- Target audience (age, gender, education, etc)
- Page orientation (landscape/portrait)
- Text orientation (horizontal, vertical, sloping)
- Border
- The Lead Text (introductory paragraph, usually in bold or capitals)
- The Body Text
- Drop Capital (large capital at the start of a paragraph)
- Block capitals or lower-case?
- Cross Head (sub-heading used to split large block of text)
- Number of columns
- Gutters and Alleys (spaces between pages and columns)
- Leading (space between lines of text)
- Kerning (space between letters)
- Colour scheme
- Headline
- Strap Line (smaller headline)
- By-Lines (references to authors, photographers, etc)
- Kicker (used to bring the audience in to the article)
- Pull-quote (usually bold, embedded within the body of text)
- Number & size of images
- Graphic furniture
- Banner (Text on coloured background)
- House Style (usual conventions or style of that magazine)
- Tone & register (mode of address)
To decide which were suitable for our review, I have scanned some pages from different film magazines for which I can then base my review on.
Empire Magazine:
Total Film Magazine:
Overall, I found that Total Film's review of 'Limitless' was my personal favourite, since at first glance it seems quite simple but actually there are many elements to it and the overall House Style of the magazine was appealing, including the colour scheme.
Points that I will take from this when designing and constructing my film review in QuarkXpress include:
- Design a left page of a magazine, not just a single page.
- Use a title to this particular section of the magazine (the part that reviews films!)
- Include an appropriate image from the film that shows the main cast but does not give away any plot.
- Choose a still from the film but make sure it is a technically good shot with good framing.
- Ensure the photograph touches the edge of the page on the left.
- Include a sub-title (title of the film) that goes over the image.
- Under the title of the film, use a strap line (usually about the actor)
- Include release date and rating (in stars - out of 5) under the title.
- Use a hairline border that continues over to the next page and is thicker on the left hand page.
- Include a quote from the text, complete with a runaround.
- Include a feature over the right-hand edge of the image that includes information about other films.
- Include a verdict at the end of the text.
- Use a simple colour scheme (E.G. Red white and black)
