Introduction
This page will illustrate research, planning and construction of existing film reviews in order for our group to create a film review for our short film Life of Hermit. Like ancillary task 2, this ancillary task is also worth 10 marks. To create our film review, we shall be using the software Quarkexpress as we have been informed that this is the easiest and most effective software to use to create our products.
Film reviews are made purposely to inform film lovers about new up and coming films. They are used as a marketing tool to advertise films, they also notify readers about actors performances within films, discuss briefly the plot of films and give stared ratings to give the reader an insight of what to expect about the film. Once we have analysed a number of film reviews and have done training using Quarkexpress, we shall then create our own review.
As part of the requirements for this task, we must each individually create our own film review so that we have training with how to use the software. This way, when we begin to construct our product, we will all have a firm understanding with how to use the software.
Film Review Research
Example 1.
This page will illustrate research, planning and construction of existing film reviews in order for our group to create a film review for our short film Life of Hermit. Like ancillary task 2, this ancillary task is also worth 10 marks. To create our film review, we shall be using the software Quarkexpress as we have been informed that this is the easiest and most effective software to use to create our products.
Film reviews are made purposely to inform film lovers about new up and coming films. They are used as a marketing tool to advertise films, they also notify readers about actors performances within films, discuss briefly the plot of films and give stared ratings to give the reader an insight of what to expect about the film. Once we have analysed a number of film reviews and have done training using Quarkexpress, we shall then create our own review.
As part of the requirements for this task, we must each individually create our own film review so that we have training with how to use the software. This way, when we begin to construct our product, we will all have a firm understanding with how to use the software.
Film Review Research
Example 1.
1) Film title
Sometimes in film reviews, the title of the film is in a bright colour or a unusual font so that it stands out on the page and attracts the readers attention. However in this particular case, the title is simply white and in a normal large bold font, this is purposely because the reviewer wants the page to be easy to read and so the title of the film stands out from a distance. This is usually the case for film titles as the title of the film is sells the plot and attracts audiences to go and watch the film. In addition to this, with the title being done this way it looks professional,there is no need to include unusual fonts or colours.
2) Main image (Art)
Notice how the top half of the page is dominated by the image, this has many purposes, firstly it is to portray the famous actor (Nicholas Hoult) as the protagonist in the film. This is advertising the film, as fans of Nicholas Hoult after seeing this image will be interested in seeing him in his latest film which could persuade them to go and it.
3) Image cation (Pull Quote)
The image caption should relate to the image/ film, notice how the caption has been placed on the image, this is the correct way to place captions. If the caption is above the image then it has been poorly designed, captions conventionally should be placed on the image or below it. Captions are included to help make the image meaningful. The font of the caption should be the same as the font used in the main body, this also applies to the font size, however the size of the caption can be be slightly bigger or smaller than the size of the main body.
4) Pun
Puns are used to make light humour of the film, they are a clever play on words to simply make the reader laugh. They will be applied to the type of film or an element within the film, here for example "XL-Men" is humorous as giants feature in the film hence the title of film and of course giants are rather bigger than humans.
5) Byline
Bylines usually occour at the end of reviews as is the case for this example. They contain the name of the author who wrote the review, they are normally slightly bigger than the size of the text of the main body.
6) Folio
Folio's for film reviews usually include: publication logo (Empire), date (month and year) and webpage (empireonline.com). Conventionally they do appear on each page of the review magazine.
7) Intro
Intro's act as a bridge between the headline (title) and the main body. They should set the tone for the article and give the reader an insight of what they can expect to see further on into the article. Usually they briefly summarising the plot of the film and from the intro should attract the readers attention. Intro's should be just below the headline as they are meant to work in conjunction with each other. The size of the intro text should be slightly larger than the main body text.
8) Gutter
The 'gutter' is simply the space between columns. Each column should have the exact same space between each other as this will make the whole page look look more professional.
9) Image margin
The image margin is the space around the image that prevents the main body text from butting up against or into the image.
10) Drop cap
In this case the line "ONCE UPON A TIME" acts as the drop cap. It is usually just the first letter of the first paragraph that is significantly larger than the rest of the text. They can be as large as two lines tall. Drop cap's are also always in bold.
Example 2.
Example 3.
Software Training
To ensure that all of our group is comfortable with the software that we will be using to create our film review, we will each individually create our own review on a film of a choice just so we have training using QuarkXpress.
Being as I have never used the software before, I followed this tutorial to make my first experience with the software easier.
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| First of all I had to create a boarder to go around the page of the review. This was easy to achieve as using the rectangular drawing tool I simply drawn a rectangle around the edge of the page. |
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| This is the tools panel that I used throughout the process for creating my own film review. |
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| Once I had selected the image that I wanted to use off the internet, I then had to open it in QuarkExpress. Once the image had appeared on the page, I then resized it and positioned it where I thought was appropriate. After I had done this I then added a text box so I could create a 'IN CINEMAS' sign. Using the text box tool I simply drawn the text box where I wanted the sign to appear on the page. Then I copied the text box holing down the command and C buttons. With the second box I increased the width significantly as this is where 'CINEMAS' was going to appear. Once I had inputted both words in each box, I then had to insert some Lorem Ipsum template text. |
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| Once the Lorem Ipsum was in the main article, I then created the headline (title) for the review. Again this was simple enough to do as I just needed to create another text box and insert what I wanted to be in there. |
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| Once the image, main article, title and signage was on the review I then started to begin to add where the other review conventions would appear on the review. As you can see I added quote boxes alongside the verdict section. None of which were difficult to do, however what I did find challenging the aligning these elements accurately alongside making sure the separate columns were aligned appropriately. |
Flat Plan
Once we had all had training on QuarkExpress, we then had to create a flat plan so we knew what we wanted our film review to look like. Before we began to make our flat plan, we looked through a number of Empire magazine reviews so we had an idea of what our review should look like.
Here is what we came up with:
Here are all the elements of the film review and how we will use them:- Running Head - this will be placed on the top left corner of the review and will say 'In Cinemas' because with every magazine review that we have analysed, the running head always say 'In Cinemas'. We will also use the running head as a basis of the colours that we will be using on the magazine page. We have decided to use the colour orange for the text box while the font colour will be white with a orange glow.
- Image - the image of the film review will be a screenshot of a scene in Life of Hermit. We will need to make sure that the screenshot isn't blurry and shouldn't include too much dead space or else this will ruin the presentation of the film review. We will also include a screenshot that won't give any spoilers to the reader such as the reveal scene so we will probably choose a shot that is showed early on in the film.
- Headline - the headline is going to be the film's name and it will be placed in front of the image on the bottom left corner and the text will have the biggest size on the page so the reader will clearly see what the article will be about.
- Tagline - the tagline will be placed under the headline and still in front of the image. It will include a short pun that the readers will hopefully find amusing. This is used to keep the readers interested so they are more likely to read the review rather than just skipping it.
- Caption - this will be placed in front of the right side of the image will be aligned with the tagline. It will be a short sentence that will connect the image to review.
- Symbols - the symbols will be placed between each section of the review because the this will help the readers identify which section starts and ends. It will also help improve the presentation of the magazine page because it will look more interesting to the reader instead of just having an article full of text.
- Information About the Film - this part of the review will include a brief summary of what the short film is about. This will include the release date, certificate, director, cast, running time and basic plot. We're doing this because if the reader has never heard of the short film, then they are able to see the basic information about the film so they can get a good idea of what the film is about.
- Drop Text - this will simply be the first few words of the review however it will either be bold or the size will increase slightly in order to create a difference to the rest of the article.
- Folio - this will include the page number and date of issue of the magazine. We have decided to use an existing film magazine for the film review as this will make it look more realistic.
- Website - this will include the official website for the magazine and will be aligned with the folio.
- Main Article - this will cover half the magazine page and will be shown in four columns as this is a convention that is constantly used in existing film reviews. For the first print, we will use Lorem Ipsum to cover the text however we will write a full review for the final print.
- Rating System - this is the final part of the film review and will include a final verdict of the short film with a star rating out of five. We're doing this so the reader can get a clear idea if the film is worth seeing or not.
Product Construction:
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| This is the image that we decided to use as the main photo for our film review. We chose this image as we believed with the inclusion of the masked character alongside Hermit we thought it was the appropriate image to use. As this would get the audience intrigued as it would spark their interest of wanting to know why characters are wearing masks. Also in this image there is very little dead space, which is beneficial as everything in the photo is related to in the film. |
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| This is where we decided to position the image, we also added a running head on to it. |
Once we added the image to our review and added common conventions such as the headline, tagline, caption and running head. We then had to create the main article, we positioned it beneath the image and filled the it with the Lorem Ipsum text being as it was only the first draft.
Once we added the main article, we then used drop text by enlarging and bolding the opening sentence of the first paragraph. This is to inform the reader that this is where the article begins. We also had the room it insert a information box at the beginning of the film review. The information box included general in formation about the film such as when it was going to be released, cast, director etc.
Once we added the main article, we then used drop text by enlarging and bolding the opening sentence of the first paragraph. This is to inform the reader that this is where the article begins. We also had the room it insert a information box at the beginning of the film review. The information box included general in formation about the film such as when it was going to be released, cast, director etc.
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After we achieved inputting the main article, we then moved on to adding symbols. Two black parallel lines represent the symbols, they will appear between sections so the reader can see where the section begins and ends. We found it rather challenging aligning the lines accurately, however we realised it was imperative that we got the alignment issues as accurately as we could otherwise it would tarnish the quality of the review.
After including the symbols, we then added the folio. This was easy and simple to achieve as we just had to include the general folio information. Such as page number, magazine edition, webpage and the magazine company.
Film Review (First print)
After including the symbols, we then added the folio. This was easy and simple to achieve as we just had to include the general folio information. Such as page number, magazine edition, webpage and the magazine company.
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| Symbols and folio information. |
Film Review (First print)
After creating and following our flat plan, this is what our group produced as our first print film review.
We believed that the easiest and most efficient to collect feedback was to use have a screencast running in the background. As this way we knew we wouldn't miss anyones advice or suggestions, plus we are able to listen to it as many times as we wish to.
Question1: What are you initial thoughts of the review?
"I like the catch line, "Pi wants its title back."
"It looks like a real review."
"The picture doesn't give away anything but at the same time with the masks included you want to know why their there. It sparks your interest."
"I like how the colour scheme matches the poster."
"The only problem is though, this is an actual magazine review, so the magazine wouldn't wouldn't match the colour with the poster because there both done by different people."
Question 2: What's there in terms of layout? Whats there that you would expect to see?
"There isn't a pull quote, thats a choice I'm presuming you have made." We decided not to use a pull quote purposely because the of example film reviews that we had used, as none of our example included them.
"The caption at the bottom right of the photo, thats a convention of film reviews."
"The byline again is a usual convention of film reviews."
"On the whole globally, it does look like a film review."
"The 'IN CINEMAS' isn't in two colours, and Empires style is normally to do that in two different colours."
"The 'IN CINEMAS' is almost centred, theres slightly a bigger gap at the top compared to the bottom." There was a small alignment issue with this element, however no we have measured the distances accurately to ensure that the spaces are the same distances apart.
"Theres a boarder around the review that is consistent."
"Theres a caption to anchor the image."
"Good use of the furniture that they have used, I'd say fits in with their review, it helps separate between sections."
"The 'SOMETHING CLEVER' being in a larger font and in bold is a convention that is commonly used for film reviews."
"The folio information is all there, the page number, the edition, web address
"The thick bold line are the bottom of the page is a convention, I've seen it used in their examples. Also the small orange triangle at the bottom left of that bold line almost looks as if it wraps back on itself like a ribbon, Ive never noticed that before, thats very close attention to detail."
Question 3: In terms of layout and what it looks like, how can it be improved?
"I think in terms of the text and columns, the columns could do with been move down a little bit because at the moment I think it looks to close to the image. "
"The bottom line at the bottom right of the page is not in line with the text on the bottom line."
"There's no glaring obvious mistakes."
So this was the feedback that we received for our first print of our film review. Now we must begin to actually write our review which shouldn't be too challenging as we have already discussed about what we can write about. So apart from a few alignment issues there are no real imperative improvements to be made!
After we had received all of our improvement suggestions we asked our class to give us a level out of 4 and a mark our of 10 for our review. Level 4 being the strongest level and 10 being the highest mark. We are proud to be able to say that our first print review achieved level 4 with the majority of marks being 9/10.
Questionnaire feedback
Although we was given feedback on our review by our class when we presented it to them, our group wanted to see what the general consensus was for our review outside the classroom. With this in mind, we decided to create a basic questionnaire on our review to see what the majority of thoughts were for our product. Also by collecting separate feedback may be useful as people who don't study media, may spot simple errors that we haven't seen which will help us improve our review.
Here are is the feedback we recieved:
As you can see, this person genrally seems to like the our film review. The main point that he reiterated throughout the questionnaire was that it actually looks like a real film review which our group are extremely happy about! He also identified that there are some alignment issues that need to be addressed, which we will focus on fixing.
This person also seems to like our review, she does mention however that there is a lot of constant text. When our group read this feedback we believed that it was a good point, so we do intend to introduce either an image or a pull quote somewhere in the text to break it up slightly.
This person mentions how it looks simple but effective, as a group we was very happy to hear this as when we was constructing it we was worried about it being too simple. However after the feedback we had from our class and now this person we are assured that it does work.
Overall, as a group we were happy with the questionnaire feedback as it was mainly positive! Also we are grateful for the constructive criticism that was given, as now we are aware that we must most definitely address the alignment issues and also create a pull quote or an image to insert somewhere in the main body to break the text up slightly.
Improvements Made
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| This is the pull quote that we have came up with to accompany the main body. |
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| Here we have bolded the font of the first 4 lines of the main body to make the review look more appealing. Although you are meant to bold the first letter when using drop caps we decided to bold the first few lines as the example reviews that we used done this. |
Film Review- Final print
This is our final print film review, having taking on all the advice and suggestions that were made we have applied the improvements that we felt needed addressing in this review.
