Film Review Magazine

How existing products helped me to create my film magazine

Heading Some magazine pages will have a heading to introduce the viewer that I is a review film review. This gives the viewer a better insight to what is on that page they are viewing

Below are three examples of headings that I have picked up and they are quite conventional, so I had decided to put a heading in my magazine to make it look more professional and appealing to the viewer. My heading has a nice colour scheme as the colours contrast and makes the headline pop out. I have also put a key for the rating of the film at the end to make it easier for the viewer.

HeadlineThese are the headlines of the films that the magazine pages I have looked at, they are slightly positioned at the bottom below the header.

On the Spiderman headline they have a certificate, so I have took this in to account and inserted a certificate clearly showing that the film is not suitable for ages below 14. The titles are bold and stand out from their background, for example: the Avatar title stands out from it’s orange background whereas my title stands out from it’s white background due to the black bold text. The style of the font is san-serif, I have also taken this in to account and have used it on my headline.

SubheadThe subhead is the one liner which stays below the headline and acts as the one liner for the story. This is a convention of magazine film reviews and it is evident in the magazines I have been researching.

You can see on the right that there is an subheading below my heading. From looking at the magazine reviews I had identified it as a convention. And as you can see that it has been applied to my magazine double spread.

Film specifications

From looking at these film reviews, I have noticed a trending pattern: they include details about the film such as director, certificate, running time ECT.

This is a convention of film reviews, since it sums of the specifications of the film, therefore giving the viewer more information on the film before they choose to carry on reading the main article.

I have looked at what kind of specifications film magazines publish and I have created this content to be used in my magazine.

Plot/IntroThe introduction is very important and it’s a convention of film magazines. The introduction is the first paragraph the viewer reads so it must be interesting and appealing.

I have described the whole concept of my film in a paragraph, words such as ‘interesting’, ‘friendship’, ‘challenge’ and ‘school’ have been used to draw the attention of my audience, whom are between the ages of 15-23

Above are examples of magazines that have a plot/ intro to give further information.

Kicker Newsletter kickers are typically set below the main headline in a font size larger than the body text but smaller than the main headline. Font and style varies from publication to publication. Usually, headlines and kickers are in the same font so readers recognize that the heading introduces the content.Newsletter kickers can introduce the content or signal a regular column through a short phrase or sentence. Through a kicker, the writer can target a specific audience. Since they don't have to identify regular columns in the main headline when they use a kicker, writers have more freedom in writing main headlines. I have applied this convention to my magazine and it is evident in the magazines I have researched.

Standfirst This convention was challenged in my double spread since I did not apply the convention to my magazine.

The Spiderman and Avatar film reviews did not have a Standfirst.This is because it’s not necessary maybe since there is enough appealing content to draw the audience in. Also a Kick back is used to draw the reader in to reading.

No Strings Attached, I Am Legend and Pirates Of the Caribbean have a Standfirst. I challenged this by not inserting one in to my magazine, and it works really well with out it to be honest.

By-line The by-line is the name of the author the film review. In some cases, by-lines may be used to give credit for photographs or illustrations. The by-line is found appears between the headline and start of the article, prefaced by the word "By" or "From" or other wording. The by-line could also appear at the end of the article and this what I have done as I had seen it evident in the magazines I have been researching.

Ratings The ratings are out of five stars and they indicate how good the film is. This is a convention as the review needs a visual display of how much stars the film was awarded.

I have applied this convention from looking at other magazines.

A3 double spread/ dominant image

This is a popular convention that is evident in all films reviewsAs you can see I have applied it to mine. My film review is a double page spread with a dominant image on the right. On the photo Is a caption which says ‘where is the love’; following my genre comedy, I thought I would make it funny.

To Conclude

Heading

HeaderSubhead

Film specs

Plot

KickerBy-line

Rating

Caption

Content

Image from film