Audience Research- Magazine Covers

Now it was time to focus on the film magazine cover we needed to make. I wanted to think about what would be wanted inside the magazine. I thought about the different things you tend to find in magazines, such as interviews, and information about upcoming movies. What would be wanted more? The audience went for the interviews. This is most likely because you get more of an insight into a film, and it's more intimate. Not only do you get information on the film, you get to hear it from the stars themselves.






It's not conventional to find freebies in movie magazines, but I felt it was a question worth asking. I felt that if freebies were an option, than people would be more likely to buy the magazine, and therefore find out more information on the film that's being advertised in the magazine. As the majority of people said say, it's important to think about what they may want as a freebie, they maybe able to get free film tickets if they scratch a certain code? 3D glasses for 3D films? or free dvd of classic films.





Seeing famous faces on magazines makes them sell more. If you see a picture of someone who you don't know on the front of it your naturally less likely to buy the magazine. If theres the image of the most famous actor, in a film thats in promotion, it can boost sales, and more people find out details about the film.








The audience felt for this question that the masthead should be at the top of the magazine, which is something that I agree with. I personally don't think it looks right when the masthead is in the middle or at the bottom. Conventionally, mastheads are usually at the top (Empire, Film, Motion all have this). Of course, because this is what people see the most, that's probably why they prefer it, that doesn't mean that it's right though. There's nothing wrong in having it placed somewhere else if it looks good. Sometimes there are special edition magazines where the layout is changed slightly to support what the magazine is featuring.


When making a magazine, you want to think about how many magazines people buy, and if yours is likely to be picked. The more magazines that people buy, the more variety they may get, as magazines only come out weekly or monthly. The majority of the audience here buy their magazines once or twice a month, which isn't a huge amount. There can be factors that affect how many magazines people buy such as: cost, interest, popularity and genre.






On a magazine fromt cover, there has to be something that grabs a potential readers attention. Nobody in this question chose the puff or the coverline, but the main imagine was the thing that seemed to interest people in to buying a magazine, and very few people chose the masthead. The main image is very important. It has to look good, and if it's an image of a well known actor or actress then this can be the catalyst of the magazines sales. On the front of most magazine covers, you tend to find a well known star.




50% of people that answered this question preferred one picture on the front page, and 50% preferred more than one on the front page. I personally think that there should be more than one. To keep the potential buyers interest you have to think of variety. There can't just be one picture, that advertises one film, which people may not be interested in. There should be more pictures which advertise an array of films, so the audience will be more varied, it doesn't just have to be about films either, there can be interviews, or competitions which grab attention.

Many people liked the idea of a magazine front cover to be dedicated to one film. Some did not. I think that it works, just having one film advertised, but it shouldn't all be about one film. You can't hide what else is going to be in the magazine, otherwise people are going to walk straight past it. The idea of a set of pictures all based around one film isn't great, unless there are other images that show what else is going to be in the magazine. Keeping the front page dedicated to one film only works if there is something that shows that theres more inside the magazine, such as a puff, or secondary image, otherwise the front cover looks stagnant and boring.

People seemed to like the idea of the colour black being used in magazines. This is good, it's a bold colour that stands out. The second best one that people chose was red; again, another bold colour. A good example of this is Empire magazine, they've used this colour before to make their magazine stand out, it's also interesting to point out that the front cover was dedicated to one film. However, in this magazine front cover, they used the darkness of space (you can see the stars in the background), and Darth Vaders mask, to create a white shine, so there was some brightness to the cover. This worked well, in my eyes. I still personally feel there should be something else on the front page to advertise the rest of the film, it can't just be full of 'Star Wars'.

I took a look at the film magazines that were on the market. I chose the four that I saw the most online. However the audience clearly only knew of two, which is fair enough, the other two aren't hugely recognised. Empire was the favourite, and Total Film was the second favourite. They are the best established movie magazines, and the ones that you are more likely to see being sold in the massive superstores. It's the content, and the way they make their magazines that make them popular. They look good, they contain a variety of films, the also hold information not just on films, but on actors and directors. They don't just focus on the big stars too, they dedicate time to the younger, upcoming stars.