Empire is a well known film magazine that is published by Bauer Media Group who reach an audience of 22 million adults. Empire is now one of the biggest selling film magazines in the UK, as well as being published in the United Stats, Australia, Turkey, Russia, Italy and Portugal. Empire are now a very big and are a renowned mainstream magazine company that publish reviews on the most popular mainstream films.
Sight And Sound:
This Independent magazine is again a monthly film magazine which is published by the British Film Institute also known as the BFI.
As this magazine is a lot smaller than Empire they tend to focus their attention on a wider genre and type of film compared to Empire who seem to focus on the bigger more popular films. This means that Sight and Sound are ideal for us as they review short films too.
Little White Lies:
Again another Independent magazine who publish Bi-Monthly by the TCO company in London. Similar to Sight and Sound their focus is broader and therefor links to us with our short film. A feature that stands out with this Magazine is the design orientated layout that they follow with the way the design is inspired by each film that they review.
Layout:
The simple layout of this page is very clean, smart and professional. The high text to image ratio adds into the effect and make for a older target audience. With the text they have aligned each paragraph, column and row together to allow for neatness along with how the images are perpendicular to the each other and fill the page put nicely.I believe you can see that the style Sight and Sound are going for is very professional, stylistic and modern. Although it could appear quite bland without colour the use of minimal colour to surround elements has created a layout that stands out among others and therefore I would like to follow this style into my DPS.
As for images on the page, I can see that they have gone for a very thought about layout with a set of two equally sized images on the left. With a large image at the top right with the smaller profile photo below. This I can see has been thought about as all of the images fit in nicely to the page with a slight bit of background leaking through to give separation. The use of the bigger image could connote that it is of more importance and would draw the eye of the reader to view that pages. When looking at my design, I will look at image placement but I might look at having images on one page and text on the other for a unique style.
Text Use:
Over the two pages we can see a large amount of text and the ratio lead towards more text than photos. This is most likely aimed at an older audience as that audience like to have a real good, in depth review.Although this could be seen as boring and just text based, I believe in comparison to certain magazines that have all images and just a small amount of text don't support and supply the information to people who want it. Whereas this style covers both need. From this I can say that my magazine review DPS should/will have plenty of text to satisfy the audience and tell them enough about the film. A balanced text to image ratio. ( 50/50 )
Photography Used:
For this page, the images look key to what they are reviewing along with a profile of the critique or similar. Starting from left to right we have a mid shot of the radio which is resting on a table. Along with this it has a dark, gloomy colour so it could suggest a genre of the film they are reviewing. Matching this lighting is the big image, which features a medium long shot of a girl sitting on a bed looking out. The idea that they have focused on mise-en-scene for this image shows me that the images are thought about and that the film might have a certain genre taken from this style of imagery.
The final two shots are of people looking straight into the camera. These are both medium close ups and show a connection between the reader and the person due to the shot type.
Colour Palette:
This DPS has a very limited and restricted colour palette, although its not bland. With the entire page their is just a simple white background and the conventional black text which is seen on a lot of mainstream magazine. This is their to make the page feel both stylish and clean but also provide the best experience for the reader as its very kind to the eye. Pulling away from the neutral is implementation of a warm red tone being used on certain sections. This adds more to the stylish tone but also separates the page and pull the viewer in to specific areas such as the pull quote. This style is very well done and to me makes the page almost more interesting than other magazines that follow a bright colour scheme. For this reason I will also look at creating a magazine DPS that has a small amount of colour in my chosen areas.
Lay-out:
The lay-out of these Little White lies magazines is very professional. The text is laid out very neatly among both magazines and I can see that rulers and guides have been used once again to line each element up. As you can see these pages have gone for a single review per page and a whole DPS for the other review. I will be focusing on the later as that is the style for my magazine review. Looking into the layout the image text ratio is equally split like I spoke about before, however it has the pictures on one side like I wanted. This is very unique and eye catching, I believe the element of this adds style to the page and allows for the reader to be pulled in.
Text Use:
This magazine also follows previous elements of Sight and Sound by incorporating a high amount of text and less images. This appears very professional and keeps to the name of a review page and not a picture book. This photo style is shown a lot in other mainstream magazines and I believe the lack of text really lets down the DPS and lowers the quality. For mine I will look at creating enough text to cover a whole page or their about.
Logo use:
For this specific magazine their is the logo accompanied with the name of the film at the top most part of the left page. This is a nice touch to the magazine and shows the reader what magazine they are reading as well as adding a almost stamp of approval. For example if you were to see this logo on a review you would then know the quality of the review its self.
Colour Palette:
The colour of this magazine is very naturalistic and matches into the style that I want to follow. The charcoal font and slight colour enhancements on key elements allows for a very easy to read and appealing magazine. In addition this adds in a element that allows for a wider age range in the audience to appeal to this magazine instead of like some, having vastly to much colour.
Photography Used:
Again the imagery used for this DPS appears to be very thought after and placed in conjunction with the topic in the text. Although I would say that these images are plucked from the film its self due to the nature of them. However this isn't a bad thing as they are only reviewing a page and not taking the images them selves. This also shows us and the reader and insight into the mise en scene and other aspects of the film. For example if these images were of something totally irrelevant or say the ident for the film then it wouldn't help anyone decide on wether they want to see the film. I will also look at using images that are taken from the film as it could be a good idea to make the magazine seem more professional. Although we could also look at having a individual photoshoot away from the film. In doing this though we will need to concentrate on having continuity between the images and the film.
Unfortunately I misplaced the photos of this review.
The simple layout of this page is very clean, smart and professional. The high text to image ratio adds into the effect and make for a older target audience. With the text they have aligned each paragraph, column and row together to allow for neatness along with how the images are perpendicular to the each other and fill the page put nicely.I believe you can see that the style Sight and Sound are going for is very professional, stylistic and modern. Although it could appear quite bland without colour the use of minimal colour to surround elements has created a layout that stands out among others and therefore I would like to follow this style into my DPS.
As for images on the page, I can see that they have gone for a very thought about layout with a set of two equally sized images on the left. With a large image at the top right with the smaller profile photo below. This I can see has been thought about as all of the images fit in nicely to the page with a slight bit of background leaking through to give separation. The use of the bigger image could connote that it is of more importance and would draw the eye of the reader to view that pages. When looking at my design, I will look at image placement but I might look at having images on one page and text on the other for a unique style.
Text Use:
Over the two pages we can see a large amount of text and the ratio lead towards more text than photos. This is most likely aimed at an older audience as that audience like to have a real good, in depth review.Although this could be seen as boring and just text based, I believe in comparison to certain magazines that have all images and just a small amount of text don't support and supply the information to people who want it. Whereas this style covers both need. From this I can say that my magazine review DPS should/will have plenty of text to satisfy the audience and tell them enough about the film. A balanced text to image ratio. ( 50/50 )
Photography Used:
For this page, the images look key to what they are reviewing along with a profile of the critique or similar. Starting from left to right we have a mid shot of the radio which is resting on a table. Along with this it has a dark, gloomy colour so it could suggest a genre of the film they are reviewing. Matching this lighting is the big image, which features a medium long shot of a girl sitting on a bed looking out. The idea that they have focused on mise-en-scene for this image shows me that the images are thought about and that the film might have a certain genre taken from this style of imagery.
The final two shots are of people looking straight into the camera. These are both medium close ups and show a connection between the reader and the person due to the shot type.
Colour Palette:
This DPS has a very limited and restricted colour palette, although its not bland. With the entire page their is just a simple white background and the conventional black text which is seen on a lot of mainstream magazine. This is their to make the page feel both stylish and clean but also provide the best experience for the reader as its very kind to the eye. Pulling away from the neutral is implementation of a warm red tone being used on certain sections. This adds more to the stylish tone but also separates the page and pull the viewer in to specific areas such as the pull quote. This style is very well done and to me makes the page almost more interesting than other magazines that follow a bright colour scheme. For this reason I will also look at creating a magazine DPS that has a small amount of colour in my chosen areas.
Lay-out:
The lay-out of these Little White lies magazines is very professional. The text is laid out very neatly among both magazines and I can see that rulers and guides have been used once again to line each element up. As you can see these pages have gone for a single review per page and a whole DPS for the other review. I will be focusing on the later as that is the style for my magazine review. Looking into the layout the image text ratio is equally split like I spoke about before, however it has the pictures on one side like I wanted. This is very unique and eye catching, I believe the element of this adds style to the page and allows for the reader to be pulled in.
Text Use:
This magazine also follows previous elements of Sight and Sound by incorporating a high amount of text and less images. This appears very professional and keeps to the name of a review page and not a picture book. This photo style is shown a lot in other mainstream magazines and I believe the lack of text really lets down the DPS and lowers the quality. For mine I will look at creating enough text to cover a whole page or their about.
Logo use:
For this specific magazine their is the logo accompanied with the name of the film at the top most part of the left page. This is a nice touch to the magazine and shows the reader what magazine they are reading as well as adding a almost stamp of approval. For example if you were to see this logo on a review you would then know the quality of the review its self.
Colour Palette:
The colour of this magazine is very naturalistic and matches into the style that I want to follow. The charcoal font and slight colour enhancements on key elements allows for a very easy to read and appealing magazine. In addition this adds in a element that allows for a wider age range in the audience to appeal to this magazine instead of like some, having vastly to much colour.
Photography Used:
Again the imagery used for this DPS appears to be very thought after and placed in conjunction with the topic in the text. Although I would say that these images are plucked from the film its self due to the nature of them. However this isn't a bad thing as they are only reviewing a page and not taking the images them selves. This also shows us and the reader and insight into the mise en scene and other aspects of the film. For example if these images were of something totally irrelevant or say the ident for the film then it wouldn't help anyone decide on wether they want to see the film. I will also look at using images that are taken from the film as it could be a good idea to make the magazine seem more professional. Although we could also look at having a individual photoshoot away from the film. In doing this though we will need to concentrate on having continuity between the images and the film.
Unfortunately I misplaced the photos of this review.
Looking into the review of the mainstreams empire magazines I can see a few areas that are different and similar from the previous magazines I have looked at.
The layout of the page appear fairly professional with a ratio that pleases the eye, however I believe the overall amount of text and images is definitely lacking. The idea of having the image over two pages and text following this appear to me to be more form over function. Although it looks good, I believe it has more of a younger audience pull and the actual review could be seen to have less detail that other magazines. This to me is poor, as they are reviewing a feature film and they are mainstream. In comparison to the Independent magazines that I have looked at I would say they are punching well into the mainstream category with style and function.
As for the text it appears to be fairly small and overwhelmed by the imagery. Although the style and font choice is nice. The fairly big size difference rises a bigger issue of this looking more like and article in a magazine and less like a full blown review. However I do like that they have got a fair amount of text on the page and it would look a lot better with a layout like seen on my previous reviews.
Photo use is again the pictures from the film itself, and discussed before this is not a bad thing. The idea of pulling people in with images that are seen in the film is a good tactic and obviously is working. For this same reason I will use photos that represent the film in the best way and show continuity between image and text. The problem that I have with the images it they way that their is only one image of the film covering the two pages with the other image being totally irrelevant and is actually another film. This isn't the standard that I would expect and I believe it doesn't help tie in the review if the image is no relating and is talking or showing reference about another film.
Finally the colour or lack of in this magazine is surprising but reasonable. I believe generally it appear better with slight colour in the page like seen before but in this case isn't necessary. As the page is blown out with the image which has blue tones to it I believe they are very limited to colour choice and if they were to add anything in could actually appear tacky and too colourful. Although it kind of work and I believe they have made the best of it , I myself wont be following this style as I would like some colour way in my magazine.
The layout of the page appear fairly professional with a ratio that pleases the eye, however I believe the overall amount of text and images is definitely lacking. The idea of having the image over two pages and text following this appear to me to be more form over function. Although it looks good, I believe it has more of a younger audience pull and the actual review could be seen to have less detail that other magazines. This to me is poor, as they are reviewing a feature film and they are mainstream. In comparison to the Independent magazines that I have looked at I would say they are punching well into the mainstream category with style and function.
As for the text it appears to be fairly small and overwhelmed by the imagery. Although the style and font choice is nice. The fairly big size difference rises a bigger issue of this looking more like and article in a magazine and less like a full blown review. However I do like that they have got a fair amount of text on the page and it would look a lot better with a layout like seen on my previous reviews.
Photo use is again the pictures from the film itself, and discussed before this is not a bad thing. The idea of pulling people in with images that are seen in the film is a good tactic and obviously is working. For this same reason I will use photos that represent the film in the best way and show continuity between image and text. The problem that I have with the images it they way that their is only one image of the film covering the two pages with the other image being totally irrelevant and is actually another film. This isn't the standard that I would expect and I believe it doesn't help tie in the review if the image is no relating and is talking or showing reference about another film.
Finally the colour or lack of in this magazine is surprising but reasonable. I believe generally it appear better with slight colour in the page like seen before but in this case isn't necessary. As the page is blown out with the image which has blue tones to it I believe they are very limited to colour choice and if they were to add anything in could actually appear tacky and too colourful. Although it kind of work and I believe they have made the best of it , I myself wont be following this style as I would like some colour way in my magazine.
proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience.
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