Evaluation-Question 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout our whole project, from research and planning to evaluation, we were relying deeply on technology. First of all, in the research and planning stage, we were mainly using the internet to research the codes and conventions of existing short films.The use of the internet allowed us access to a full range of short films for further analysis and influences; we used web sites such as YouTube and the BBC Film Network to gather short films together. However, if we did not have access to the internet, these short films would have been very difficult to gather, as they are not meant for mainstream means, such as, cinema, TV; they are usually only shown at film festivals to promote actors or directors.

  Furthermore, we used the blogging site, blogger to document and organize our research and planning so far, therefore, this made it easy to access, and we could also communicate with our group, which helped with the production stage.At the production stage, we were using simple DV cameras which had many limitations which we had to overcome, for example, the built-in microphone had trouble picking up the sound clearly, this is why we needed a voice-over or scores,however, and this helped  minimize the dialogue.

 Also, the recorded image was not the best quality as it produced a‘grainy’ image, but this suited our film to an extent because it has a social realism theme. We also used digital cameras to take images for the poster and magazine, this was helpful because the images were easily accessible, as before, you had to get them developed and you could not see the image immediately after to see if it was good quality.

Moreover, the whole process of post-production was based on technology because first of all, to edit our product we were using i-movie HD,which is a very consumer friendly piece of software which comes free with Apple Mac, this software is non-linear meaning it is not destructive, which was extremely useful for audience feedback. As this software is free it is not professional, so there are limited functions, for example, effects and titles. Also, as we were using scores in our short film, we needed to find copyright free music; so again we were relying on the internet to provide us with a range of scores we could use.

Furthermore, we were also using a desk top publishing program called Pages to make our magazine film review; again this was a consumer product meaning it was relatively easy to use, so we did not have to learn any new skills. However, this also had its limitations to it, so we used Photoshop to design the different logos for the magazine. Lastly in the post-production process, we had to make our film poster, this was achieved by using Photoshop, and this program does cost money as it is industry standard, so as expected it is difficult to learn, allowing us to design and create more developed poster ideas.

The last stage of our project was our evaluation. Firstly, we had to use i-movie HD again as we needed to make a podcast for our answers, which is enriched with clips from our film and other parts of multi-media. We also had to use blogger again because we had to blog some of our  answers to the evaluation on here, which is again filled with relevant multi-media clips and photos. Lastly, to actually get our feedback to help us for the evaluation, we used YouTube and Facebook to easily show people, especially to our target audience, our three products, short film, poster and magazine review. Also, the internet and video sharing social networking sites are the most cost effective and realistic way for a short independent short film to reach a mass audience.           

what have you learned from your audience feedback?

There were many ways that I received audience feedback for my short film, film poster and magazine, for my film I had a group screening with a group of 20 people viewing it all within the target audience that we set for the film, I posted it on YouTube, and put a link up on the Facebook where my friends could view it and comment on it with their views, the majority of my friends on Facebook are within the target audience, with a couple being older or younger.

For my film poster and film magazine, I posted a picture of it on Facebook, I took advantage of the instant messaging blackberry messenger which comes free with blackberry smart phones and set is as my display picture for 100+people to see and text me their feedback, and I also printed out a copy of it and asked people what their thoughts of it were and if they could give me feedback.

One reason I got audience feedback was to see if my products were suitable for my intended audience, one reply from Nicholas Hobbs (25): ‘casting, score and narrative takes the issues to a younger audience effectively’ while put with another reply from Rachel Olubayo (17) ‘it is suitable for its intended audience as it’s the same as the enrolment age and of the age people get into serious relationships’ this shows that our film suits its intended audience well from many aspects of the film which means in terms of the intended audience, we don’t have to alter the film or alter our intended audience. I also wanted to find out whether the narrative was clear, understandable and effective, I was not sure whether the audience would understand the story of the film while watching without first having some insight of the story, however while talking to John Garcia (19) who viewed my film, he explained that the voice over really helped to understand the story and made it clear. From one of the people that viewed my film James Glynn (18) he said ‘the score could fade more gently, and lower the sound so the voice over could be heard’ I took his feedback into consideration and lowered the score and faded out so it was not a sudden end in the score however one problem I faced was that the voiceover was not loud enough even with a score that was lowered, so we re-did all the voice overs with a better microphone and when viewed again, he said it was much better, without this crucial bit of feedback, the voice over would have been hard to hear and people may have missed it or not heard it all which would have made it harder for the audience to understand. Nicholas Hobbs also made a comment about the editing, he thought that the film would look better if instead of fading out during the tilt up of the sky, we should dissolve it into the next scene, I decided to try it out and it did seem better.
A comment made by Gabrie Jey (20) on Facebook pointed out that the film needed some colour correction, I did agree that maybe it did some, however as I was only using a free software to edit our film I was at a disadvantage as it is simple and limited what you could do and so I wasn’t able to add colour correction. Alex Garlitos (20) also mentioned on Facebook that the main actress Shelby Yearwood was wearing the same costume throughout the whole movie even though we implied that there were many jumps in time(shown below) again we wasn’t able to change this due to practicality issues, we would have had to film it all again, and edit again for her to be in a change of clothes, plus she would have had to have many changes of clothes with her, with time restrictions, this is hard to do so we decided not to use  that piece of feedback although it is a valid point, we were unable to act on it.

For my poster, Drilon Djaka(18) said that ‘maybe there could be a change of picture’ I considered it, but it would have been hard to get the costume again so that we could take the photo, so we decided to just keep the picture that we had already. One change that I did make from audience was thanks to Tracey Abi-Khalil (15) who mentioned that the billing box was too ‘tight’ it was hard to read, so I decided to widen it, and cut out a bit of the background, this made it easier to read which is good as if it was a big poster on a billboard, it would be easier for them to read. John Garcia said that the poster did give indication of what the film was about, and he liked it, he could see money and bills and assumed that the couple on the right had money problems, this was a very positive feedback as he managed to correctly guess a part of the film which is what we wanted to do for the poster.  Nicholas Hobbs also gave feedback on the poster and said that maybe the second half of the title should be a different colour to the title, this was a valuable piece of feedback as when I looked at it again, I realised that it looked like the title and the tagline were part of the same sentence, so by changing it, the title now looks distinguishable to the title. I asked Diana Ilarde (17) whether she thought that the poster is appealing to the intended audience, she answered saying that the poster is good for any age but it will appeal more to the intended audience as the actors that are shown are in the age range of the intended audience.

 

For my magazine, I wanted to know whether it would appeal to my intended audience of the film, Kevin Jarin (21) said that he thought that maybe it would only appeal to half of my intended audience, he gave the reason that he didn’t think people under the age of 20 would normally read a film magazine. I wouldn’t be able to change this as it is not because of the film magazine, however we did decide that the intended audience of the film magazine would be between the ages of 20 – 35, and thought that as we I didn’t do a serious magazine review, the film magazine would probably appeal more to boys, so the new intended audience is males aged 20-35. I also asked Macoy Domingo (18) whether he found it easy to read, he responded saying that he liked it because it was short, he probably wouldn’t have wanted to read it if it was longer, I was pleased with this as he is part of the films intended audience which means that there is good.

Evaluation q2

Evaluation podcast-Question 1

What are the established forms and conventions of the media and genres you have worked in?

Shelby drops out of 'Misfortune Of Fortune'?

shelby Yearwood, who was originally Grace in the film has given up her role as she would not be able to film on the days that have been set.

Me and David chose to film on Tuesday + Wednesday during half term because we would have the whole day to film, and we including Shelby didn't have plans, and were up for filming those days.

Now me and David have to either see whether we can film on different days which may be complicated, or find a different girl to take over the role of Grace.
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Practice Shot 1

Before we filmed this for our real film, we decided to practice it at school where it was going to be relatively easy to get all of the characters together. We practiced this particular shot because we thought it may be difficult on the day as there a zoom was involved, and getting this steady and framing the shot correctly could of been challenging. After editing the filming of this shot, we then believed we were ready to go to our location a few days later and film the real thing.

Magazine Film review Idea 1

This magazine film review layout is meant for a mainstream audience as most of the attention will be on the big iconic image from the film at the top of the page. We will be writing in a casual house style as this magazine would be for a younger target audience, of around 18-30 year old males. In this film review, we chose to follow main conventions, for example, we will have the 5-star graphic system and 'see if you liked' breakout box, where we will have our AS media film, 'The Predicament'. We got the idea of this layout from the more mainstream magazines, for example Total Film. Furthermore, we will have relatively the same mode of address and house style of these mainstream magazines, as we think it would be appropriate for the type of film we are making.

shooting schedule: second day

Date: 26/10/11

Time: 2pm - 5pm

Location: Outside house/on street

Shots: 22-25

Actors: Jamie (STUART), Shelby (Grace)

Crew: David (camera, props), Jamie (director, props)

Costumes and Props: combat uniform for Jamie

Equipment: Camera, DV tape, Tripod

Potential Issues: Lighting and weather, as we are outside, we cannot control the weather and whether the sun is shining in the camera or not. Weather may also cause continuity issues.

Risk assessment: - medium: as we are filming on the streets, we have to make sure the tripod doesn't get in the way of people walking, or watch out for cars if we need to film on the road. There is also a possibility that someone could steal the camera so we have to make sure we are on constant watch.

Shooting Schedule: first day

Date: 25/10/11

Time: 2pm-6pm

Shots: 1-21; 26-34

Location: In the house

Actors: Jamie (STUART), Shelby (GRACE) and David (OFFICER)

Crew: David (camera, props); Jamie (director, props)

Costumes and Props: Combat uniform for Jamie (STUART), officer uniform for David (OFFICER), scratch cards, lottery tickets, photos of Grace + Stuart

Equipment: Camera, DV tape, tripod

Potential issues: Lighting could be an issue if the house is not well-lit enough, also it will start to get dark at 6pm. Weather could be an issue if we show a window, and it is different weather when we film outside.

Risk Assessment: Low-we are filming inside where there is no real risk

character cast

Character cast

Stuart:   Jamie Del Mundo

Grace:   Shelby Yearwood

Officer: David Coates

Jamie is good for Stuart because, most soldiers are young, so Jamie would fit the role perfectly. As we have a soldier costume, we can use it to make him fit the role more for when he leaves to go fight in the war.

As Shelby is the same age as Jamie, it makes it more believable that they are going out, by having rings on, the audience will know that they are going out.

David would be good as the officer as he has a complete officer costume.

These 3 actors would be good for practicality reason, as David and Jamie are the cameramen and the directors of the film, so they would have to be there, and Shelby is willing to give up a day of her half term to be in our film.

film poster ideas

This poster has all the necessary conventions, and has everyoe that is in the film on the poster, t is showing that Grace and Stuart are a couple, and by having a photo of The Officer behind them, it shows that the Officer is going to do somethng, or has a role in somethng happening to them two. In The background, i would have a montage of pictures of bills, money, scratchcards etc. showing that one theme/genre is money problems.

Final Synopsis-The Misfortune of Fortune

In the beginning of the film we are shown a tracking shot of Grace gone to open the door, we then see an over the shoulder shot of the officer looking at Grace saying,  "I'm Sorry". Then there will be titles, so it will be clear that this was a flash back. We then see Grace breaking the 4th wall and explaining the narrative slightly and the situation they are in. We see them arguing, with bills racking up and her trying her luck on lottery tickets. After, we see Stuart leave the house, and this is where the narration stops from Grace. When he leaves, Grace starts to pray for help for their financial problems. Later, we see her sitting down watching the news that Stuart's regiment has been hit. An officer knocks on the door and tells Grace the news, and he begins to comfort her. After, there is a picture of Stuart in a frame with Grace crying at it. The film ends with the main titles at the end, including all of the crew and character names.

Script draft 2-FINAL

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy) .

OFFICER

I’m sorry

FADES TO

INT. ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down looking at camera.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Despite all of the arguments and bad times we had, through all the money problems that we had to face, I wish I prayed for him instead of thinking about the money.

FADES TO

ELIPSE OF TIME/TITLE

GRACE (NARRATOR)

And this is how it all began

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE and STUART arguing and shouting at each other about their financial problems.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

I hated all of the pointless arguments we had together. I said too many things I didn’t mean and regret saying to him.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

Montage of bills racking up on the table, GRACE scratching a scratch card, filling out lottery tickets.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Our money problems got so bad; I had to resort to my luck. I was getting restless.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

STUART leaving to go to war in Afghanistan.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

And then he left. If only I knew this was the last time

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

GRACE kneeling next to bed, praying to God.

GRACE

Dear God, I wish we had more money together so we could be happy

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down in living watching TV, having a cup of tea. News comes on about bomb going off in STUART’s regiment.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Knock at the door. Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy).

OFFICER

I’m sorry

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

OFFICER comforting GRACE, but she is crying.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

This was probably the worst moment of my life. This was the misfortune of fortune.

 FADES TO

ELIPSE OF TIME

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Picture of STUART in a frame on the mantel piece. Zoom out to see her crying sitting down in the living room.

TITLES

We chose to edit the first script slightly because we were not sure that our film would meet the brief given and be around the duration of five minutes. Also, we thought that putting a little more narration in the script, so we could explain the narrative a bit more and it would allow us to not use a lot of dialogue and scores, to be able to follow the conventions of short film. Furthermore, we chose not to script the argument, so instead we will have a montage of clips with them arguing. Moreover, as we were concerned about the running time of our short film, we added another montage of Grace filling out lottery tickets and trying her luck. 

Script draft 1

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy) .

OFFICER

I’m sorry

INT. ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down looking at camera.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Despite all of the arguments and bad times we had, through all the money problems that we had to face, I wish I prayed for him instead of thinking about the money.

ELIPSE OF TIME

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE and STUART arguing and shouting at each other about their financial problems.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

I hated all of the pointless arguments we had together. I said too many things I didn’t mean and regret saying to him.

INT. KITCHEN. DAY

Bills racking up on the table, GRACE scratching a scratch card.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

Our money problems got so bad; I had to resort to my luck. I was getting restless.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

STUART leaving to go to war in Afghanistan.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

And then he left. If only I knew this was the last time

INT. BEDROOM. NIGHT

GRACE kneeling next to bed, praying to God.

GRACE

Dear God, I wish we had more money together so we could be happy

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

GRACE sitting down in living watching TV, having a cup of tea. News comes on about bomb going off in STUART’s regiment.

INT. DOORWAY. DAY

Knock at the door. Door opens on OFFICER standing at the door (looking gloomy).

OFFICER

I’m sorry

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

OFFICER comforting GRACE, but she is crying.

GRACE (NARRATOR)

This was probably the worst moment of my life. This was the misfortune fortune.

ELIPSE OF TIME

INT. LIVING ROOM. DAY

Picture of STUART in a frame on the mantel piece. Zoom out to see her crying sitting down in the living room.

TITLES

synopsis idea 4

Ths is a story showing the life of a girl/boy, the person has a problem where she has two sides to her, good VS evil themed. Its a docuentary with both sides doing the monologue. When shown from her left side, you can see her in bright clothes, and is happy. But when seen from her right, she has dark clothes on and is angry.

This synopsis was altered to show two people, one to represent good, and one to represent evil instead of the same person.

This idea could have been the final choicee, but it would have been difficult to think of many events for each person to do.

synopsis idea 3

Two random university students start talking on a chat site, not knowing that they live in the same dorm and actually see each other a lot, but never talk in real life. while flirting and talking online, they both decide it would be a good idea to meet up somewhere, and see them face to face. So, they tell each other what they are wearing, and they say they are going to leave at the same time, but straight after, as they leave, they see each other, they are shocked to find out that they both knew each other before.

CONCLUSION:
This ended up to be one of our best ideas, but not the final one, this was because we thought the film was going to be quite boring as most of the film was going to be of two people at a computer screen all of the time, so we were going to find it difficult to make this film at least 5 minutes without getting too repetitive and use a variety of shot angles and positions. 

Synopsis Idea 2

We are first introduced to a couple in the film, who are facing a big financial problem. The woman wishes a person could just knock on the door and give them enough money to sort their problem out, preferably £100,000. Furthermore, we see that the man is a soldier in the army, as he leaves to go to Afghanistan for his next tour. A few weeks later on the news, a car bomb has exploded killing and wounding soldiers in his regiment. An officer knocks on the door to tell the woman what has happened, he is still alive but missing a leg. A few months later, the man is back at home with his partner, but with one leg, where a letter comes through the door, it is from the Ministry of Defence, as compensation for £100,000.

CONCLUSION:

In the end, this was decided that this was one of our final ideas and eventually came to be our final idea, but due to some practicality issues, we had to change some aspects of the synopsis.

Synopsis Idea 1

After the recent election, a new president has been brought into power, he decides to bring back the death penalty. By now many people have died by his hand. A person from the public thinks he is quite suspicious, so he decides to look into his life file, where he discovers something which could end the presidents power. A few weeks later, the person decides to show this to the world via blogs and various websites, to which he is taken to court for, but the president was found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty himself.

CONCLUSION:

In the end, this was not one of our most promising ideas, simply because of practicality issues. We knew we were going to find it difficult to obey the brief given, 'make a short film', we found that this could probably be a feature length film, but not a 5 minute short film. Also, finding the correct mise-en-scene for this was going to be extremely difficult, especially for the president and locations.

Film Poster ideas

I got this idea of our film poster from 'Saving Private Ryan', where the silhouette of Stuart is standing on a hill on his own, and there will be the two other characters, Grace and officer, faded on either side of the hill. In this idea, I chose to include the main stars of the film, with Jamie higher in the clouds as he has died in the film. There will also be the main title in big font with the tag-line underneath in italics. This film poster's target audience is 18-21 year olds as we think the message of this film could mainly affect this audience. 

For this idea for our film poster, I deliberately left out the names of the stars of our film since we are not very well known. However, we will still keep to other codes and conventions of posters by having a billing block, including all of the names of the crew. I felt like having the name of the film in big letters, and the tag-line in smaller italics just on top of the image. 

Furthermore, with the image I was thinking to show the relationship between the two front characters, Start and grace, and a person looming between them, separating them. As the intended audience for our main film is 16-25 year olds, our film poster is going to be targeted at 16-18 years olds to attract a youth audience and tell the message of our film to them.

Storyboard

File 0001

Early Stage Planning

we decided that our potential audience would be from the ages of 16 - 25

At first, we brainstormed many themes and genres, we thought of:
-documentary
-stereotypes
-national identity
-multi cultures
-karma
-crime
-youth violence
-war

Then, we thought about the purpose of our short film and we came up with either; to portray a message, or for experimentation.

From the above themes, we picked out the ones we liked best which were: karma, documentary and war themes. we chose these as we already had some ideas in our heads, and these were the themes that would fit in with our ideas.

Once decided, we came up with two ideas each (see other posts for full synopsis), and asked the teacher what eh thought about the ideas, he helped us what else to put into it, or how to tweak it to make it better, he also told us to get rid of one idea as it was too complicated for a short film. After the feedback, we wrote up a full synopsis for the other 3 ideas, and then asked some people what they thought about the ideas. When talking to people, i realised that most people liked my story about 'good and evil' above my 'internet dationg' idea, so i didn't use that one, and we ended up with two ideas to pick from, one from me, and one frome David.

In the end, we decided to use Davids idea about money problems and war as my idea would have been difficult to think of many events for each person to do.

Magazine film review-The Road

On the other hand, with this article it is less detailed than The Witnesses film review. Therefore, this film review from the magazine Total Film is for different audience than that of Sight & Sound. As we can see by the language used in this article, it is less detailed and only tells the main plot and narrative of the film, but not every detail. The potential audience for this magazine film review is normal film goers and people who want to know if this film is worth watching; it is probably for an 18-35 year old male audience. The mode of address for this magazine film review is quite casual, hence its potential audience is quite young. It is also sometimes humorous, for example, the caption of the photo, Glastonbury.

This film review has a variety of breakout boxes including information about predicted interest and the film running time, etc. However, they are used differently compared to Sight & Sound, where it is a full interview with the director, but in this magazine they are just used to fill up space. Furthermore, this review has a sub-title of ‘See this if you liked’, showing it is for a more relaxed, male audience; this also gives the audience a choice of what films they could go and watch.

Moreover, this review always kept on topic about the film and immediately gives any good or bad points about it. The review does not have many columns showing to the audience that there is not that much writing and it is not in much detail. There are many graphics in this review along with a large picture from the film, this also makes it more eye-catching for that younger audience, and shows only by semiotics, that its potential audience is casual and young.

We intend to use this type of casual magazine film review for our film because we do not want to reveal every aspect of our short film, as this will not suit it and we think that it would then be pointless watching the film. Instead, we intend to outline  the narrative, include good and bad points and include some breakout boxes.

Magazine film review-The Witnesses

As you can see by reading this magazine film review, it is very detailed, formal and academic, as the text makes it an intellectual read, for example, “Somewhat against verisimilitude”, not many people would understand what the critic was trying to say, but it is actually making the unreal, real. Moreover, though there are quite a few pictures in this article, it is a long read as there are many small columns and over two pages in the magazine, immediately showing the audience this is a detailed critic review. Also, in this review there is a breakout box, but it is different to those in other magazines, such as Total Film; this is another side story about the director, André Téchiné, which also comes with a very dark and moody picture of him, portraying to the audience that he is a very serious and confident person, so this will possibly be a good film.

The way this review ‘speaks’ to its audience is quite different to any other from Empire, etc. It assumes a lot about the audience in terms of what they know, and how intellectual they are. It was possibly intended for mature people especially in terms of film, who views film as a type of art. Also, the audience may need to be involved in high culture to understand this review. The critic, Ginette Vincendeau, assumes that the audience is very knowledgeable about French cinema and the language, as it uses some words that we usually do not use, for example, Beur, is from a North African origin.

This film review seems to be split up into sections. The first being where the critic simply introduces the film via references to other films, which is used quite often in magazine reviews. The next part is usually not used in a magazine film review; it is a full synopsis of the film, rather than just an overview. In my opinion, telling a full synopsis ruins the film, and you don’t have to watch it after, however, this is used for people interested in the art of film. The next part of the review is the narrative structure and style, again this isn’t really common, but how the director approached the film maybe accepted as a common aspect of a film review. In our own film review, we may include how we approached the film, but we will definitely not include a full synopsis or the narrative structure because the audiences for short film and art house films are very different, and people will not want to watch it after reading the review.

Furthermore, the next part is a very key and good aspect of the review; it is where the critic says what is bad about the film. After, the critic starts to write about contextual information and academic references. Lastly and most importantly in a magazine film review, there is the closure of the article, where the critic ‘sums up’ the film in a few sentences. Moreover, this is the place where the article puts a call to action, to go to another page in the magazine; this is quite effective because you are almost certain as the critic, that the audience will see it.

magazine film conventions

section title - this shows what section you are reading in the magazine

headline - Normally the film title

strapline - used to give insight to the film

introduction - used to give insight to the film

subheading/breakout paragraphs - takes up space, and catches viewers eyes

columns - the more columns and more thinner, normally means a more serious review

pictures - normally shows a screenshot from the film

graphics and logos - could be a range of stuff, ncluding magazine logo

font and typography - serif/sans serif, bold, talics etc.

breakout boxes - used for a variety of things, for example information about the film

call to action - tells reader to do something for example, visit this website

byline - editor/writer

issue info - information about the magazine

caption - gives anchorage

Conventions of a magazine film review

The headline of a film magazine is generally the title of the film being reviewed by the critic or a short sentence that may relate or sum up the film, except this is normally used in academic magazines. Normally, the headline is in big font which immediately catches the readers’ eye. Moreover, sub-headings in a film review are used to break up the article, sometimes linking to other reviews, in this case, ‘See if you liked’. Generally, film magazines are split up into more than one section, not just about film reviews, this is why they have a section title, normally shown as a
graphic or logo, for example, Screen and Lounge. The strap lines in an article are similar to taglines in a poster, they are there to give a it more information on what the film is about, so audiences can look at it quickly and see if they like the sound of the film.

Furthermore, breakout boxes and paragraphs are used to show extra information relating to the text, for example, directors cut; they are mainly used to emphasise certain aspects in an article, normally quotes, and these are also in the text, so they are just used to catch the readers’ eye hence why they are normally in different typography. The columns of an article can be seen as the most important aspect because the amount of columns will vary depending on what magazine it is, this is known as the house style. Also, in an article there is sometimes a byline, depending if the writer is well known or not, just like in film posters, the critics’ name can be in big font next to the article, small font hidden away, or not there at all.

Font and typography can be used very effectively for eye-catching ideas and is usually part of the house style of the magazine. The font is the style of lettering, for example, Arial or Times New Roman. The font can show if it is going to be a light or academic article. However, the typography is the actual appearance of the text, in terms of colour and size. An article will usually have different typography all the way through the article to make it seem more appealing. A call to action is also put in an article to make the audience visit other articles or sites for more information about other film reviews. Moreover, there is always a picture used in a magazine film review, and it is usually a screenshot from the film or an iconic image. Along with the picture, there is generally a caption explaining what is happening in the picture, sometimes the caption can be shown as a joke.

what are the main film magazines in the UK?

There are many different film magazines that do film reviews, some examples are sight and sound, Total Film and Prevue. All these magazines would have different kind of audiences, for example total film would mostly be for the male audience as could be seen from the magazine cover above, by having a picture of 'Megan Fox' on the cover, it wold catch most mens eyes and entice them to buy the magazine. They would normally have a lot of witty jokes inside the magazine, with an easy to understand style of language. the layout of the page is it normally has a big picture which takes up a lot of space on the page, with not a lot of text as most of the readers would just want to skim through the text. Total Films content would normally consist of items which would be considered manly, for example cars and the main films to be critiqued would be a film with nice cars or sexy girls.

There are also magazines that come from the cinema itself, Vue has one. These magazines wouldnt give much away according to film content as people wouldnt want ther film to be spoiled, also they wouldn't put any criticisms of the flm as the cnema would be trying to get as many people to watch the films as possible.

Main Film Magazines in the UK

Film magazines such as Empire and Total Film are similar in style because they will generally have more casual reviews, with a potential audience of young adults who just want to know if the film is good or not, and worth watching. The magazine reviews will not reveal every aspect of the film, except it may give you an outline of what the narrative is about. There are more pictures and graphics in reviews than text, and the text will be put into small columns. The way the magazine interacts with the audience is by using many breakout boxes for extra information, and trying to make jokes about things they say. Both of these magazines are split up into sections for sometimes not just about films, for example, music and watching films at home.

On the other hand, the film magazine Sight & Sound is a very well-known magazine for reviews, but for more of an academic audience, this is portrayed by the content and layout of the review. The content of the reviews is quite serious and uses very complex language, for example, verisimilitude. Furthermore, the layout of the reviews are very plain with possibly one picture from the film with lots of columns of text, immediately telling the audience it is long and detailed. The potential audience of this magazine is for people who believe film is a type of art, and are very interested to know how directors can do things.

what is the purpose of a magazine film review?

The main purpose of a film review is to give an outside opinion to a film, this could either be a good or bad review and the makers of the film have no influence over the outcome. One benefit for films of film reviews is that if the review is a good one, this could greatly boosts sales, however if the film critic says its a bad film, then this could destroy sales for the film. If the film review is good, this could be seen as free advertising as they do not pay for the critics to review the film, but it still brings in more sales. There have been examples of films that have not let critics watch the previews of a film because the producers themselves knew that the film was not a good film, and if they let film critics review the film before the film came out, they would have lost a lot of money.

The difference of film reviews and film posters is that, film posters are made by the producers of the film, and so they would make the film poster look as good as it could be so that people would like it. The audience would rather watch a film based on the film review instead of the film poster as the film review is more honest, and even if a film poster looks good, it doesn't mean that the film itself would be a good film.

Purpose of a Magazine Film Review

The main purpose of a magazine film review is provide the audience with information based opinions from critics about an upcoming film, which they will be able to see very soon, and most importantly spend their time and money seeing it. A film review is different to a film poster because film posters will generally have a positive twist to it, but in a magazine it is the full review by the critic, who is able to say to the audience what he/she likes about the film and similarly dislikes. There are also many magazine film review conventions used differently to film posters, which I will explain later. Furthermore, in film reviews there are sometimes also breakout boxes which may show information about the director of the film, and what he/she wanted to do while making the film, this can be effective because it gives the audience an insight of what to expect.

How audiences interact and understand each film review generally all falls down to the style of magazine it is in, for example, Total Film for more casual, male audiences who like witty jokes. On the other hand, there are magazines such as sight & Sound, for more serious, academic audiences who want to know every aspect of the film. However, audiences may interact with these film reviews through all of the technical conventions used, such as a call to action, where they may visit websites or call a number for further information about the film they just read about. The main way audiences immediately understand a film review is through a very common system, which is the stars, the more stars a film gets, the better the film according to the critic. Generally, audiences that read lots of film reviews and know the best critics like Ginette Vincendeau, the more they will believe the article from this particular critic.

The direct impact of a film review is extremely vital, it has the ultimate power to make or break a film, especially in feature length films as they will find it very important for the success of their film. The film review is an important part of a film’s marketing campaign because even if the film makers do not have the budget to have lots of advertisements for their film, if they get an excellent review from a well known critic, they will be very successful. However, it can be easily seen that this does contain a large element of risk because if a film got a bad review after they asked for one, they will probably not do as successful as expected.