Film Review Production
Using the inspiration from exsisting products, we began to make our own review. We found that there were many different aspects of a film review and wanted to put a lot of detail into each one. Here we have shown how we created each of the elements in our film review. We wanted to make sure we appealed to our target audience of young adults and attempted to do this through a number of techniques explained below.
To initially get something on the screen, we decided to start out with the biggest element, the picture. We wanted this to give the audience some insight into the film to make them want to watch it, but didn't want to reveal too much about the plot. Therefore we chose this image with our actress in the foreground and our antagonist in the backgrond. This creates a sense of omnicsent narration as even before the audience has seen the film they know something that the character doesn't. We positioned the image slightly to the left as this seemed to be a favoured technique in the reviews we looked at.
Also, we wanted to put in the title and and a large heading that suggested what the page would be about and made it seem like a consistant article. We went for the words "New Releases" as we felt this would intise our audience and was different to the other titles we looked at. We made this in a bold red font in capitals and boxed it off to seperate it from the rest of the article. We also made the film title quite large and again in capitals so that it stood out. We didn't use the font we used on the poster for the film review as the ones we looked at didn't display this.
After looking back at the exsisting products, we found that many of them had a star rating. Therefore, we put one onto our review. Again we stuck with a red colour scheme and did so throughout the review as we felt this would keep it consistant and proffessional. Beneath this we put a small sentence that read "Its Paranormal Activity meets Nightmare on Elm Street". We put this is as it seemed like a conventional aspect of the reviews we looked at. Additionally, by naming two similar films, it would encourage fans of those films and ones similar to watch it and hence this is directly adressing our audience. We didn't want it to ovepower the article however, so kept the text fairly small and black. However by placing it under the star rating allows the attention to be drawn to it as that is a prominent element of the review.
The biggest element to the review is the actual article itself so we wanted to put this in quite early to make sure we had enough room and therefore knew where we could add other elements. We didn't want the article to start straight away as it didnt follow the conventions of articles we looked at, and therefore we left a space under the star rating. We began the article in a red font as we wanted to capture our audience instantly. I feel we achieved this through the colour and the text itself that reads "This movie is a breakthrough in short films". This would definitely excite our target audience which is the effcet we wanted to have. Additionally, having the red text at the begining would seperate it from anthing we put above it, especially if it was more text.
Originally, we kept the article in collums of the same size and worked them around the central picture. We followed a simple structure to write the review, mentioning different elements of the film such as the actors, cinematography and editing techniques. We felt these would be the things our audience would be most interested in knowing.
To fill the empty space between the star rating and the actual article, we looked to the existing products for inspiration and liked the idea of having some of the key information layed out simply which would allow an audience to easily find the basic facts about the film without having to read the whole article. Therefore, we created a textbox that listed information such as the main cast, directors and age rating. We put the headings in a bolder red text as we felt this was more fitting and allowed it to stand out the most. We kept the information the same size font as the article as we felt it worked best that way.
Below this we decided to put a plot overview, again so that if our audience didn't have time to read the full article, they could still grasp a strong idea of what the film is about. We once again titled this in a red font to seperate the elements of the text. This makes it a bit more interesting and breaks it up slightly, making it seem easier to read.
We felt that the top section was too empty and missing some key elements. We began by adding a red box and writing a short sentence to further advertise the film. This was in a white text to seperate it from the rest of the review. Additionally, we included a small red textbox with a small disclosure in. The font size was quite small as we wanted to make sure our audience knew that this was not the most important element. We felt that it was necessary to include this as it seemed to be a feature in some of the articles awe looked at and we wanted to make sure we covered anything that might be contrivertial. However, the small text discourages people from reading it as it seems like a large unimportant bulk of writing. We wanted to portray the idea that the three elements in the box where a common feature that would appear on all the reviews by this magazine which would keep it consistant.
To add more depth to the review and to seperate some of the elements, we decided to add a few lines in red. We added quite a thin line under the title as this excentuates it, however, due to the strong red elements beneath it we didnt want it to seem like 'too much'. Additionally, we added lines above and below the plot summery to seprate the three elements of text which we feel makes a large difference in how much writing it seems like there is. We felt that is an audience saw a large amount of writing on a page, they would be discouraged from reading it, especially as our audience is young adults. Therefore breaking up the text may encourage our target audience to read more.
To fill the empty space on the right side on the review, we decided to create a box that would encourage people to watch our film. The box had images of short films we found during our research with the title "You'll like this...If you loved these" This was something extra we added as we felt it was key in attracting as much of our audience as possible. With the images, we included a short description of each of the films as well as a small title. This was all contained withing a white box with a red outline. We needed the box to have a white background so that it stood out fropm the picture that was behind it. The red outline helped to tie it in with the rest of the review.
We felt this picture was too prominent in the review and wanted to break it up slightly. Therefore, we included a small white circle with a red outline, to match the rest of the review, and titled this little section "Look Closer". This circle includes a small paragraph that explains that for more information they can visit the blog. This is different from traditional reviews which we like as well as encouraging promotion of not only the film but the 'Behind the scenes' aspects.
To further add interest to the whole page, we included a red text box with white font that runs across the bottom left of the picture. The quote is one from the article, which would encourage the audience to read on and find out more. It says "Thompson has been given little credit for previous roles, but there is no way his acting will go unnoticed after this performance!". We feel this is a really stong element that is sure to attract the attention of our audience. It not only suggests that the film is very good but also gives a lot of credit to the actor, encouraging fans of his to watch the film.
To add the final touches and make the review look very proffesional, we added a date in the top right corner. We wanted it to be sublte as it isnt a key element but still wanted it to be noticable as it is a typical convention of a film reviews. Additonally, we added a page number and the prodiuction company at the bottom in red, creating a proffesional, finished feel.