2013 Post 41A- Summary of film magazine review

My group and I read through several of Little White Lies reviews in order to get a feel for the overall tone and conventional techniques we would use for our article.
We realised that key components of the magazine reviews included:

• An introduction and basic summary of the film
• Director and cast member mentions and opinions of them
• Brief look into camerawork of film
• The film's message
• Notable scenes with good and bad aspects
• An end with the reviewer's overall opinion

Below are examples of the different review formats that Little White Lies uses;

The two photo format did not entice us, it seemed too cluttered

The colour scheme matches the photo well, but it takes up too much space of the review

The pink makes the text hard to read, so the photo captures all the attention
 

Witty comments and sophisticated language are used throughout all of the reviews, so they were significant parts of the spread, that my group and I needed to keep in mind as well as we wrote it.

 

 

 

Photo on the left fits within colour scheme, not distracting, and review appears professional and manageable to read; it is not overwhelming with text and is structured appropriately

 

 

In the end, my group and I felt that the Looper review design was the best choice for our short film review, it was smart, concise yet dramatic which we believe perfectly describes our film and is the message that we would like to show to the audience.

2013 Post 41- Film Magazine Review

After looking at the formats of Little White Lies magazine's double page spreads, my group and I decided to use the 'Looper' review structure for our short film review. This is because we believed it was easiest to read for our target audience; film fans interested in Independent films.

Clicking on our magazine image will direct you to a larger copy for reading

It is simple yet effective at enticing the viewer as the photo immediately grabs their attention since it is so large. There is a subtle change in text font and colour to keep the article exciting, and the colour scheme is basic but sophisticated for our readers.

2013 Post 40- Chosen film magazine conventions

Film magazine review pages usually follow a series of conventions in order to advocate films being released, and let the audience know what they think is worth watching. In order to create our own double-page spread review for our short film, I will need to follow these conventions and attract an audience.

Image: Needs to reflect audience, and act as a teaser usually featuring the main protagonist. Often a mid-shot to present a character and their environment to notify the audience of the film’s genre, time period and where it is set. Usually a photograph directly from a scene of the film.

 

Fonts: Minimum of 3 different fonts varying in size, colour and style. This highlights different aspects of the review, such as an editor’s name or credits in bold or italics to stand out. Varied fonts keeps an article exciting.

 

Anchorage text: Usually in the form of a quote that is designed to stand out and inform the reader about the review, providing snippets of information that might interest them.

 

Page number/Magazine date: Usually situated near the bottom of the review page, so that the reader is not distracted from the main review but can refer to where they are in the magazine and what issue it is.

 

Release date: To reassure the date of release to the reader so that they are more likely to remember to go and see the film.

 

Rating system: Ranking  the film out of 10 or 5 stars, it is a concept that is easy for the audience to understand but they must trust the reviewer's decision.

 

Sight and Sound features main character as key image, they are male to reflect target audience.  The film's serious tone is inferred through the business suit and slick and neat style. Black adds a professional and mysterious look.

 The page number and magazine date is in italics at the bottom, designed to be a source of reference and not a key part of the review. This is in a different font style to the rest of the main text, just as the anchorage text is to add some excitement to the otherwise minimally coloured page.

Sight and Sound use left hand text to draw the viewer's eye into the complex articles, these are arranged to follow where the eye normally travels, left and down to the right side. Text written in columns gives a less daunting appearance and a clear structure and organization reflected in their higher-class, sophisticated target audience.

Sight and Sound have a synopsis and opinions are intergrated into the main articles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little White Lies article above features a dark-lit image of the film's main character, also a male to relate to the target audience. It adds suspense and mystery as the face is not visible, but the reader recognizes the film through the well-known superhero costume.

Cover of Little White Lies issue

The article is styled after the cover film which is in black and white, thus the font and page reflects this but the template stays the same.

Little White Lies does not include anchorage text, probably because they expect their target readers would be trusted to read the review without a prompt once they see the title of the film, image or rating. Also, the magazine's reviews are significantly smaller than those in Sight and Sound as the page size is smaller, thus it would take up unnecessary space.

Little White Lies situate the title and release date at the top, which is the first thing a reader may see. Their 5 star rating system is at the bottom on the right; where the reader will end up once they have read the review, thus leaving a lasting impression on them of how good the reviewer thought the film was.

 Overall: Film reviews can greatly vary in length, some can be as short as 300 words. Reviewers working under this constraints have to be skilled self-editors to write the basics of the film and their opinion whilst telling the story. For our short film review, we will be modelling it after the Little White Lies review pages, so the article will not be too long and we will have to be careful how we fit these in. The number one guideline that we will have to follow is to never give away the ending of our film, this has been known to anger film fans and editors the most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Post 39- Film Magazine Demographic/Psychographic

My group and I have chosen to write a double-page spread review of our short film. In order to do this, first we need to explore existing film magazines, looking into their demographic and psychographic so that we know what kind of magazine would attract our target audience.
I researched Empire magazine; known as the 'UK's premier movie destination' they provide an 'insight into cinema, both blockbuster and classic' online and in-print. It is a mainstream film magazine and a fairly popular one with young males in the ABC1 social classes. It's readership figures can be found here.

66% are of ABC1 class, 71.8% are Male and 85.3% are aged 15-34.
I also compared Empire to another Film magazine called Total Film, they both share a very similar demographic and feature mainstream blockbuster reviews as well. Their readership figures were found here.

60.9% are of ABC1 higher middle classes, 75.6% are Male and 86.6% are aged 15-34.

I looked at what our target audience thought of these two well-known film magazines, our target audience demographic four our short film would encompass both genders, aged 12-30 who would fall under the E social class of unemployed and in education. From this forum, they appeared to prefer Empire magazine because they had:

• Interesting and varied articles on obscure films as well
• More film reviews to read
• Better links to film industry
• Total film used too much space for pictures than articles
• Overall better written

2013 Post 38A- Additional Film poster Feedback

The preferred version

After following the feedback from my film poster, I created two improved versions with different font styles and colour intensity.

Afterwards I sought more feedback to see which version was more appealing for our target audience and what could be further improved. I asked two teenagers, both aged 17, who had not seen our film. One had a strong interest in film and the other did not but both agreed that the poster on the left was better.

This is because:
1) The writing is easier to read
2) It appears bolder and draws the viewer in




They enjoyed the blurring of the two scenes together and understood that one was affecting the other, as the two characters do in the film. Also, the tagline was mysterious by directly addressing the viewer and allowing them to connect with serious tone.
To improve, they both suggested that the ripped paper sections, which border the top and bottom of the poster, be straightened rather than 'ripped' so that it would appear more professional.