In Empire’s film review by Ian Freer, “Wings of Desire” (March, 2010) there are three main features – colour scheme, layout and photography. Over fifty percent of the article space is filled by a striking, black-and-white movie still with a more minor image to the lower right of the page, making review far more attractive and readable while making the subject of the article instantly identifiable for the audience. The clean, masculine layout of boxes and straight lines signifies the straightforward, earnest and informative nature of the article. Also, while being a common feature of film reviews, this type of wide large shot with text beneath it looks similar to the view of the cinema-goer with the big screen and the audience beneath it, connoting greatness and the “silver-screen”.
The bold grey, white and black colour scheme is indicative of the film noir/classic film genre, referencing the film’s themes of bleakness, hope versus corruption, oppression and the focus on the limitations of perspective. The stylised and visually striking look of the colour design also signifies the direct, confident and informed nature of the writer’s review. The inclusion of the bright blue subtly modernises the look of the page, showing it is a reviewers modern take on a classic film and it is a retrospective tribute, and co-ordinates with the colour of in the DVD cover thumbnail. The strong visual style reflects and emulates that of the film, with a stark, noir-esque feel and a pared-down, retro look, which again informs the audience about the type of film being reviewed.
This is reinforced with the main image choice being a woman with wings sitting on a vintage car with an urban cityscape as her backdrop, allowing the audience to quickly identify the film’s era, location and perhaps even certain themes within it. The technique of imitating the aesthetics of the film within the article aligns the publication with the director of the film in a gesture of tribute and admiration to the auteur.
The choice of typefaces used are a simple combination of three or four basic fonts, a bold, upper-case ‘arial’ for the headline, a serif/italic font for the subhead (connoting the publication’s opinion/comment on the film) and a standard serif typeface for the main body of text, giving the article a sense of sincerity and directness. The white used on the headline and subhead is mainly to allow them to stand out boldly against the dark background of the image, but could connote the supernatural theme of angels within the film. The bold blue ‘arial’ font of the first line grabs the attention of the reader and makes an instant impact and the circular arrow symbol – the only spot of yellow on the entire page aside from the pull quote – draws the eye to this very point where the review begins. Similarly, powerful, emotive language is lifted from the text for the pull quote, where words such as “life” “love” and “filmmaking” are showcased in bright yellow and blue to entice readers. Empire clearly consider it important to use these techniques as extra nudges to encourage the audience to engage with the text.
The inclusion of the DVD thumbnail demonstrates instantly that the subject of the article is a product, and the star-ratings at the bottom of the page allow for a quick-reference appraisal of the DVD (the film and its extras respectively). The black caption beneath the main shot includes a brief fact or piece of information about the photos and their position, a common convention in magazine articles. Overall this review seems to follow a basic, minimalist layout and mimic the visual style of the film being reviewed, use image as a main feature as a nod to cinema and adopt a masculine look to connote seriousness and style, perhaps targeting a male-dominated audience.
By Emily Atkinson
By Emily Atkinson
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