.
Starburst magazine, like Little White Lies, has a more visual approach when presenting movies or TV news to an audience. In big, red, bold lettering it shows the title of the film and underneath, comedically reveals -by making a slight joke about the movie- that they have made their review, with a small ‘read more’ button in the lower left corner.
It has the logo in the upper left corner followed by, similar to the other magazines, a range of buttons, for featured news, reviews, podcasts, news, trailers, subscribe button, a link to the film festival page and also a store checkout basket, immediately indicating that you are able to buy the magazine. It has a features page if you scroll down, that has competition adverts and film releases in a patchwork, scrapbook style. It also includes an arrow where you can access more highlights. It has a separate news section near the bottom where you can flick through different news stories, be it movie releases, recent actor deaths or actor news.
Reviews for movies can be found at the bottom of the page, followed by a section called the ‘Trailer Park’ where you can access a range of trailer for upcoming films. Starburst magazine also have a sections for podcasts, so that the interests of that audience is met.
You can sign up to the newsletter at the bottom of the page to receive all the latest updates from the magazine.
VERDICT
In my opinion, if i were going to create a magazine i would go for a more visual approach, like the Starburst and Little White Lies magazine as it immediately grabs attention from the viewer. I would also include an enjoyment, anticipation and a must watch rating like the Little White Lies magazine as i found that not many other magazines included this. To branch out my target audience i would also include podcast and radio link, where people can easily access various categories of podcasts.
I would create a bar on the top of the page, similar to the magazines i looked at for any important subsections like, movie reviews; tv reviews; features; exclusive clips and a subscribe button so people could be notified when i would release the next edition.
I found that the magazines i didn't like as much would often include competitions which i personally would ignore so i wouldn't put it in my magazine.
Task 8
When interviewing the people I chose, the first question I asked was whether they were subscribed to a magazine or not. I wanted to collect two perspectives on film magazines, one being people who read them and know what they want to see and what they expect; another being the view of the people who don’t read them, so I can find out what would make them read film magazines and understand what’s missing from current magazines that doesn’t make some viewers want to read them.
After submitting the data from my film survey into a pie chart it is clear the most popular genre of movies across most ages is horror. As a result of this, I think I should base my featuring articles around the subject of horror, advertising upcoming horror movies and news stories about the actors starring in those movies, as very many said they enjoy reading news stories. I will also include movies from other genres as well, like family, drama, thriller, action, etc.
As of the anticipation, enjoyment and must-see rating, most people thought it would be a good idea to include it as they said that if they were deciding on what movie to watch it would help them.
When asked if people would prefer a more visual page or an informative one, most people immediately opted for the visual page paired with bright flashy lettering that would instantly grab the audience’s attention as well as a short humorous paragraph or two summarising recommended movies, as most people said a factual one would bore them and they wouldn’t read it.
Almost all the people I interviewed said they liked watching trailers for movies and said they watched them regularly, so in the interest of the audience I should include a tab/link on the front page so people can be directed to the trailer page, without having to scroll down a lot.
Finally, I have decided to include both a podcast and radio link in my magazine. Based on the results, there are a considerable amount of people who listen to either, as well as both. So in an effort to cater to everyone’s wants and needs, I think I should incorporate both a podcast and radio page/link.
Synopsis: I am creating a magazine that will have a more visual approach to displaying movie related news. It will have a mixture of bold lettering with a minimalistic page layout and a classic theme of red, black and white. I want the homepage to have a picture of the headlining/ most popular article, for example of an actor or an interesting scene from an upcoming movie. I would have an anticipation, enjoyment and must watch rating as I think this gives the reader more information about the movie. I would include links to popular podcast as well as radio links. My magazine would also have a page dedicated to exclusive clips and trailers from current movies. It would have a small bar at the bottom of the page where you can easily subscribe to my magazine.
Task 9
Film Magazine
Questionnaire
How old are you?
What genre of movies do you usually watch?
How often do you read movie reviews?
Do you think an anticipation, enjoyment and must see rating would help you choose a movie if it was there?
Who do you usually watch movies with?
What would attract you more, a more visual picture page or a more informative page?
Do you listen to the radio or podcasts often?
Do you prefer a more jokey and fun way of summarising a movie or a more factual one?
Do you like to read news stories about actors in upcoming movies?
Do you like bright flashy colours or do you prefer a more minimalistic approach?
Are you subscribed to any magazines?
Do you like to watch trailers for movies?
