January 2012:
In preparation of creating my own film poster I investigated how a profession film review is written and laid out. I researched the film reviews (hardcopy and online versions) of Empire, Total Film and Sight And Sound:
Conventions used in Sight and Sound:
An example of a Sight and Sound magazine film review
- small pictures are used - text of the review takes up more of the page
- usually 4 columns
- review resembles an analysis
- very descriptive plot is provided at the bottom of the page in the 'Synopsis' section
- the use of technical language presents the review as having an academic tone and cold mode of address
- small point size
- provides additional information which is irrelevant to a reader who wants a general overview e.g. institutional information
- star rating system is not used
An example of an Empire magazine film review
- a large image usually takes up half the page
- three or more columns are used
- Concluding section 'OVERVIEW' provides a quick judgement at a glance
- warm, friendly and humorous tone
- small point size is used but this is larger than what is used in Sight and Sound
- star rating system is used
Conventions used in Total Film:
An example of a Total Film magazine film review
- large images
- usually, the review page is laid out with 2 or 3 columns
- for extensive reviews more than half page is taken up with the text
- the section 'IN SHORT' is used at the end of the review to summarise
- professional, friendly tone which is occasionally humorous
- a larger point size than Sight and Sound
- star rating system
After looking at all three magazine's reviews it has become clear that although Sight and Sound is very articulate and academic, the mode of address to be too formal and find it to be inappropriate for my target audience. I found Empire's overall layout and design to be most appropriate for my target audience; the humorous mode of address would best suit young adults of both genders.
February 2012:
I intended to use Photoshop to design my film review and firstly I had to select the image I wanted to place on the film review. I watched my film and brainstormed possible image stills, which I could used for the main image on the film review:
Brainstorming of images which could be used as the main image on the film review. The timings of the images on the Youtube video are in blue
I decided the image which would give a general sense of the film - but not be too revealing - and one which I could add a humorous comment to was the image of a frightened Barmaid in the alleyway at 4:43.
Original image extracted from iMovie and print screened on the Apple Mac
I then brainstormed possible humorous taglines which I could place underneath the film's title and humorous insets for the main image of Barmaid:
Brainstorming of humorous taglines to place underneath the film's title
Brainstorming of humorous insets to accompany the image of Barmaid
For the tagline which would be placed underneath the film's title I chose "When Barmaid met Boy" because this connotes a romantic relationship between the two characters but also, abiding by the Empire sense of humour, it is a play on words of the famous romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally" - a word play which would be apparent to filmophiles.
Continuing the impression of a romantic comedy I chose "You look... different from your profile picture" to be the image's humorous inset, as the connotation of both parties willingness to enter a romantic relationship is the complete opposite of the denouement. After some consideration I decided to slightly alter the phrasing of the image inset in order to clarify that the humour is because the person at which Barmaid is looking, has given a false impression and provided her with an incorrect depiction of his looks on a dating website. So after rephrasing the image's inset became: "You look... different to your dating profile picture".
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