UNIT 1 – History Of The Film Magazine Genre

The History Of The Film Genre

The film magazine genre is a growing industry that is shifting in focus and constantly expanding, more magazines are being produced with different and more specific focus’ in film.

Trade

 Kine Weekly (1889), Today’s Cinema (1957), Variety and Hollywood Reporter are all trade film magazines. Trade was the start of the magazine genre, they were made for people that worked in the film industry.

Fan

Empire (1989), Picturegoer (1913), and Motion Picture Story Magazine are all magazines made for the fans of film. This style emerged when film magazines started to shift their focus to the audience instead of people in the industry.

Highbrow

Little White Lies (2001), Sight And Sound (1934) and Monthly Film Bulletin (1934) are all highbrow film magazines. Highbrow are very serious and have more of a focus on intellectual Art House films, independent cinema and some foreign cinema. They think of film as “Art”.

Niche

SFX (1995), Fangoria (1978) and Supernatural (1969) are all Niche film magazines. An adaptation of the fan style magazines, Niche focus on one very specific area or genre of film, for example Supernatural focus’ on Sci-Fi and horror rather than a lot of different films, and SFX focus’ on Fantasy and Sci-Fi. The point is that the magazine digs very deep in to one specific genre or aspect of film to best please the fans of that area.

Advances In Technology

Magazines nowadays have a strong online presence with the rise of the internet, Total Film, Empire and SFX are all a good example of this. These are not just online advertisements, these magazines have full interactive websites with reviews, interviews, blog posts and writers articles. Websites are also a good way to publish breaking news and information that would be outdated by the time a magazine is printed, the bigger news and articles are still always featured in the article.

Audience Needs And Lifestyle

Film magazines seem to be more about interviews and reviews because of the internet. Sites such as twitter connect people instantly and the audience can view spoilers and information quickly without buying a magazine, so the film magazines focus more on behind the scenes access that the internet can not deliver.

Changes In Style

Film magazines have scrapped the simplicity and are very rich and visual nowadays, for example, most film magazines now offer exclusive images within for the reader. Magazines like Little White Lies are heavily focused on graphic design, especially their front covers that are always very intricate and abstract.

Changes In Content

When film magazines started they were based only on current films and what they were about, they even sometimes included a whole plot summary so people did not have to go and see the film.

These synopsis’ then evolved in to reviews, this was then what the reader bought the magazine for, they want to know if a film is worth going to watch, reviews are still a huge part of film magazines to this day.

Film magazines then started to focus on the stars of movies, this came about when the genre started to aim their issues towards women. This became popular because the readers loved to find out gossip about their favourite actors and actresses.

Nowadays magazines are fairly balanced, they feature pretty much everything. From reviews, interviews, articles, gossip, news and more. The magazines cover everything to do with films, the stars and the crew behind them. This attracts a wide range of readers because the balance covers a diverse range of film topics. Magazines make sure they are always one step ahead of the internet with their diversity and exclusivity.

 

Marketing Campaign Feedback

Here is feedback we have received from the client for our marketing campaign:

You need to change the rating from PEGI to App Store rating.

Explain what MCV is and add pictures of the 5-a-side tournament happening.

Show research for twitter retweets.

Re-do target audience page explaining who your person is and what he looks like.

Have a strong focus on pub themes like pork scratching and other pub snacks.

Timings are poor, do not go to PAX because it is irrelevant to your football themed promotion.

Show ad banner click research.

Marketing Calender

Production Diary Entry 3

Today I finished off my 3 final designs. I used a combination of client feedback and target audience research to get the designs that I wanted.

Firstly, my ad banner, I made quite a few changes to this, I looked at websites such as ign.com and CVG (computerandvideogames.com). These sites both use video game ad banners, they all use the same style and that is what I tried to imitate with my banner.

The T Shirt was not so hard because I knew what I was going for, since the world cup is coming up I knew I wanted it to be football themed so I just went all out and made it in to a football shirt. I already knew what any football shirt looked like so I just had to give it, it’s own Mr Monocle twist.

Finally the app logo, this was quite challenging since there are so many different styles of app logo. I finally decided that I wanted to go for a symbolic style, however I wanted to include some text too. I went for this design because I feel it includes everything that someone could associate with Mr Monocle, the pink, Mr Monocle and the Butcher and finally the classic Mr Monocle text.

Editing/Revision Process For Each Design

Ad Banner

Firstly I removed the PEGI logo and added a much better quality version because the client stated that the images need to be of better quality and clarity.

I then removed Mr Monocle and the Butcher and replaced them with much better quality images.

Finally, I added a boarder to the edge of the banner, and to the gameplay screenshot as well to add some depth, I then adjusted the text and remaining images accordingly.

App Logo

Firstly I added a giant “MM” which stands for Mr Monocle to fill the empty space on the image, I also did it so people can identify the text with Mr Monocle because it is used on everything related to Mr Monocle.

I then added the Chalkboard Productions tagline to get rid of that final blank space at the top.

Finally, I re-masted the pink because I wanted it to be richer and darker.

 T-Shirt

There was not much that I wanted to change on my T-Shirt, however I did make a few subtle changes.

Firstly, I added a MM to the front of the shirt because I felt that the shirt was too plain on the front, I then moved Mr Monocle and re sized him.

Finally, I resized the numbers and text on the back ever so slightly because I thought that they looked out of place.

 

Action Plan Of Edits And Changes

App Logo

From the feedback I have received on my app logo the client thinks that there is too much empty space and the pink is too bright, to resolve this I am going to make the pink ever so slightly darker and make the characters brighter. To resolve the space issue I think I may add two giant M’s to represent Mr Monocle, or some sort of text along those lines.

Ad Banner

The client has said that they like the ad banner but they suggested I add some kind of border or some more diversity to the imagery, I am going to add a banner to the image and also have some colour variation (darker and lighter pink). the client also said the images need to be better quality so I am going to re-do them from scratch for maximum quality.

T-Shirt

My client feedback said that they really like my design, one thing that did concern them was the fact that the design was aimed heavily at boys, to fix this issue I am going to have to add some more verity to the shirt to make it more of a on-the-fence unisex design and appeal to all audiences.

Client Feedback On Draft Designs

Ad Banner

Client Feedback: “I like the bright standout colour ways, I also like the screenshot of gameplay because it gives you an initial idea of the game, I also like the link to the trailer because I can watch it instantly instead of having to find it myself. To improve you could give it a banner or some sort of depth/texture, also get better quality images.”

T-Shirt

Client Feedback: “The shirt is aimed too much at boys than girls because boys have more of an interest in football. I like the detail on the back and front of the shirt, especially the fact that you have the name of the game on the back as a form of indirect advertising.”

App Logo

Client Feedback: “I like the simplicity of the design, however I think it is too bright because the background is too pink and the characters do not stand out because of this.”

 

Mr Monocle Web Ad Banner Initial Idea

 

 

Here is my initial idea for my Web Ad Banner, I have described the process in my “Production Diary Entry 2” post.

Production Diary Entry 2

Today I worked on my initial idea for my Mr Monocle Web Ad Banner. I looked for inspiration on ign.com where I found this ‘Murdered: Soul Suspect’  Web Ad Banner. I used this as a template for my banner, in regards to size and placement of image and text. Instead of having an option to play the video on my banner, I added a ”Click here to see the trailer” graphic to the banner.

This is what I have come up with for my initial idea. I have used the classic Mr Monocle font for the title and a pixelated font for the remaining text as these two fonts are always associated with the game. I used images of the two main characters because they add some character to the banner and also give the viewer an idea of the games art style. I put the logos of the systems that can run the game at the bottom because this tells the viewer what the game can be played on. Finally, I decided to have an in-game screen shot to the right just to give the viewer an idea of how the game looks because you can interpret a lot by just seeing a screenshot.

 

Mr Monocle Initial T-Shirt Design

 

Here is my initial idea for my T-Shirt, I have described the process in my “Production Diary Entry 1” post.