UNIT 01 – AO1 Investigate and explain how different genres have developed for contrasting media products

TRADE

Kine Weekly Began in 1889 as Optical Magic Lantern and Photographic Enlarger – change to Kine Weekly n 1907. Lasted until 1971. Owned by Odhams It contained trade news, advertisements, reviews, exhibition advice, and reports of regional and national meetings of trade organisations. Influential due to its indexing of the box office data. Today’s Cinema This was the American owned rival to Kine Weekly that begun existence as Daily Cinema in 1957. The content was similar to Kine Weekly in that it was designed to appeal to mainly those who worked in the film industry – either in production or exhibition. This continued until 1975 when it was rebranded…

Screen International Started in 1975 from the rebranded Today’s Cinema which had bought and absorbed Kine Weekly. It became a weekly B2B brand reporting on industry specifically for the UK film industry but also developments globally. Currently owned by EMAP and now has a website: screendaily.com. This remains the UK’s main industry paper with it’s rivals being the US based Variety and Hollywood Reporter.

FAN- Motion Picture Story Magazine This was a very early fan magazine that serviced the silent movie going audience and ran from 1913-14. Rather than providing news and reviews, this reproduced the stories of the current films – allowing fans to hear the plot without actually seeing the films. In the late teens the magazines moved to focus not on the films but the stars themselves. Picturegoer With the emphasis on the stars rather than the films Picturegoer was aimed at a female audience. It started as a serious record of films on in the UK but focused more on the glamour through the 40s and 50s. As TV became the main source of entertainment for women from the 50s onward, Picturegoer merge with a pop music titled called Disc Date. It ran from 1913 until 1960.

Empire Today the focus is partly on star but also about serious appreciation of film – the result is the more male orientated magazine such as Empire which began in 1989 as a review driven magazine but drew on influences from games mags through the editorship of Colin Kennedy to become more male orientated. Currently has an ABC of 194,000.

HIGHBROW Monthly Film Bulletin This ran from 1934 to April 1991. It began as a comprehensive listing magazines for what was on in the UK cinemas and inform cinema managers of what was coming up, but changed its remit to a more critical stance in the 1950s under the editorship of David Robertson. This develop throughout the ‘70s taking on auteur and Marxist film theories give it an arthouse audience and intellectual tone. MFB merged with Sight and Sound in 1991.

Sight and Sound Sight and Sound is published by the British Film Institute which is a charity whose remit is to promote the art of film and moving image in the UK. It began in 1934 and has always had a serious tone compared to fan magazines, but more opinionated than the trade papers. Sight & Sound merged with Monthly Film Bulletin in 1991. It is a highbrow critical magazine that treads the line between consumer magazine and academic journal.

Little White Lies The first issue of LWL was created as the final degree project of co-founder Danny Miller in 2001. The first issue was released in February 2005, printed in edition of 2500, and distributed only in UK Borders stores. Now the circulation is 16,000 and is part of the Church of London portfolio. It takes the same ‘film as art’ approach as Sight & Sound but is far more design led and focusing on independent rather than arthouse cinema.

NICHE Supernatural Supernatural, created by an independent publisher in Devon, was one of a number of magazines released to attempt to cash in the success of the Hammer Studios in the Horror and Sci-Fi genres. Rather than focusing on the latest releases this focused on a specific type of film giving in depth coverage to the making of the films and the ideas behind the monsters. This is the idea of a ‘narrow but deep’ subject matter.

Fangoria Fangoria is a US magazine that was first published in 1978 to focus on Sci-fi films, but became specifically horror focused as the success of the film Dawn of the Dead. It rode the wave of success created by the video-nasty phenomenon of the early 80s and has since broaden it’s media output to include radio, film production and film festivals. It moves beyond just the films and focuses on the culture surrounding the genre.

SFX SFX began in 1995 and specialises in sci-fi and cult entertainment – both film and television. While still niche it has the remit to go beyond a specific genre and caters for the target audience that enjoys alternative films, fiction, literature, game and comics. The official website explains that the SF stands for Sci-fi but the X could stand for anything. Much like all Future magazines, it is design for a hardcore audience but for entry points for the cliche.

OTHER MEDIA The FILM programme This has run from 1972 to present day on BBC1. It was made famous by Barry Norman (years 72-98) and has since been presented by Jonathan Ross (1999-2010) and Claudia Winkleman (2011-present). The tone of the program is partly news based with industry news, talent interviews and previews, but at the heart of the program is the reviews section which is of course directed by the taste of the presenter. This has changed somewhat with Winkleman as she holds a discussion journalist Danny Leigh which offers a more open set of opinions.

Moviewatch This was an early evening Channel 4 film review show, presented by Johnny Vaughan and ran from 1993-97. Compared to BBC Film is was far more light-hearted in tone, aimed at the multiplex audience and focused on the mainstream releases of the week. It was dominated by the loud humour of presenter Vaughan and included the views of cinema goers.

T4 Presents These are presentations focused on specific event films that tie in with T4 target audience such as The Hunger Games, Twilight and Snow White the Huntsman. The show is not news or opinion based but acts as part of the promotion for the films focusing on cast interviews, backstage access at the premiere and behind the scenes footage.

Each has a romance, featuring a Romeo - Juliet love affair. Teenage girls enjoy these types of films for their romance and supernatural mise-en-scene.