Textual Analysis of a Sight & Sound Cover

Sight & Sound is a publication from the British Film Institute (BFI) which reviews the latest films to hit the screens and other news related to the British film industry.

It is one of the top selling film magazines alongside Empire and Total Film. The main difference however between say Sight & Sound and Empire comes from their publishers. Where as Empire is a completely free privately owned publication under Bauer Consumer Media (BCM) Sight & Sound being run by the
BFI has certain obligations to the British film industry. As such it is obliged to review all films whether they be massive blockbusters or small independently produced films from the UK.

Sight & Sound’s target audience would seem to be more cultured than say that of Empire. The way they market the magazine with often quite artistic covers says a lot about who they want to attract. The films they focus on would often be considered social realist in their approach as they generally tackle real and sometimes controversial issues which don’t always have a happy ending. They are a magazine for the people in which they must represent the people. This is one reason that I think Empire would be more suitable for my production. My production is of a more mainstream style and could almost be considered fantasy. It doesn’t seek to directly challenge any cultural issues and does have a somewhat happy resolution. I believe my film would be for more suited to Empire’s readership as Empire is more likely to promote films that don’t have any cultural agendas. They are definitely a magazine more for the mainstream as this is where the money is and being a privately funded publication profit is their main focus.

With regards to the front cover as we can see in this June 2008 issue of Sight & Sound the cover is not promoting any particular film. It also has an unusual and quite artistic style with an eyeball in a hand. With my limited skills in creating magazine covers trying to design and create such an idealogically loaded image would be very hard and would take more time than I have. It is marketing the film industry in general and this is something a publicly funded magazine is more likely to do than Empire for example who always promote a film as this is where the money is. For my marketing campaign I need to be able to get good promotion on the front cover of a magazine. The magazine also has to be aimed at my target audience. My target audience is approximately 18 year old males which is one of Empire’s biggest markets. Sight & Sound however have a slightly older readership. For all of these reasons I believe Empire to be a more appropriate medium by which to promote my film than Sight & Sound.