Film magazines
Writing as an obsessive music fan who these days is as interested in film as I am in music, why isn’t there a magazine out there which writes as intelligently, enjoyably and accessibly about film as Word does about music?
Things might have changed over the last few years, I'm out of touch, but surely there’s a middle ground between Empire and Sight and Sound? From memory, Empire does little more than publish puff pieces and press releases and thinks film started with the blockbusters of the mid 70s and ever since then has been an endless parade of romcoms and blockbusters, while Sight & Sound thinks cinema is an academic discipline.
I always felt Word was trying to fit itself into that cultural middle ground when it started, but there’s no denying that it’s now a (very good) music magazine with a little bit of the other stuff (more please!). And plenty of film magazines have started up over the years and then crashed and burned soon after, so maybe there isn’t a market.
There are loads of good books about cinema out there, but far fewer about music. Reverse is true about magazines. Why?
Anyone out there from the world of magazines know why this is? Or indeed, is there a magazine I've missed I should investigate when I’m back in the UK for my hols in August? Or a website? Or, as a last resort, Word, how about upping the film content? There's some good writers there, give them more space!
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IMHO
Don't watch films, I watch sport instead. Don't expect to find owt about rugby in Word, just music really. Enjoy the limited amount of stuff on books (which has led me to borrow and enjoy a good number of books from the library) but I'd be unhappy to have more about films. Just each person's preferences, I guess, but I think the emphasis has to remain very firmly on music.
but perhaps a little less
pop pictionary was it?
In The US...
...there was a good film magazine called Premiere, but that folded a couple of years ago, now only on website form...which isn't very good.
You are right, browsing my local magazine store here in Houston, I could only find the likes of Empire (which is Ok, but not very in-depth) or film trade magazines / Film-makers magazines ...nothing in-between.
Maybe a gap in the market or is it that there is not enough demand for a film only mag, particularly now that magazines, like The Word cover films along with music, books etc.
I for one would agree with Madrid, I would gladly see more film content either in Word or a decent film magazine
Too true
Dare I say it....Uncut (I can hear you pumping the chamber) used to write very intelligently about film and then even tried to launch a film specific (well, DVD specific) magazine which lasted about two issues..but by then the mag relaunch was a six monthly happening
Cinema Retro is very good but again it is specific to cult films from the 1960s and 1970s
The best movie websites tend to be the DVD related such as DVD Times which also has a good film journal section with both mainstream and cult contributions
Dare I say it, but. . .
If you add up everything that's in the Guardian film section over the course of a month, you get far more content than you'd get in any monthly film magazine. The rest of the paper is going to the dogs faster than an F-16 to Walthamstow, true, but the film features, interviews, blogs and - best of all - the French and Bradshaw reviews are generally very much up to standard.
Podcast
The Guardian Film podcast is good too.
Have to agree with Archie.
Its a bit like sport - I get more than enough decent writing about football from the broadsheets than I would from any of the dedicated monthly magazines available - same goes for film.
Film doesn't work as well for mags
Music is perfect for magazines. Its a quick medium (unless your Axl Rose) and theres lots of it and I appreciate a bit of a steer. A magazine does that really well.
Film - theres probably no more than 10 films released each week and at least half are pretty obviously worth avoiding. Reviews on the TV work quite well. Also the Mayo/Kermode reviews are good. But interviews with actors are generally bland (is it because the film industry is more corporate?) and there is little more I would want to read than I get in Word, Saturday Telegraph, Film 08 and Mayo/Kermode podcast.
Interviews with actors ARE generally bland
not just because they've been schooled to say nothing, but because they're not really the authors of the work. They deliver the lines and animate the characters but ultimately they're not the guiding minds – and sometimes they don't have a clue what the film they're in is about. And they're often raging egotists who think anything they say is meaningful just because it's them.
These and other reasons are why we don't interview many actors in THE WORD, unless it's for WORD OF MOUTH where it's hard not to be interesting. Even mags like Empire are increasingly interested in the special effects and the directors than the alleged "stars". Meanwhile the actors know they can go on Jonathan Ross and say even less than they would to a magazine journo. Personally I can't say I miss them a great deal.
Obviously I'm generalising hugely and unfairly here. There are some very interesting actors who give good copy – there was a great profile on Robert Downey Jr in American GQ a couple of months ago. But they are few and far between.
Andrew...
You were obviously writing at the same time as me. So I'll reply again.
Not interviews with actors I'm after in a million years. As you say, directors are more interesting. But it's not interviews I'm on about. There are great 'state of the music industry' articles in Word, plus comment about music. Even a bit of history. Have to say that's what I read most, articles not interviews. That's the enjoyable stuff. Plus reviews, obviously...
Fair points from Archie and Leedsboy...
Yes, Guardian website and reviews do get a fair amount of visits from me. Both Bradshaw and French are excellent.
But I'm not just talking about what's coming out now.
What's great about Word's music coverage is that while it focuses on the now, it also covers music's rich and long history, basically puts it all into context. Lots of the new and a bit of the old. Lots to discover, every genre, every decade...
Film's got an even richer and longer history than 'pop' music, and there would be nothing wrong with a magazine that dug around a bit there. There were a couple of excellent articles by Christopher Bray a while back about Billy Wilder and Hitchcock, showing why they are still intersting, not just something for the oldies channel. That's the kind of thing I'm on about. Help us to discover stuff that we may not know, or has fallen off the radar. Just because a film's in black and white (or music not polished to within an inch of its life with new fangled production techniques) doesn't mean its c***...
Doesn't have to be in Word, just somewhere...
*sob*
Film journalism...
...minus the pretension and self-importance. I think Neon was at its best when it was taking the piss. It's the only dedicated film magazine I've been able to stomach.
Movieline
Back when Joe Queenan was still a cub reporter with fresh blood dripping from his diamond-point teeth, Movieline was highly entertaining and unusual for cutting right through the hype. For those who never saw it, it was like a Hollywood Popbitch that only picked on targets who really deserved it. In other words, if you could act or direct you were left alone or got serious, in-depth pieces written about you. If you were Keanu Reeves or Renny Harlin, however, it was open season.
Pajiba
The Pajiba website gives some good film review, amongst other things, but the "I'm so blase" schtick can get wearisome. Got some good nods on books from there too.
I think it would be a good idea but...
You have to avoid interviewing people with something to sell. All you'll get is "Making it was a joy, on the set we were like one big family." It's like hearing The Rolling Stones talk about their new album "Its our best since Exile on Main Street." Sure it is.
Career overviews would be good, retrospectives on people like Billy Wilder and Hitchcock for starters. Then you can move onto Roger Corman and Russ Meyer and that ilk.
A excellent subject for an interview would be the screenwriter/novelist Richard Price. He's been around so long he's seen the business from every angle. He's seen his work adapted by others, he's done adaptations. He's been brought in as a last minute script doctor.
How he came to write "Clockers" (novel and screenplay) is well worth a long article on its own.
I've read things on him here and there and he's a very interesting, amusing character. He said once about pitching ideas to the studios, "If you brought them the idea for The Crying Game (IRA hitman falls in love with transvestite) they wouldn't show you the door they'd throw you down the laundry chute."
You could also have articles on specific films like (for example)Battleship Potemkin, the angle on that could be "I was a puppet for the government and still made a masterpiece."
The relationship between film and music is very close and no-one would even notice you'd changed tack slightly.
Stay away from puff pieces though. They aren't worth the effort of reading let alone writing.
I've given up expecting anything interesting from film magazines
Now instead I buy books from the cinema section on Amazon.
Am I correct in saying that Word staff used to work on Neon? If so, you should resurrect the article on the making of a great film that was near the back of the magazine. The Chinatown piece was brilliant.