Research (Ancillary Products): Magazine Review

The second ancillary product that I need to create to compliment the 'marketing campaign' of my short film is a magazine film review page. This could be either an existing, established magazine or an original magazine that is specific to my genre and the mood of my film. 

The first thing I did to research into magazine front covers was create a mood board that showed me a range from well established magazines to independent film magazines:

My mood board on the many examples of film reviews I gathered from sources on the internet.

This mood board showed me that there was a large range of conventions when it comes to a magazine review pages. Out of these conventions, I found that the most common and effective things I would need to add into my magazine review page would be a the film title, magazine name, tagline, focal image, page number, date of release, features of a film, interviews, description of the film,film review and an image of a film/character. 

The mood board also showed me that even though I liked the format and structure of already existing and established magazines. Also shown that the lay-out of magazine review pages are very effective in the way they are all laid out.

Magazine review purpose?

For this research, I looked into detail on film reviews, and read through a lot of them (the mood board examples) to help gain a expansive view on what their purpose actually is to serve to the audience and public reading the magazine. I found that the main purpose of a magazine film review is to provide information and opinions about films that are currently about to be released. Without question, film reviews in magazines provide a synopsis of the film, so that the audience can gauge whether the film is their 'cup of tea' or not. The depth of detail the synopsis may have varies with different magazines; for example that I found online, 'Sight and Sound' is renown for giving a detailed synopsis on up-and-coming films and are notorious for giving away many spoilers within them. This is something that I won't include in my magazine review; this being that I don't want the audience of the magazine to not watch it, just because they already know the plot. Opinions on the actors in the film are given, there is commentary on the director's style and narrative structure and there is often an overall opinion given on the making of the film. 

Film magazine reviews often have the purpose to give brutal and ruthless opinions on films that criticise, in order for an objective balance is to be achieved and for people to read honest, unbiased reviews of a film. However despite the reviews leaning an audience members opinion, the review can also make the member watch the film, as they might actually disagree with the author of the review. Additionally, the purpose of a film magazine review is to introduce themes and subject matter helping people establish whether the film would be suited to them and whether it's of their taste, which I agree to be an important part to a film review. Film reviews in magazines allow audiences to understand more about the new role of the actor starring in it and the director's approach to the film and its style. Many well established actors that are well-known will have highly anticipated films that will be reviewed critically and allow many audiences in their fan base or who knows of them to read about their new work. Magazine film reviews cater to audiences who are looking for an expert 'third' opinion on the suitability of a film. 

Many people will look to their favourite film critic in a certain magazine to give an opinion on a film that they are interested in as they trust that critic's opinion and regard it highly. Film reviews in magazines are often used to market a film due for release and often provide an unbiased opinion on the film. Film magazine reviews are hugely important for film marketing as they have a wide influence on many people and reach out to all audiences.

Main conventions of a Magazine Film Review?

a short piece of annotations on a magazine review page.

An example of a film review in the magazine 'Empire'. Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media of Hamburg based Bauer Media Group.
These conventions which I investigated in this example were: 

• At the top of the first page is a very large and bold heading. Its an orange box tilted to the side, that reads “in cinemas” this tells the readers that this film coming out to cinema and underneath in a white box and red text it tells them the exact dates it is out in cinemas. This seems an important feature for film reviews, therefore I will include the title of the film review company, and the date released. 
• Underneath the heading there is considerable amount of white space before another heading which states the name of the film, WALL.E. This is wrote in a bold black text that stands out from the white background and clearly tells the audience what the name of the film is. In red text bellow WALL.E  it says “Meet the little robot with the big heart”  This draws people into reading the review as a little robot sounds cute. It also makes you want to go see the film so you can “meet the robot”.
• Before the review starts there is a small fact box in the left hand column, which covers all the basic information on the film, like its running time, certificate, cast, release date and a basic overview of the plot. I think this is a good idea as it gives the audience all the basic information they need to go see it and some aspects of the film to tempt them into seeing it, like the list of people who do the voices in the film.
• Then the review of the film which includes some slight points which happen in the film, a general review from the author of the article, and ratings. This doesn't include much about the film because it won't spoil anything for the audience which want to watch it. This is something i'll include in my film review page.
• As well as this, on the next page of the double spread is the focal image, which is normally a snap shot of something important in the film. Something that I will include in my ancillaries as this is what will mainly attract the audience to reading the review.

Terminology (in the example above)

• 'Panel' / 'Box Out - Usually contains separate information which may be relevant to the page's main text. This shown on the right of the second page labelled 'Look Closer'.
• 'Slug' -  One of the most common features of a film review, often used to tell the reader where they are within the magazine. This shown in the WALL-E example, the dark red banner at the top.
• 'Sub Head' - Mostly used to contextualise the headline.
• 'WOB' - 'White text on black background' or 'White on black' - either used to make the text stand out or used as a sub heading.
• 'Cross Head' - In long winding texts such as magazine reviews, the crosshead is used to breakup the text, to make it look less intimidating.
• 'Folio' - Much like the slug, this is used at the bottom of the page for the page number or date.
• 'Pull Quote' - Used to magnify a particularly interesting or controversial quote to draw the readers attention.
• 'Drop-Cap' - Simply a bigger capital letter at the start of the article to draw the readers attention to the text.
• 'Byline'- Used to publicise the author/writers name presented as 'Stand First'.
• 'Sidebar' - Despite its name its not always positioned to the side, the side bar is often used to give information, context or even an entertaining point.
• 'Stand First' - Magazines use this technique as a 'teaser', summarising the theme to get the reader interested - without giving away key information or conclusions.