Annotations of Review Layouts

Sight and Sound:

Looking at the film review of, “All the King’s men” we can instantly see that the text is the most important part of the review as it takes up 95% of the page. This clearly states to me that the target audience for this particular review may be middle class people that would read all the information on this review and are more likely to go to film festivals or Art houses. The small image used in the review doesn’t reveal much to the audience in regards to genre, Mise en scene or representation of class, gender, ethnicity etc. However, contrasting this to the film review of Paranormal Activity where the image covers half the film review and the image establishes the genre horror as the image portrays a woman looking vulnerable and scared. Mise en scene.

We can see from the film review that the font size is quite small; however the credits section seems to be the most important part as it is in bold black font . Also, in the credits, looking at the cast section, we can see that the most known actors to the potential target audience is in big bold black font which makes it stand out. The critics name is also in bold black font and stands out from the rest of the film review which is not written in bold black don’t. Looking at the paranormal activity film review in the Emperor we can see that the film review is summed up in only three lines of big bold dark red text. This clear contrast shows that both film reviews are attracted at different target audiences.

Before the film review we get some information on where the film was shown, who it was directed by, which actors were involved in the film and the certificate of the film.  The review is organised in two long columns, stating information about the film, inside information about the director and cast. Although two long columns were dedicated to the film review, the credits section took up 4 columns of the review itself. In contrast to the film review, “ Grizzly man” which is given a verdict of four stars, All the kings men does not have a clear verdict and the target audience has to read the film review clearly to gain an overview of whether the film is worth a see or not.

 

Total Film

The focal point of this review is the image. It takes up half of the page, with it being in colour it attracts the audience’s attention to read the review. The image is a long shot to give the audience an idea about what the content of the film is through mise-en-scene, body language etc. The image is also of the leading man, showing the films USP, showing us as readers what the genre is (documentary) before reading the synopsis which is written in black writing reading- “WHAT’S THE STORY” to grab the attention of the reader. Also because the image takes up half the page shows the audience may be if a working class background as they may not be interested in reading a lot of detailed text. In the corner of the image is a small printed quote from the film.

The font of the actual review is very small, whereas the title “GRIZZLY MAN” is written in a much larger font size with bold, black, capital lettering which stands out from the rest, along with the age restriction of the film “15” written in slightly smaller font however still in bold but red lettering. Under the title is the slogan of the movie written in a larger font but I not I bold as its not seen as important to the review. Before the review starts there’s a few lines of facts about the movie e.g. Director, Starring, Distributor and Running time, which is then followed by a brief summary about the film, which is separated by a thin line, for readers who don’t want to read the whole text but just want the brief overview of the content . Other elements that give a brief overview is the “VERDICT” box in the bottom right hand corner, contrasting this to the normal text it is written on a black background with white writing to stand out. This box also gives a star rating system; in this case the movie got 4 stars with the best rating being 5 stars. Another brief overview given in the table of “PREDICTED INTEREST CURVE” to analyse how thrilling, entertaining and boring the movie is within the timeline. This is a different way to grab the attention of readers.

The review is set out in 4 small columns with dotted lines in between each column to show the separation of the text. The font of the review is small and not very long winded which suggests it’s for a working class audience and not middle class as they would have less visual aspects and more text. This is then ended with the critics name written in bold but in the same size font as the review itself to sign it off. TotalFilm.com is written as the bottom of the page next to the page number to remind the audience what magazine they’re reading from and its online details for more information.