Our final review page

To view in full size follow the link below:

Final review page

The finished review

After the review was finished I brought it into school and myself and Blaine went through it thoroughly and corrected any spelling mistakes, changed a couple of the sentence structures and added and took away parts of the review layout and border where necessary.

To view the construction of the review follow the link below:

Review construction

After we made these tweaks, we printed the final review out and decided to get some market testing and asked some questions surrounding the review and poster to potential consumers within the categorization of our target audience.

This is the review that we previewed to them and you can see their comments on my other post... Qualitative feedback poster and review

After both Blaine and I had a discussion involving their comments we made any necessary changes and here is the final review page below:

Our final 'Empire magazine' inspired review

Writing the reviews

When writing the reviews for our magazine article we had to both keep the the stereotypical style of writing that is used within empire magazine which is discussed on my post film review analysis along with the demographics of the target audience that 'Empire' magazine is aimed at.

We also had to write the reviews with the audience feedback in mind which we acquired through our questionnaire. We analyzed the information and the results can be seen upon Blaine's post Quantitative feedback.

To view the review that I wrote in the style that empire magazine uses follow the link below:

My review for our film PENUMBRA

Blaine has done a post exhibiting the reviews that he wrote and the construction process along the way.

To view the two reviews that Blaine created and the process of writing them follow the link below:

Writing reviews

Qualitative feedback poster and Review

Feedback is a vital part in ensuring you have created a product that the consumer desires and that your product full fills this niche. In order to be sure that we have succeeded this, we acquired feedback through a mixed age range from our target audience to give us a great range of answers to our questions.

We interviewed six different people and they gave a range of answers both positive feedback and some constructive changes that could be made.

I have posted three out of the six videos below:

Magazine and poster feedback 1 from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

Magazine and Poster feedback 3 from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

Magazine and Poster feedback 5 from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

The questions we asked we both about the content of the subsidiary products but we also asked questions about the what would be the best place to exhibit both of them. Obviously our magazine review page was already going to be exhibited within empire magazine, but we had an empire magazine there which enabled us to ask questions involving the layout and tone of the review to find out if we had done our job and both written in the style that empire use as well as making our page look like an empire feature.

The feedback was very good and we acquired a lot of potential information we could use when exhibiting our products an which places were best to do so.

We also asked questions involving what their expectations were after looking at the poster and we then asked similar questions after they had watched the film to find out if they thought the poster gave the right connotations or wether they thought they had been misled.

Over all the feedback session was great and both myself and Blaine learned a lot from the feedback and could adjust the products with their constructive criticism comments if we felt it necessary.

Penumbra, Short review construction

After Blaine analyzed the results to the questionnaire that we created. I have a great understanding of the content that is needed within our review as well as the layout that people mostly desire. Blaine originally created a potential layout for our magazine but since then we have been discussing the layout and I have researched a lot into the language used within the Empire magazine which can be found within my post Film review analysis as well as the typical layout that is used including unique elements and their demographics.

With images from the actual film, the film release date and a clearly defined rating of the film all ranking in the top answers of our questionnaire, these elements will defiantly be included. Results also showed, two other popular selections were comparisons to other films and an unbiased perspective, which myself and Blaine may include.

These elements both within the content of our review and concerning the layout have been created below in the ongoing construction of our review:

This is my initial drawing of the layout used within Empire magazine with the elements that they use upon most of their review pages. For example the black lines to give the sense of a boarder upon the top and the bottom, this is also achieved with the dots that they use to break up each review and use them as a border around each review and images. Empire also use yellow lines/boxes at the start of each small review with the vital film information next to it that the reader desires.

It is easy to re-create the black boxes as they are black, but all the other elements that are included within the page have to be researched. I have done lots of research into the Fonts that they use, the text size, the colouring of the dark green titles and the colouring of the dark yellow boxes. I searched multiple websites, read multiple back pages of different empire magazines but there is no reference to the colours and fonts that they use. This was initial very annoying but I played around upon Microsoft Publisher and tried to re-create the colours that are used and tried to find the nearest font.

Here is a picture of the stereotypical Empire magazine layout of a review review page used for smaller multiple reviews which I based my drawing on above:

After researching and then trying to mimic the nearest possible colours and fonts I began to construct our review page which would be a new feature promoting short films and a competition to enter.

Above is a picture showing the creation of our film review page and I was trying to re-create the elements that are used. I created the black line/box which is used as a visual border on the page and defines the layout.

Empire is sponsored by Jameson and they are their main sponsor which usually cover new features that are introduced to the magazine. Because myself and Blaine are creating this review page based on a new feature introduction I thought it would be very professional to include their sponsors logo and gives the review a sense of continuity alongside the other visual elements that are included.

After finding the Sponsors logo and recreating the visual boarder, I started to design the page layout from an existing page but changing the elements and the content. I am trying to re-create the colour scheme that is used with a very dark green/blue as the titles and sub-titles with the lines acting as boarders and the dark yellow with the review information boxes.

Above is a picture of the ongoing construction of the review page and both myself and Blaine are currently writing reviews in order for me to then try and fit everything on the page in a neat and orderly fashion and overall making our review look exactly like it is a new feature within the Empire magazine because this is where our review is featured. It is very hard to find out the actual font and text size that empire use as well as the colour schemes but i am trying to re-create them as much as possible.

When to final review is finished and the layout is perfect I will post a link below which you can follow to view our final product of the subsidiary task, creating a review:

Quantitative feedback analysis Blaine's blog

Both Blaine and I constructed a questionnaire to acquire information about potential consumers demographics which will help us to understand where we could advertise our short film, but as well as just finding out about their demographics we asked very guided questions about our subsidiary products, which would then help us within the construction process of both our poster and review. After analyzing the questionnaire results, the graphs show specific elements that consumers want to be included within these subsidiary products.

Blaine has provided some evidence of the results and analyzed what we have concluded from them.

To view Blaine's post follow the link below:
http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2011/02/quantitative-audience-research-analysis.html

Initial poster and review layout plans

Blaine has produced some drafts of some potential posters that we could use and he has also created a layout of a two page spread within a film magazine which we could place our review on. Because mainstream magazines do not really have reviews of short films unless they are very critically acclaimed. To read Blaine's post with detailed explanation of our choices follow the link below to his blog.

http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2011/01/plans-for-poster-magazine-review-page.html

Film review analysis

After reading reviews for the social Network a recently released film directed by David Ficher in both 'Empire' magazine and 'Total film' magazine, I have gathered an idea of the underlying tone of each review and the individuality of them both making each magazine distinct from each other and this helped me to gain ideas and an understanding of how to write a review catered for your target audience.

The target audience of Empire magazine is predominantly male orientated between the ages of 16-30. The reasoning for such a wide range of target audience is that many reviews are writing based rather than picture led , this means that many younger readers can see the well chosen cinematic images and read the review and star rating to then come to their own conclusion about a film which is great but the detailed reviews that present a stream of consciousness style of writing focus upon the film using complex film terminology that not any movie lover and teenager would understand, it gives very detailed and accurate information on actors and directors also touching of their past films when mentioned comparing and contrasting them giving the audience an overall picture of the film and how it is compared to some of the directors/actors other films which then enables the reader to make self generated connections and opinions on how good the film will be if they have seen the films that are referenced.

Now to focus on the demographic side of the target audience we have already established the age range but I believe that the audience fits into the B,C categories of the Acorn system and that they would be reasonable upper class with disposable income to spend on luxuries such as a £3.99 film magazine for personal enjoyment as well as guidance on what films to see in the cinema (another luxury) or DVD to purchase (another luxury).

Empire:

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136853

The demographic side of the target audience for Total film magazine is much the same as Empire, but the tone of the review is very different. Reviewer: Damon Wise of Empire, creates an extensive review of The social network giving detailed information about the film/actors and director whilst not telling the story. His thoughts and opinions are made aware and Reviewer Andy Lowe of Total film in my opinion is very biased in his opinions leaving little room for others to make their own decisions, this can be seen by many as a good quality as this is a man that lives and breaths film so his opinions must be extremely valid but others may say that it effects peoples own judgement and leaves no room for their own conclusion. The review is much shorter and does focus upon the narrative, telling it a bit too much in my opinion but others may disagree. Total film also uses film terminology and does not use any witty language like Empires review includes.

Total Film:

http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/the-social-network

Overall these two reviews offer a different style in writing that myself and Blaine can use as example when writing our review. The variation also gives us many different ways we can write but we want to find out which style of writing our target audience would prefer before we construct the review.

The 'Empire' of 'Total film' reviews

For one of our subsidiary products we need to write a review of our short film, that could be featured within a magazine. But which Magazine?

Empire magazine

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. It is the Uk's leading film magazine with over a circulation of 190,000 consumers a month.
As well as film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some unique features, which are generated both by themselves as well their readers and if popular they become regular features within the magazine. Some regular features are:

The At Home section covers DVD news and releases; Empire's editors consider this section to be of sufficient quality to term it a magazine in itself, which is also relevant to the growth and importance of the DVD market, where sales can often outstrip that of box-office.

Pint of Milk section presents celebrities' answers to silly or unusual questions, including the question "How much is a pint of milk?" This is intended as a guide to the Chosen Celebrity's contact with reality, and as such can be more informative than a direct interview, often reporting some surprising responses.

Each magazine includes a "Spine Quote", in which a relatively challenging quote is printed on the spine of the magazine. There are usually some obvious and obscure links from the quote to the main features of that month's edition. Readers are invited to identify the film source and the links to win a prize.


If you want to visit Empire's website and have a read of some of their great movie reviews and unique features then follow the link: http://www.empireonline.com/

Total Film

Total Film is also a British film magazine. It is Empire's main rival due to it being the United Kingdom's second best-selling film magazine offering film and DVD news, reviews, and features, but nevertheless it still has phenomenal circulation. The magazine was launched in 1997 and is published by Future Publishing.
Each month, a range of features are included: from full-length interviews with established and upcoming actors and directors, to major film previews and reviews, as well as top 100 lists of the greatest films ever made as well as specific titles such as best narrative and cinematic experience. These are all then illustrated with film stills and profile shots constructing the foundation of the magazine. All issues contain The Total Film Interview — which is an in-depth chat with a celebrated actor or director, along with a critique of their body of work and a rating of each major film to date.

If you want to visit Total Films website and have a read of some of their great movie reviews and unique features then follow the link: http://www.totalfilm.com/

These two highly respected and consumed magazines provides great movie reviews that myself and Blaine can read and get inspiration from in order to construct our film review but it also provides a target location for our review, which would then entail making our review to an industry standard and to the standard for these magazines which will be hard to achieve but we will give it a go. If our short film was the be reviewd and fetured within these magazines, this would be great way to get our film noticed, as the target audience for our film would be the same target audience that read these magazines therefore potential consumers would become aware of our film. This is a definate option that we will aim for but awsell as this we also want to feature our film within a free magazine that you can pick up when you go to ODEAN cinemas.

This magazine is free to millions of readers that go to the cinema which makes this a very effective way of making potential consumers aware of our product but also a very good place to feature a review which can then bee seen by critics and educated consumers who can then come to their own conclusion about our film.

Bellow are two movie reviews for the recently released, The social Network and this will provide a comparison of the two main magazines and their approach to writing film reviews and their overall ratings as this will then provide us with some ideas for he style of our review:

Empire's review of The Social Network:
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136853
Total Film's review of The Social Network:
http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/the-social-network