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| Level 4 Criteria for Film Magazine Review |
When we began contracting the magazine review (which was undertaken by Daniel and Charlotte), we had some aspects of conventional reviews in mind. We needed to follow and address these aspects and make sure that al the key features of a review existed. Now, underneath the example embedded below, I will briefly explain each of the required aspects:
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| 'The Kite Runner' Film Magazine Review |
- Film Title/Headline. This is the largest piece of text and often the first thing the readers see when first looking at the review page. It is conventionally big and interesting, but also plain and readable, usually with san-serif typography. In the example review I have embedded above, the header text clearly follows these conventions, being bold and black on a white background in san-serif font, making it more powerful and simpler to the eye.
- Subheadings. These exist anywhere in the poster text and are used to grab attention so readers can decide whether they do or do not want to read a specific part of the review. For example, the 'Verdict' subheading in the above review grabs the attention of people who want to quickly read a six-line summary of their thoughts on the film, and so they can then decide to read on or turn the page.
- Pull Quotations. These are usually in large typography and are also san-serif to grab attention and be more to the point. The example above tis the orange text 'Marc Forester is a master of finding the pule of humanity in any script'. This is praising the screenwriter by the looks of things, and makes the film look good and in capable hands, making readers want to look into the film further.
- Sidebar. This contains key information about the film, often including key people and dates. They include alternative resources for further information, and opinions. They are a quick fast-fact kind of theme, producing quick information for readers.
- Gutter. This refers to the gaps at the edges of the page and between resources within the review, such as columns and pictures etc. If the review is spread over two pages, then this also refers to the gap in between them two pages as well.
- Image Margin. This is the gaps around an image that exists to put a space so that the review doesn't look to cluttered and so text isn't pressed right up against the picture, because this looks official and makes it harder to look at.
- Captions. These are used over the image and provide a connection of comment about the picture shown. In 'The Kite Runner', this would refer to the white text at the top-right of the picture.
- Image Credit. These are small pieces of text used to credit people who created or provided the picture used as the main image of the review.
QuarkXPress Software Training
Before we started constructing the review, we needed to learn the basic functions of the program. We did this by looking into tutorials on both internet pages and videos. After looking into tutorials and looking at existing examples of reviews, we created a flat plan for the review, which I will show soon.
Lorem Ipsum. This is a type of writing written to look like the English language at a glance, but actually doesn't say anything. It is used by officials to mimic the look of actual writing, so the look and design of the page can be made before having to type all of the detailed information, allowing for a more efficient method of construction. Below is an example of Lorem Ipsum:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean eu tempor mi, in pulvinar diam. Aliquam ut libero interdum, posuere mauris eu, lacinia urna. Pellentesque imperdiet laoreet arcu at molestie. Suspendisse lobortis pretium dignissim. Praesent sit amet dui vel risus sodales bibendum. Nunc malesuada nisl purus. Suspendisse eros magna, tincidunt quis tellus in, volutpat ultrices nulla.
Training Product
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| Putting in the basics |
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| Adding main text blocks |
The main text is the part containing a lot of the detailed information, and is therefore important to the magazine review page for having interesting and informative writing.
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| Adding a quote |
Flat Plan of the Magazine Review:
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| Magazine Review Flat Plan |
The above picture is our flat plan for our film's magazine review. The purpose of this was to create a basis to follow when we put the draft together, so we knew what went where and didn't have to spend loads of time deciding where things went in time we should spend refining etc.
Evidence of Construction for out Film Magazine Review
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| Creating the border for the magazine review |
The first step to creating the magazine review was to make the border. Borders are always used in real film magazine reviews, and improve the look and of the review making it more professional. Also, it allows the justification and alignment of the parts of the review to be lined up correctly, which is very important to keep in mind when making the film review.
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| Creating the title and importing the image |
The next thing we did was choose the image to be used as the main feature of the film in the review. After inserting the chosen image, we put in the title of the film. We did this in thick san-serif typography to make it stand out from the rest of the page.
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| Using Lorem Ipsum in the review to generate a sample review |
With the fundamentals done, it was time to do the text. We began by sorting the text into columns and inserting Lorem Ipsum into it, as well as a pull quote. This meant that the review was starting to really take shape, forming something that looked like a conventional film review.
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| Adding the star rating and summary of the film |
With the main text inserted, it was time to put in the star rating and sidebar. The star rating was set as a 4/5 to make it more realistic, and the sidebar information was put together as it is a very important convention of film magazine reviews in real media products we have researched in R&P.
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| Adding the final touches |
Finished Draft
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| The completed first draft |
Feedback and Evaluation
We exhibited out magazine review to the class, who supplied us some constructed feedback and ideas to change and modify the review to make it better. The feedback was mostly negative, which was very helpful as it gave us plenty of ways to improve the review and get more marks. When the class were asked to provide a mark, we had a mix of 7-8s, which is a level 3 equivalent. This is not bad, but after having the feedback, we wanted to get this up to a level 4, and I have embedded the final review at the bottom of this page.
Positive Feedback:
The magazine house style worked well with the film. The theme is black and red with bits of white inside it, which actually matches the other ancillary task (poster), and these colours have connotations that are represented in our film.
The page number and the URL was okay. The bottom of the review was good, with no criticism given for this. The page number is clear and formal, and the URL matches the house style and makes it look believable.
Improvements:
Add in a forth column. The draft review had three columns of text, which was okay, but conventionally in real film reviews, they have four columns of text, which looks better. When this feedback was said, the group instantly agreed and we couldn't wait to change it to see how the improved version looked, with narrower, more realistic columns of text.
Detail/Film Plot needs to be at the start of the text. The summary of the film was put at the end of the text, which we realised was conventionally wrong, as the summaries are usually placed at the beginning.
Change the image - it is too blurry. The image chosen was good and interesting in the film, when it is moving, but as a still shot, it is not so good. The blur of the shot is too much and it looks hard to see, so we had to change the image to something more suitable. After we made this change, we believe it looked better, being more crisp and easier to look at.
Spelling and punctuation corrected. The draft featured spelling and punctuation mistakes which can't be in a professional film magazine review, so we had to go through the text and amend the problems we found in the writing.
Pull quote moved to within the text and changed. The pull quote needed to be moved and some thought it needed to be changed as well, so we made these changes to the review, which improved the look of the review as a whole, which we hope will translate into aiding making it level 4 standard.
Plug-in on the image changed. The plug-in needed to be re-written because the content was not conventional nor realistic to real life media product's magazine reviews.
The pink/red writing on the black background is too hard to read - colour must be altered. The plug-in was way too hard on the eyes, and the dark red on dark grey/black was hard to read. We changed the colour of the text and made it white, allowing it to be read easier. We also removed the background and left it on the image.
Add in a subheading beneath the film title. Originally, we had nothing underneath the title, and after we were advised to have something there to help grab attention, and it looks much better.
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| The final improved magazine review |
