The header is the title of the magazine. This helps with the formatting of the page and gives small details about what each star rating means and what the review section entails

The header goes across most of the first page. It is accompanied by the age certificate, the positioning of this is good because it is easy to find on the page as it is written in bold and full capitals which helps catch the reader’s attention. Also the age certificate is smaller than the film name and is in a different colour; this is help full as the audience can easily distinguish between the two.

This small section in the first column give small details about the film such as Directors name, duration and some actors names. This is useful as it save the reader having to look elsewhere for this information if they needed. It is convenient as put before the main body of the film to give the reader basic information about the film. Under this in bold text is a short summary of the film. This is good because it give some background of the film for those who are yet to watch the film, whilst at the same time not giving away any key parts of it.

The main body of the review begins with the first letter in a much larger bold font. This makes the beginning of the review clear. This is helpful for those who want to get stuck straight into the film review. The review is also formatted in columns; these breaks up the text well and make it easier for the reader to take in.

The tag line which was begun under the title is continued in a larger font, this helps break up long periods of text and references back to the beginning of the tag line.

The image is large and full of colour. It covers one full page of the double page spread and goes into some of the first page also. It also looks like the image is taken from the actual film; this may be useful as those who have already watched the film may remember the scene where the image was taken from and want to read the review. The image is also used as a visual aid and helps attract readers.

The review ends with a final verdict. This is short and clear and is completed with the star rating which was explained at the top of the first page.

Research Into Magazine

The title is in bold and positioned at the top of the page. This makes it look clear and easy to find. You can find a small tag line under that written in the same format and brief details about the film such as the director’s name and the duration of the film under that in a smaller font. I believe a lot less emphasis was put on the title because the editor wanted to put as much attention on the text as possible.

The main body of the review begins on the left hand side under a sub title. This makes the beginning clear and easy to find. The text throughout is continuous with minimal breaks, only making space for a small separation in the page and an image from the film itself. The writing although heavy is broken up well which makes it easier to read, also the background is white and the text is black, which makes it very easy to pick up all the words and read the review.

The image is on the top right hand side. This is in line with the text underneath, this helps keep the presentation of the review professional. The picture is also quite large, although it doesn’t take up as much pace as the spider man image in the ‘Empire’ review, it does fit its purpose as the colours contrast the white background and attract the reader to the page, giving them more incentive to read on

The bottom of the page inhibits a text box labelled ‘Credits and Synopsis’. This gives a much greater detailed list of the actors and crew involved in the movie. Each different section of the production team and the characters are written in bold. This separates and categorises the different groups well and makes it easier for the reader to find the names they are looking for and what they do. The synopsis is also included under this. The synopsis is written in bold this suggests it is important and could have been done to make it easier for the reader to find. This whole section is also in front of a light grey box. This helps distinguish this section from the main body of the review whilst keeping the page looking sharp and professional.

'Sight and Sound'

I carried out this task to find out how film reviews are formatted and what they contain. This task helped me as I learnt that different persentations of magazines reviews may attract different readers. The second Film review comes from ‘Sight and Sound’ magazine. The layout and content varies slightly from the other review from that found in the ‘Empire’ magazine. The 'Sight and Sound' review includes a higher concentration of text compared to the 'Empire' magazine and the images and film titles are a lot more subtle. This suggests that this format is for a different type of audience. The sight and sound review could be targeting the more regular reader who looks for a lot more detailed review, where as the ‘Empire’ magazine could target the full spectrum as it is a lot easier to read and the review is brief and a lot easier to read, whilst at the same time contains all the content and analysis suitable for an avid film review reader.

Jean Rwamihigo