Magazine Pitch
The Saint Louis region is certainly no stranger to performative arts, as evident by the activity from the Fabulous Fox Theatre, Stifel Theatre, and Muny Theater. However, this love of fine arts is not only limited to theater, but is also low-key firmly entrenched in the world of television and movies. Why else would Swank Motion Pictures, an international film distribution company, remain Headquartered in St. Louis? In addition, several local universities like Webster and SLU have film programs, and Cinema St. Louis hosts annual film festivals within the region– the latter self-reporting a range of 25,000-31,000 patrons. Even aside from the film education and distribution systems within the region, there’s also the St. Louis Film Critics Association which serves the interest of local critics. With all this in mind, St. Louis deserves a magazine that brings them their movie/TV content and highlights their media endeavors.
Yet given this potential market, it’s baffling how there is no solid publication that takes advantage of it… until today! STLMedia seeks to empathize its readers by giving them glimpses of the media/movie/television industry within the region. Through a team of various writers, STLMedia will highlight film festivals within the region, updates regarding film education at local universities, and organizations based in the metro area that specialize in video production and distribution. We also want to have a section dedicated to reviews of local television shows and movies, for no other reason than it helps foster media discussion with our audiences. We want to treat our readers as a friend: film is the method by which we foster a community with one another in our region, akin to friends joined together for a movie night.
Regarding our target audience, our magazine will primarily be seeking a teenager-young adult audience. According to the Motion Picture Association’s annual THEME Report regarding movie market analysis, the 12-17 age group was ranked highest in per-capita theater attendance, and mobile viewings of TV Shows and Movies were greatest amongst the 18-24 (& 25-39) age group. Given that younger audiences are also key to building up the film industry, especially given that this is the time period of self-discovery with high school / college / entering the job market, it only makes sense to target younger audiences, considering the MPAA report already showcases an interest. As such, we shall aim for a 16-25 age demographic for the magazine.
There’s also several possibilities for advertising that STLMedia can go with. Selling advertisements to movie theater chains such as AMC Theatres or B&B Theatres for their membership programs is certainly one logical possibility, given the similar subject matter. However, it is possible for STLMedia to also sell ads to other Arts and Technology-related businesses, both global and local. Restaurants, computer companies, performance theaters, and music companies are all on the table. Given that movies and television are an intersection between art and technology, none of these advertisers will feel too out of place within our magazine, and perhaps audiences will be drawn to their messages given the adjacent-arts angle they take. As previously stated, there are no direct competitors that specifically feature movies to the St. Louis audience. There are more national film magazines, such as The Film Magazine (who hold 10,000 social media followers and have tens of thousands of visitors monthly) or Entertainment Weekly (who have a rate base of 1,500,000), and while they may also contain media reviews, they also do not highlight the specific film/television industry present within the St. Louis metro area. Locally, the biggest contender is St. Louis Magazine, however a quick glance through their arts content reveals that a majority of it is directed towards dining and general festivals, not specifically about St. Louis’s media background. As such, STLMedia will stand alone in its coverage of film, film business, and film education in St. Louis.
Though Process Behind Spec Magazine
When created this spec project, my main focus was to give a “cinematic” aesthetic to the magazine. Since cameras are an essential filmmaking tool, I included it in both the cover and contents page, with former including a student (in which case, myself) utilizing it to showcase the film education aspect of the magazine.
The red curtains for the cover and contents page, as well as the red coloring for the section headers, was done to invoke a red carpet sort-of feel, invoking the idea of a movie premiere or a film awards ceremony like the Oscars.
The fonts utilized throughout the magazine are as follows: PT Serif (article titles and section headers), Minion Pro (text and subheads), American Typewriter (Credits), Arial Bold Italics (Pull Quotes), Trajan Color (“Advertise With Us” and Contents Header), and AppleMyungjo (Magazine Title). I tried to keep all the fonts readable, but maintaining either a magazine (Minion Pro and PT Serif) or film aesthetic (American Typewriter and Trajan Color). I also tried to maintain diligence to ensure the fonts were paired together in a manner that was not disjointed.
For imagery, a number of the images (such as for the Alamo Drafthouse, the cover, and SLU Film Program) were taken myself. However, for the Cinema St. Louis highlight, I did not have any images on hand. I emailed the organization’s Operations Supervisor and my future internship supervisor, Brian Spath, if I could have some images they had on hand, which he agreed (all images are cited as being courtesy of Cinema St. Louis). The rest of the images — for the advertisements and movie review sections — are either stock images (or image results) from Google Images or posters from IMDb.
I tried to keep all the events to be relevant to region of St. Louis, hence the focus on local organizations, events, and education programs. Industry trends and movie reviews were general subjects which I believed could still be applied to area, as greater industry trends are still reflected upon in local cities like St. Louis, and movies are still released in theaters across all 50 US states.
The advertisements are all mock advertisements, usually of fake companies or tech products, which were meant to be placeholders mirroring actual advertisements that one might see for such a magazine. The only advertisement that was not of a fake organization was Alamo Drafthouse, which for that case, I tried to make it generic template ad (basically, “come watch movies at our theater”) and included a disclaimer of not being sponsored by the organization.
This spec magazine was created in November of 2022.
Mark Burbridge 