What is the purpose of magazines?
How does the industry use magazines to sell their products and media text?
This task reminded me of my AS course whereby we designed and created a music magazine. My ancillary product is somewhat similar to what I had to create in AS. I progressed to research further into the use of magazines especially music magazine, my research from the Internet and media books helps me with the generic conventions of film magazines and the purpose of music magazines.
My research would be based on the cost of a standard film magazine, the target audience, what conventions do film magazine follow and how does this entice the audience to buy the product, I aim to predict how my film magazine cover might challenge the
Magazines are usually financed by advertisement companies and are distributed in a consecutive cycle e.g. every week, every day etc… films magazines are usually distributed monthly due to the fact that films are not produced on a daily bases, so a film magazine being distrusted monthly gives the media institution more time to gather information
I found that magazines have different use in the media world; it can be used as a form of advertisement for a variety of media products, it promotes a media text and gives the audience an insight into how critics rate the media product. Large collections of audience often collect magazines in order to be updated in the latest news, events or situation and I found that film magazines often feature actors, directors, editors and other fields in the media industry gives the reader an insight into the production of media text.
Film magazines are not only available in hard copies, they have recently been designed and published via the web, e.g. the well know ‘Empire’ film magazine can also be found on the website www.emipreonline.com, although I am not working on creating an online film magazine, we can notice the progression of technologies and how the distribution of magazines have evolved into becoming more widely accessible to the general public. Online magazines do not follow the generic conventions of hard copy magazines, so to follow their conventions would be wrong as I am planning to design and create a paperback magazine.
Empire magazine
Publishing Company: Bauer Consumer Source: Wikipedia
Sell Date: Monthly magazine Source: Wikipedia
Price: £3.00 Source: AnswerBag
Target audience: it is hard to distinguish what the target audience is for one of the most popular film magazine in the media industry. Empire is compacted with various contents; however from the front cover the audience can see that Empire magazine has a trend of promoting films. The front cover acts as a form of advertisement and also to lure their target audience. One of the most common target audiences for the magazine is for the YUPPIE groups, ‘Young Urban Professional, because the types of films promoted are mostly adult genre. However there are masses of audience, such as film collectors, or DINKY ‘dual income no kids yet’ a group of people who have a hobby of reading film magazines or establish a career in films.What conventions do empire magazines follow?
An example of an Empire film magazine, almost instantly the reader consumes the main image that is centred on the magazine. Despite the image being paced behind the text, the image still defines the facial features intended to draw the audience. The props used on the main character, Keria Knightley, informs us that the film is based during the Victorian era, we can argue that it is a stereotypical perspective of upper-class Victorians to be pale, clustered with expensive jewellery, have an up-do hairstyle and fit the ‘British’ features as Kiera Knightley so perfectly portrays. Empire magazine follows the convention of using a plain background, it seems to follow suite of many other magazines. However I plan to challenge this convention by placing a setting on the background of my magazine. I want to use an image that has not been shown in my film trailer but still follows the storyline.What conventions does the image follow, how would I challenge it?
The image works well with the masthead, the bold fonts and ‘masculine’ bulkiness can give a description to the main character, her cold-blooded glare into the camera and emotionless feature compliments the red- coded masthead. From here I learnt that the image of the magazine needs to link with the mast head in order to target the audience, the connotations surrounding the colour of font, or the ideas surrounding the image must make the consumer intrigue to know more about the magazine. 
The masthead is bold and distinctive. The consumer doesn’t need to strain their vision to read the masthead. In every magazine, it is a tradition to ensure that the masthead stands out-either through colour, size, font, style or appearance. The Mastheads, like the Empire masthead on the left, must be eye-catching. The font used for the Empire magazine masthead appeals to their target audience. It does not intimidate some target audience as serious or business-like instead it looks quite comical, it makes the audience aware that the magazine suits people with an interest in films or people who studies films as a hobby. Empire magazine masthead also makes it clear that it is for collection purposes as well.
A British institution owns total Film magazine, it is distributed once every month. It is targeted at specific audiences who have an interest in the filming world. Most of the films publicised are sourced from Hollywood or A-list directors. The films have the tendency to by high budgeted. They seek a large number of subscribers and offer deal to win customers over; these are one of the many selling strategies that the magazine does to promote its name to possible consumers.
Price: £2.90
Institution: future publishing
Founded 1997
Global: although it is a British magazine, the magazine is distributed globally to other countries, it has an inter-relation with America, India, Germany however unlike ‘Empire’ it does not print in different languages instead it sticks with its English manuscript. The lack of a range of languages such as Chinese, French, and Spanish can contribute to them not reaching their possible percentage of consumers.
Magazine conventions
The structure of the magazine follows the existing products, it is necessary for film magazine to follow a convention because the consumer can easily identify the product; making it easer for the institution to sell their goods to their target audience. In Total Film magazine, the main picture is centred causing the consumer to be drawn to the image – it even over laps the masthead creating a dramatic impact and domineering feature. The product (main image) is placed in a location, the audience can identify that the location of the film. Most Film magazines do not place the character on a setting instead they place them on a plain background, I planned to challenge this convention by using a background setting in my magazine cover.
(include more research)
