WEBSITE CASE STUDY - ESSENCE

 

CASE STUDIES - ESSENCE MAGAZINE

What I like about this magazine is the simplicity of the text combined with the golden colour scheme to convey something effective. This same scheme is similar to the one I would like to use for one of my film covers because The colour of gold connotes power and a star persona that will be evident to the audience in my magazine. The font on the headline "Missy Midas touch" as well as the glow effect behind her, are just examples of the features I want to implement in my magazine. The stance is also very powerful, with Missy Elliot's hair being blown out and making her look angelic, like a goddess. I would like to also use this in my magazine and will use it as an inspiration for how I would like it to look.

CASE STUDIES - TOTAL FILM MAGAZINE

Consistent branding displayed through the total film iconic logo on both of the front covers, but slightly altered with a dalmation fur pattern to fit the aesthetic of the movie. Conventions of this magazine including having a large bold heading to anchor the image of the character in the front cover, and draw attention to them.

Total film magazine's slogan of the smarter movie magazine places them on a pedestal in contrast to their competitors. This is done through the comparative of smarter, and the readers can ensure that by this they are gaining access to knowledgeable and appealing content that will expand their cultural competency in terms of movies.

Front covers feature a striking image of Cruella sustaining direct eye contact with the audience. She has a bold makeup look with a pale white face paint, bold red lip stick and harsh winged liner. This intense stare combined with the makeup look makes her seem evil, powerful and suggests that she may cause some danger in the movie as a villain.

One thing that stands out to me about this magazine is the symmetrical alignment of the balloons, revolving around the clown to convey a sense of eeriness to the the audience. Using direct contact with the audience is already intense as a whole, but the same one eye used in the film cover is repeated in the magazine for familiarity and consistency, but also to suggest that the tone of this spine chilling film.

Another interesting thing about this magazine is how total film has posed their content as "gifts" for the audience making them seem unique and special. The gifts include a 52 page magazine with every film revisited and exclusive interviews. The second gifts include a double sided art card, The borders of the magazine are a golden colour with a strapline reading a Tarantino special, so this is fulfilling total film magazines promise to their audience to deliver personal interviews and content associated with A list stars such as Quentin Tarantino.

Including quotes is another feature from the magazines I have analysed that I will incorporate into my own, using quotes like "On set with...." and teasing the audience a little by giving them a sneak peak of the content that will be in my magazine.

Further credibility is seen in the magazine where it states on the "M" in the masthead that it has the world's most trusted film reviews. This shows how Total film magazines have success on a global scale. The film gives access to more A list stars such as Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Leonardo. Dicaprio.

What appeals to me about this magazine is how the characters were represented. There is a shot of James bond at the front looking into the distance to show how he is always involved in some form of action and is always on the lookout, characteristics of a protagonist. And then there is the antagonist behind over his shoulder and he is framed to be the bad guy. Something useful for my brief will be the representation of women in the other No time to die Magazine. Dr Swann is the main bond girl and subverts female stereotypes by being pictured with an intense stare, and a long white dress, with an overall polished look. She embodies the evolving representation of a bond girl as in the past, they were presented as quite promiscuous and overly revealing and seductive, but Swann's character is intelligent and calculated, she serves as an asset to Bond.

Swann also subverts the stereotypes of a dumb blonde, as mentioned before , her character is very logical and mature, and she serves the role of a protective mother taking risks to escape deadly situations in the film. More powerful representations of women are featured in this film, as the characters in the back play crucial roles that attribute to the development of the plot, and make wise decisions presenting them as boss women. For instance the character on the left may use her femme fatale look and seductive personality to lure in the enemy, but is tactical as she uses it to trick, and win victory over them

GENERIC RESEARCH - CASE STUDIES - EMPIRE

 A collection of case studies from three different magazine brands were built up to identify codes and conventions within the brands that I may want to replicate in my magazine. Here are three case studies from the empire magazine. 

I like how Empire has made two front covers of the same movie because it plays on the readers thoughts in terms of what this film has to offer. The Left shot is a close up of an avatar filled with aggression as though in a battle. The right side shows another avatar swimming contently amongst fish in the ocean. By empire offering two perspectives of this film, it sells Avatar to a wider range of audience, those who like peace, violence or a bit of both.

The colour palette of the the magazine consists of a spectrum of blues and flashes of black to give the audience a sense of the story, which relates to water. This is very on brand with, and conventional of an empire magazine, as it aims to convey the essence of a movie to the reader without giving away too much, whilst still maintaining its branding through its masthead

Although two different covers are shown, one of them is a subscriber exclusive cover, so whilst you can buy magazines as a guest, more avid fans of films pay for subscription to see magazines that the normal audience would not see. This is an idea I could use in my own magazine to implement the codes and conventions of empire.

Reference at the bottom to films such as she Hulk, Andor and the sand man may encourage audiences who are not familiar with avatar and are otherwise fans of the alternative films to still read the magazine, as exclusives for these films will be offered too

Back to the video store with Quentin Tarantino is an example of the exclusivity that empire offers its readers, giving them access to A-list directors, and making them feel special and deserving of high quality content

          Masthead - The mastheads on the shots are in black and red which could indicate danger and action. typical of marvel superhero films. They have been partially covered by the images but not to a high extent so that the brand will still be recognised. The same font is consistent throughout all empire magazines, so it becomes more familiar to the audience, and a part of the magazines house style.

Big spoiler special appeals to the audience, because it gives them insight into information about this trending movie that they would not have had. This is marked in a Bold sans serif font, which is red to highlight how significant the spoiler is as part of the magazine. Right Under it states that the Russo Bros will answer audiences "burning questions". This is another tactic that encourages the audience to read this magazine, because Empire magazine, by using celebrities to respond to questions audiences have, help the audience to feel connected to these celebrities they watch. It feels up close and personal, and they feel heard and listened to

Again the theme of being close with the audience and personal is repeated here with words used such as "exclusive" and "personal movie archives" of people in the industry. This is a technique I can use to make my magazine reflect the conventions of a Bauer magazine

Both covers are really graphical and vibrant, staying true to the themes of the movies. The Falcon winter soldier consists of an American themed colour palette with a close up of characters in the film, so it almost resembles what an ideal front cover of the film would look like. This is conventional of empire magazines, which would then surround the cover with teasers for the magazine to draw the readers' attention

 Again we see the empire magazine colour palette has been centres around the film and the shots taken of the characters. The empire masthead is large and bold, not entirely hidden by the front cover so the audience can recognise the brand and the font is consistent. The top strap gives a sense of mystery for the audience who would like to know how world renowned actor Daniel Radcliffe gets weird, and this is the content features in the magazines that appeals to the audience.

An enigma code is hinted at as the Black Panther's face is covered in this magazine, the shot capturing him in an attacking position, with a sci-fi background but not giving away too much to the reader. The cover lines are filled with associating movies from the MCU as well as characters and this technique of mentioning other successful films has been noted in other Empire covers. Film magazines may do this to ensure that the audience can recognise other films and still read the magazine if they have not yet familiarised themselves with black panther

The strap at the bottom reads the emotional story behind the impossible film. This taps into the context of the film at the time, which is that Chadwick Boseman the main character of Black Panther, suffered from cancer and died. Not only was this a tumultuous moment for the franchise in terms of how to continue the Black Panther legacy, But it was a mournful period for those who were huge fans or family members of Chadwick

INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT - TOTAL TV MEDIA PACK

 

INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT - BELLA MEDIA

 

INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT - EMPIRE

 

BAUER MEDIA

 Research was done into Bauer media as a company, as well as its magazine media packs to gain more knowledge on the codes and conventions of an empire magazine. 

 

INDUSTRIAL CONTEXT

 This timeline gives a brief overview of film magazines and how they have evolved over several decades. 

FOCUS GROUPS

 This focus group consists of 4 primary audience and 3 secondary subjects, with a summary at the end of the information I have gathered from all of the subjects

·Name - Chessie Halling 

 ·Age - 15 

·Education - Year 10 

·Ethnicity - White British 

 ·Favourite music artist - Arctic monkeys 

 ·Favourite hobby Netball or acting 

·Favourite movie Interstellar 

 ·How much do you use social media? everyday 

·How often do you watch films a month? 10 times a month 

·How do you view your films the most? Streaming 

·Last film you watched The prestige 

 ·Rate the film 8.5/10 

 ·Favourite film genre Romance or thriller

·Name - Taonga

 ·Age - 18

·Education - Year 13

·Ethnicity - Black British

 ·Favourite music artist - Feel good music

 ·Favourite hobby - singing 

·Favourite movie - polar express

 ·How much do you use social media? too much

·How often do you watch films a month? 1x times a month 

·How do you view your films the most? Disney plus

·Last film you watched - Ant man 

 ·Rate the film 7/10 

 ·Favourite film genre - comedy

·Name - Jessica 

 ·Age - 17

·Education - Year 12

·Ethnicity - Ghanaian

 ·Favourite music artist - Ruger

 ·Favourite hobby - learning

·Favourite movie - Love Jones

 ·How much do you use social media? 3hrs a day

·How often do you watch films a month? 3 times a month 

·Last film you watched - Spiderman

 ·Rate the film 8/10 

 ·Favourite film genre - rom coms

·Name - Divine

 ·Age - 16

·Education - Year 11

·Ethnicity - Black British 

 ·Favourite music artist - Playboi carti

 ·Favourite hobby - drawing 

·Favourite movie - white chicks

 ·How much do you use social media? everyday 

·How often do you watch films a month? frequently

·How do you view your films the most? online websites

·Last film you watched - a monster in paris

 ·Rate the film 10/10 

 ·Favourite film genre Romance

SECONDARY AUDIENCE 

·Name - Angela Bakare

 ·Age - 17 

·Education - Year 12

·Ethnicity - Nigerian 

 ·Favourite music artist - Frank ocean

 ·Favourite hobby - reading

·Favourite movie - 500 days of summer 

 ·How much do you use social media? few hours a day 

·How often do you watch films a month? 3-4 times a month 

·How do you view your films the most? Netflix 

·Last film you watched - ten things i hate about you

 ·Rate the film 7/10 

 ·Favourite film genre - comedy

·Name - Tamiranashe

 ·Age - 17

·Education - Year 12

·Ethnicity - Black British 

 ·Favourite music artist - Uncle waffles

 ·Favourite hobby - acting 

·Favourite movie - pulp fiction

 ·How much do you use social media? everyday 

·How often do you watch films a month? every week 

·How do you view your films the most? disney plus

·Last film you watched - spiderman 

 ·Rate the film 7.6/10 

 ·Favourite film genre - Musical/romance 

·Name - Carrissa Baxter

 ·Age - 16

·Education - Year 12

·Ethnicity - Jamaican

 ·Favourite music artist - Shensea

 ·Favourite hobby - boxing

·Favourite movie - Think like a man

 ·How much do you use social media? everyday 

·How often do you watch films a month? 6 times a month 

·How do you view your films the most? Netflix

·Last film you watched - F9

 ·Rate the film 8/10

 ·Favourite film genre Romcom

 

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

I began my research with a mind map of what my 16-25 media literate audience would look like and included what they engage with in terms of pop culture as well as their opinions, personality, lifestyle education, interest and age. 

Below are three audience profiles created based on who fits this audience the most and their demographic, psychographic, values and ideologies and challenges.