Analysis of Double Page Film Review

The first poster is from 2009 when Avatar was released, the first thing that I can notice at a first glance is that the magazine has decided to use minimal text where possible and they have focused more on using image to build up the double page spread.

 The page colours follows a black, orange and white colour palette with a black background, orange contrast text boxes and white text. This is an effective move and the use of black and white with a contrasting colour seems to be a popular convention throughout film magazine. I should take this into consideration when I am creating my own magazine review for my film (No Escape)

 The typography is very basic on this double spread however this is not surprising seeing as the majority of the page is made up of pictures and so is obviously what the magazine wants the reader to be looking at and so using a complicated or fancy typography style is quite contradictory.

The main image is the largest picture and shows the two main characters from the movie. The man is almost looking at the reader and the female seems to be looking at him, trying to get his attention, she also looks worried about something. This is an effective picture to use in a review as it shows off the characters and gives us an idea of the film is about, however it does not give the average customer an in depth spoiler ridden picture. Other pictures are used in this piece that look like screenshots from the actual film which is effective as it gives the reader an insight as to what they will actually be looking at whilst watching the film without giving too much away regarding the plot and story of the movie.

In terms of the lexis used on this double page feature are the words "film of the month" and "popular facts". The use of the phrase "film of the month" instantly gives the reader an insight into what the magazine thinks of the magazine, similar to what is the opinionated language used in my second double page film review analysis. The use of "popular facts" give the reader an insight into the film without having to read the long article which is an effective move.

This magazine's film review is in on Spiderman 2 and from a first and the first that it noticeable is that it is a lot more text heavy compared to the first magazine review. Person I see this is a negative as it makes the magazine look very cluttered however this magazine may be for readers who prefer to know a lot more about the story compared to the first magazine which was just pictures. The first magazine is more likely to be read by this who are more interested in how the film will look rather than what the story is about. The colours used in this magazine review of spiderman are very effective. Spiderman's costume is blue and red and the film review page has to some extent followed this colour scheme. Using the colours found in the feature picture is a common convention of film review pages in magazine and so I should consider using the same method when creating my own.

As for the typography on this piece there does seem to be quite a lot of text for a film review, the headings such as "VERDICT" and "SPIDERMAN 2" all seem to follow the same font which is a very effective method as it makes it very easy for the reader to look at the information they are interested in at a glance and understand where the headings start and stop. The actual article is nothing special and follows the conventions of printing text in magazine following a basic layout. The entire layout of the double page spread is very basic, using mainly rectangles and squares to construct the page. This may be seen as an effective move as it does not confuse the reader however a layout that was a bit more complex may make the article a bit more appealing to look at.

In terms of the lexis on this double page feature, the rating system that the magazine uses for its magazine is very interesting, using words such as "must-see" and "dire" is a an effective move by the magazine instead of using generic adjectives such as "Good" and "Bad". The sub heading "the amazing spidey swings to new heights in sam raimi's jaw-crushing sequal" immediately give the reader a general idea of what the magazine thinks of the film which is an effective move as it means that readers who do not wish to read the full article can still see what the magazine thinks of the film at a glance. The film does however mention some complaints regarding the film however this review does seem to be one sided and heavily opinionated.

The image used of spiderman is a high quality snap from the film and using a snap from a film compared to a piece of promotional artwork is a lot more effective in my opinion as it gives the reader a short glance into what they will actually be looking at in the movie. Often in promotional artwork that is produced for movies effects are added that make the film look a lot more impressive than it actually is.