Research task: Magazine movie review article.

For another of this week’s research tasks, we have been asked to find and evaluate a movie review from a magazine. Whether the movie is recent or not is irrelevant, as well as whether or not it is a print or online version. I will be looking for an evaluating any key conventions of a magazine article that I can find, as well the conventions of a review.

As already mentioned, for my coursework I will be creating a short film, along with a poster and a magazine review article of my film, in an attempt to create the promotional feel and atmosphere that any film will go through prior to its release. After searching the internet for any suitable review pages, I finally found one. Believe it or not, the article below was actually made by a sixth form student of my age, a few years ago. Where her inspiration came from, I have no idea – but I am certainly using hers as inspiration for mine. The sheer detail, care and professionalism that this piece of work has are all areas that I will be talking about. When I first viewed this article, I was genuinely convinced that is was a real life magazine article. Everything from the layout, to the picture and even the spacing between lines gives it that truly professional feel.

Layout:

Personally, graphology draws the fine line between a good article and a bad article. From a reader’s point of view, you want an article to be an easy and entertaining read that will keep you hooked all the way through. Graphology or layout (Whichever you prefer) are absolutely vital to how easy an article is to read. This article is one that has used graphology extremely well. Being organised and tidy when making a magazine will automatically make it look more professional than a rushed one. It is evident that the person who made this put a lot of time and effort into it… and they were rewarded well. In terms of the columns, I think they have mastered this and used it will. The main article takes up three columns of similar size. They are uninterrupted throughout, meaning that the reader is not faced with the difficult task of having to find where the article reads on to. Another thing about this article’s layout that I really like is the way in which they have included a synopsis of the film at the bottom of the page. Whilst being a lengthy synopsis, the person who made this has still managed to find enough room to make it fit perfectly.

Colours, fonts and pictures are also key parts of graphology, and they have all been exploited and shown of tremendously.

Personally, there is nothing worse than a font that I can’t. For something as simple as a style of text, fonts really can ruin something for me. A lot of people have a tendency to use fonts that look childish or too fancy. They also seem to think that writing in italics or bold is “Cool” or “Funky”. It isn’t. Luckily, the use of font in this article is simple and easy to read. Whilst it may sound boring, using a simple font adds to the professionalism of any piece of work. So in my books, full marks for font.

The choice of colours in this article are also effective and professional looking. Magazines tend to stick with two or maybe three colours as their house style. Furthermore, they usually tend to be red, grey and white. This article is no different. Sticking to the conventions of typical magazines is effective in its own way and makes the article realistic.

The picture and its positioning are also two factors that have been used well. A single, high quality image has been used in this article, which shows a person who is, in my eyes, the main character of the film, which makes them the most important. The picture does not reveal too much about the film itself, which will leave the reader guessing and will hopefully make them read into it more.

Conventions:

In terms of conventions, this article hits all of the main conventions of a review. Fact files, synopsis and credits are all present in the article. Unfortunately, the image is too small to read into, but blog address of this person’s work will allow a closer look. The fact file includes all necessary information that a film should share, including cast, release date, length and rating (Age). Credits are written to highlight all involved with the film and the synopsis gives a slightly less detailed explanation of the film.

All in all, this article is extremely successful and convincing. As already mentioned, I was fooled into thinking it was real.

I will be hoping to recreate something similar to this in the coming weeks. “Stay tuned” for updates and weekly blogs.