Having to form an opinion has always, shall we say, came quite easy. When I was asked to decide on a concept for my niche magazine I not only had to decide on a subject to focus on but I also had to have an agenda based on that subject matter.
I am an avid film lover as are all my friends. We as a group are all completely different, different career paths, different styles and different priorities but what we do have in common is a more than mild fondness for films and drinking alcohol. That invariably leads to long
conversations about the film industry, this is also helped along by the fact 95% of us have at one time or another worked at the cinema in Newcastle so we have some industry secrets to giggle about over our wine as well as the serious things like the effect of a good cinematographer on an otherwise 'just ok' narrative.
I took the opportunity last week when we all met for a friends birthday to bring up my new brief and ask some questions. Half of the group is made up of 30 something boys and the other half is made up of 20 something girls so the opinions were quite different.
I asked questions like what do you think is missing from your favourite film magazine, if you imagined a film magazine what would it be like, do you think there is enough competition in circulation to challenge the 'film magazine of the year' Empire?
I got some interesting answers, one of the answers recurred quite a lot from the ladies in the group. They found, and upon research following this conversation I whole heartedly agree, that the two (out of four!) film magazines in popular circulation are very masculine orientated in everything from the imagery used to the language used. For example it is common to find at least two or three spreads in the magazine that does not feature the young female lead in the next blockbuster half naked lying across one if not several double page spreads with double entendre's purring just as loudly from the article titles.
The treatment of the male cast members however are treated with a higher level of professionalism, I know what you are thinking, sex sells Gwen, sex sells but this does nothing for the female film lovers out there and with film magazines lying rather thin on the ground (three in what I would consider mainstream circulation, Empire, Total Film and Sight and Sound.) this is I think a major oversight and can be identified as a niche. The first two, Empire and Total Film, being very similar in content, mission statement, target audience and even the mast head is quite similar and both typographically speaking masculin in their design. The third, sight and sound, is commonly known as quite a high brow film magazine with articles written like essays from academics rather than artists celebrating the art they love, film. Its not exactly an invitation for a film interested female audience.
Specific sections of Empire magazine is also quite often given over to bouts of 'lad mag', that horrible thing that happened when I was still at school when all of a sudden soft porn, football and gadgets was being engineered in an editorial studio near you so you didn't have to get caught looking at the top shelf in your local newsagents anymore. For example there is a 4 DPS section in January's issue of Empire given over to a gadgets section very loosely tied into the idea of film (but really home entertainment) and all the spreads feature women in tight clothes playing with the gadgets featured.
This is not to say Empire, Film or Sight and Sound are not fantastic magazines, because the are, but I do think there is a niche in the market for a more feminine approach to film critique in the mainstream magazine based media.
The ace in hole on the film magazine shelf is a magazine called Little White Lies. I am a subscriber to this magazine because it's amazing and really rather cheap, 20 pounds a year subscription. It is a beautifully designed magazine that has a soul and celebrates the art of film in a very non elitist way, approaching each film with lateral thinking and respect, no matter the budget, cast, production team or genre. It has a very different approach to layout and style compared to its counterparts and seems to have found a middle ground with a rather large injection of style. I know you are thinking, where's the but? (No pun intended) The truth is this magazine does everything I want to except two things 1. come out every month to really give the other three film magazines a run for their money and 2. get in amongst it, it is very rare this magazine is seen and its not easy to get a hold of without becoming a subscriber.
Here I have simplified the research I undertook to come to the conclusions I will layout so as not to bore you to much but know that I have not formed these judgements simply based on a drunken conversation and my blatant bias for Little White Lies and its loveliness. I have studied 6 different issues of Empire Magazine before I came to the conclusion above and have been reading Sight and Sound Magazine since I started studying film five years ago (I have since realised film is a much better art to enjoy rather than critique).
This study helped me to focus on what I want to achieve with this magazine, yes a niche magazine is the brief but what niche do I want to inform and represent? I feel there needs to be a feminine orientated film magazine to balance the masculine orientated 'big' film magazines but also a film magazine that appreciates everyone and does consider film to be a thing to be dissected and critiqued to an academic level nor consider it an academic elitist club. FILM IS ART. It should be celebrated in a creative and beautiful environment. Film for a lot of people is not tangible and to make this less of a barrier I want to use design and materials to make this creative environment as tactile as possible, mix it up with mixed media, there is usually something for everybody and even if you hate it at least you have to touch it to know, a lot like film, you really don't know if you will like a film until you have felt it up a little (that's what trailers are for, they are like the 10 minute freebees on the adult channels). I also think going deeper than the 'faces' of film is very important. The Bafta nomination categories should inform how we look at film, everything from best picture, cinematography, set design, music and costume design should be celebrated not just the best performance and the interview of the year with the best Director (which for me is just about always Nolan or Scorcese but I'm just pedantic).
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