Draft Magazine Review

After a group deliberation, we decided to change some of the theme for the magazine review - only the aesthetics. From earlier posts and photos to now you will see that we have created a 2 page spread, as well as adding two extra photos - one of our associating company OTW Productions and the other of 'Paul Smith'. Title and text font has also changed to make it family friendly and easy to read.

Draft Poster

Here is our Draft Poster:

After creating several mock posters and analysing them as group, we eventually produced a poster which we believe fits the conventions of a mockumentary poster - keeping it minimal, but leaving the audience wanting the full story. As this is only a draft we will probably be making changes as to text layout, however we believe that the everything is else is perfect for what we to achieve - which is attracting the target and audience.

Magazine Review Progress

Here is a picture of the review so far:




 



I am awaiting one more photo and then hopefully with approval it will be complete.

Setting out a magazine review

Before we could digitally create our magazine review using Adobe InDesign (In this we will be able to add pictures we have selected especially for the review and add the plot and review itself - see below), we had to explore different examples of reviews and decided if we had a favourite layout.

When you look at Empire magazines coverage of film reviews; there is an easy, colloquial setting which is not hard to follow. The pictures are large and often the review is spread on a double page spread. When looking at other review editions such as those of The Independent, you can see a no nonsense theme, with no or one pictures- they stick to formality. We feel that a layout similar to that of Empire would be suitable for our review, as it will allow for extra photography and a fun layout.

Magazine Review Construction

Writing a magazine review - professionally - can be hard. For inspiration, we scowered through the http://www.thelondonfilmreview.com/category/film-review/short-film-reviews/ website to view real examples of short film reviews as well as previous A2 reviews.

It is key in the magazine review that we cover both the positves and the negatives; for example we could question if by the end of our film and once the conclusion is revealed that maybe it is no longer a mockumentary as the end is little emotional (revalation wise) than normal mockumentaries, however we could swing back and argue that the entire context of the film is non realistic so it is a mockumentary.

What influence does the poster have?

A film poster is their to attract a target audience. A Disney film starring a Princess, such as Cinderella, is going to have bright colours and the idea of beauty (person wise) - this is to advertise to little girl and female audience. They will use gender specific stereotypes to attract an audience they believe suitable.
A horror film, such as The Shining, will include graphics suitable for a 15+ audience e.g. blood or common phobia items (needles etc). This is to appeal to an audience seeking for a thrill.

On our poster we have aimed to be minimal. As it is a mockumentary, there must be details left to the imagination, this is why a set of legs with socks standing out is key to keeping minimal - it gives key insight into the context of the short film and attracts an audience who is seeking humour with realism.

Examples of Previous Film Posters

Who writes reviews?

Review writers can be anyone from professional movie autuers to a novice just wanting to express an opinion. If you view the IMDB, anyone can leave a post to a specific film. For example, currently The Wolf of Wall Street has 506 user reviews - this means that users of the website can leave a review. There is also 333 critic reviews - these are a collection of links that lead to the review on a professional website.

Who reads reviews?

If you take note of websites such as IMBD and Rotten Tomatoes, you will see that many movie goers review films - these can be actual movie journalists or the public with an opinion.
Reviews are commonly read by a target audience who are interested in whether viewing would fulfill their entertainment. Sometimes a review is irrelvant for changing an audience is opinion.
Reviews are also read in magazines such as Empire and Total Film, plus in newspapers such as The Independant and The Times.

Does a bad review ruin the films chances?

In my opinion, it would. The majority of people are influence on reviews, whether written or heard through word of mouth.
A trailer of film is there to attract a target audience. If one was to be intruiged by the trailer and later hears that the film is underwhelming from more than one source, then they are likely to not go to watch the film. This is because we are influenced by other poeples opinions.

If one reviewer badly rates a film and a collection of others highly rate it then the audience are likely to take the majorities opinion. It works vice versa.

However, a review also requires an unbiased opinion. If the reviewer was to review a film by a director they have a negative opinion about then this would represent a bias opinion. It is the fault of the audience to research thoroughly into a specific film's reviews to make sure they recieve a full evaluation.

An example of a recent film with a bad review is Grunge Match by Nick de Semlyen from Empire Magazine. They gave the film 2 out of 5 stars (poor under their ratings).
Plot: Two old boxing pros (De Niro and Stallone), long-time rivals now in the autumn of their careers, are lured back into the ring for one final glory bout.
Review: Sylvester Stallone is the old paunchy, grumpy one and Robert De Niro is the other old, paunchy, grumpy one in this big-screen adaptation of the classic Balboa-versus-LaMotta pub debate. As a couple of washed-up stumblebums training for a rematch, they gamely send up the movies Grudge Match is inspired by (Rocky via a meat-punching joke; Raging Bull via a puppet show in a dive bar), but unfortunately, despite the dream-team pairing, this is a dreary, spark-free affair that seems to take forever to get into the ring. Alan Arkin’s dick jokes are as good as it gets.

Comparing Magazine Reviews - Empire & Total Film

From the December 2013 issues of Empire and Total Film, I compared reviews within the magazines and cross-referenced matching reviews. I found that both reviewed the film 'Don Jon' starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson.  

The review for Don Jon was formal, however compared to Empire's review it quite imformal. It includes more graphics, for example a Predicted Interest Curve and a Talking Point. It also offers films similar to it. The article itself is more focused on strength and rise of Joseph Gordon-Levitt rather than the film.
They rated the film 4*'s.







This article is a very formal review. It includes a mini plot and the review itself focuses heavily on the darkness of the script and that there is a hidden meaning behind JGL's character's activities. They use a different picture to Total film,
but both depict the dirtiness of the film.







Within the magazines, there is also a different main review. Empire chose to do a 3 page spread on Thor: The Dark World. Total Film chose to do 'Gravity' as their main review, but only did a 2 page spread. They choose to do different reviews due to publicity and the amount of pictures released by the directing company.

Confessions of a Sock-a-holic: Rough Cut #1

Here is the first edit of our rough cut. As mentioned in the previous post, we are still to add credits, idents and possible re-shoot some scenes to emphasise who 'Paul'/'Sockman' is.

Rough Cut #1

Having finished editing the first draft of our full edit (link in the next post). We have come to the conclusion that there is no actual explanation as to what the 'sockman' actual does. There is also a scene that we believe needs to be re-filmed as it does not match the story in the correct way - this is when 'Paul' is explaining the movement of the sockmonster; there has however been mixed opinions over it. One critique was that it disconnected from the other parts of the film. Another said that they liked the scene because it demonstrated 'Paul' being mentally unstable.