Pre-Production
For my pre-production I
conducted research in the form of a textual analysis on 4 magazine covers, I
also created and used a questionnaire to back up my research.
Textual Analysis
For my textual analysis’ I
looked at the magazine covers for The Stage, American Theatre, What’s On Stage
and Wonderland. I chose these 4 magazines to analyse as they relate to the Theatre
genre and Entertainment genre, which was one of the most popular magazine
genres in which people bought. I chose this particular genre as entertainment
is mainly based on televised entertainment and there is a gap in the market for
more theatre/acting magazines relating to entertainment. The magazine covers
then influenced my pre-production as I was then able to understand certain
aspects of the mise-en-scene relating to entertainment magazines, meaning I
could apply some of aspects to my own magazine. The Theatre Entertainment
magazines I analysed all had basic magazine conventions like any other
magazine, but had bolder images and less cover lines than other genre magazines
such as a beauty or fashion magazine. I tried to incorporate this idea into my
pre-production by adding bold images of actress’ performing on a stage to
represent that it is a magazine about the theatre and performing. Although I
used cover lines, I didn’t use as many as a fashion or lifestyle magazine would
have, as not as much needs to be broadcasted through my magazine covers. Using
my textual analysis’ of four entertainment magazine covers, I noticed
particular trends within the main image, the masthead and the scene. These
trends were that the main image always consisted of the actor in simple but
bold clothes that stood out against the background, which was usually black,
sometimes making eye contact. The masthead always related in some way to
performing and theatre. I incorporated these connotations of a
theatre/entertainment magazine into my pre-production using black backgrounds
and simple but bold clothing that stands out. I also created the name ‘The
Libretto’ for my masthead as the libretto means a script to a play or show,
therefore relating to the theatre industry.
Questionnaire
For my questionnaire I
asked basic questions relating to the magazine industry. How well magazines
sell, what genres do people buy the most and how much an audience would pay for
a magazine were some simple questions I used to get information from a wide
range of people. I also asked basic questions about the audiences such as their
age and what gender they were so I could generalise who my target audience was
for my magazine. From this research, I received feedback off twenty two people.
Most of the people who answered the questionnaire were female, gaining 19 out
of 22 responses from women. This concluded that women should be my target
audience as they are more likely to buy magazines. The average age of my
responders were 11-20 years old, consisting of 18 people, outlining that this
should be my target age. Out of all the magazine genres, fashion and beauty,
entertainment and music were the most popular genres of magazine that people
bought. A particular question I asked within my questionnaire was ‘Why Do You
Buy Magazines?’, this was a general question and didn’t have to be answered, I
received 16 responses and from these responses 12 people said they buy
magazines because they are interested in the subject of the magazine, usually a
hobby or an interest such as music. I also asked how much an audience was
willing to pay for a magazine, overall, the main price range people would buy a
magazine for was between £2.50 and £3.00. Nearing the end to my questionnaire,
I asked my audience what makes you buy the magazine?, this was a multiple
choice question and the most popular answers were the ‘Genre of the Magazine’
and the ‘Stories In The Magazine’.
Gaining this information
from an opportunist audience, these answers helped influenced aspects of my
pre-production. The main ideas being who I will aim my magazine at, the genre
of the magazine, the stories of the magazine and the price. For my
pre-production, from my questionnaire I decided that I would charge £2.50 for
my magazine as that was the average price people would pay for a magazine. I
also decided that because the most popular genre of magazines were music and
entertainment, my magazine needed to relate to those two genres. I decided on a
theatre magazine because of a gap in the market for more information about the
performing arts, relating to entertainment and music, this will then satisfy
the audiences need for a magazine about an interest/hobby. To conclude, I
finally decided that my target audience would be females aged 11-20 as this was
the most popular audience who read magazines. I used images of women in their
20’s and 30’s as my main image to represent a role model figure for my target
audience, someone they can look up to and aspire to be.
Production
