A 17 year old Indian boy presents to his audience how he balances his traditional Indian heritage with his English heritage, on a typical school day. This would be a voice-over monologue of the boy talking about his life. During his voice-over the protagonist shares his feelings: “At school friends see me as different – I don’t come from the same background as them, their family is so much different” etc. “At home, family don’t see me as Indian enough – everything I do is TOO English, I can’t cook right, I don’t pray long enough, and my parents think I won’t do well in school and will bring shame to the family.”
In the morning he wakes up, goes downstairs and sees a note on the fridge from his mother; be back at six - make dinner!
At the end of school friends ask the protagonist whether he wants to go out, but N. refuses as he has to go home and cook dinner.
The ending: a reverse shot of N. looking out the window at his friends playing football (one character can shout ‘ENGLAAAND!’ to show patriotism and the division between cultures). The camera then comes back to medium shot of N. looking out of his kitchen window, signifying his separation from his friends. This represents the culture clash and N.’s dual identity.
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Script - 'Labels'
Title on black. Labels.
School bell rings.
Score enters
Int. School. Day.
Protagonist walks down corridor placing 'Post-it' notes on walls containing credits.
A young Indian male walks towards the protagonist and they converse in idle conversation until the protagonist labels the man "FOREIGNER".
Protagonist continues along corridor, a young male walks through the door at the same time and upon walking past protagonist tags his back with label "TOFF".
Continuing down the corridor, protagonist looks into a room and sees a girl applying make-up. Walks into room, labels her a "BLONDE"
Ext. School. Day.
Exiting school, protagonist side steps a young male, maintaining distance suggesting he is undesirable but quickly braves his perimeter to label him "PIKEY".
Ext. Fast food restuarant. Evening.
Young male eating in a fastfood resturant, protagonist enters and labels him "FAT"
Ext. Road. Evening.
Walking down the road, very 'camp' gay stereotypical male walks past and protagonist labels him "POOF".
Protagonist walks down road, passes young black male and heavily places label upon him reading "THUG". A slight chase ensues.
Having successfully fled, the protagonist proceeds to walk away and as he does, the camera reveals several labels on his back. "RACIST" "XENOPHOBE" "ARCHAIC" "SEXIST" "HOMOPHOBE" "BRITISH".
School bell rings.
Score enters
Int. School. Day.
Protagonist walks down corridor placing 'Post-it' notes on walls containing credits.
A young Indian male walks towards the protagonist and they converse in idle conversation until the protagonist labels the man "FOREIGNER".
Protagonist continues along corridor, a young male walks through the door at the same time and upon walking past protagonist tags his back with label "TOFF".
Continuing down the corridor, protagonist looks into a room and sees a girl applying make-up. Walks into room, labels her a "BLONDE"
Ext. School. Day.
Exiting school, protagonist side steps a young male, maintaining distance suggesting he is undesirable but quickly braves his perimeter to label him "PIKEY".
Ext. Fast food restuarant. Evening.
Young male eating in a fastfood resturant, protagonist enters and labels him "FAT"
Ext. Road. Evening.
Walking down the road, very 'camp' gay stereotypical male walks past and protagonist labels him "POOF".
Protagonist walks down road, passes young black male and heavily places label upon him reading "THUG". A slight chase ensues.
Having successfully fled, the protagonist proceeds to walk away and as he does, the camera reveals several labels on his back. "RACIST" "XENOPHOBE" "ARCHAIC" "SEXIST" "HOMOPHOBE" "BRITISH".
Synopsis - 'Labels'
A young male is an embodiment of society's ability to abruptly judge people at first glance. He roams his school and streets placing signs on those he meets which conform them to a social cliché. The people are not at all appreciative of this pretentious labelling and show they're discontent once labelled. The protagonist labels an Indian boy "FOREIGNER", a young white English male "TOFF", then a teen girl "BLONDE" and another young white male a "PIKEY". Also labels a boy in a fast food restaurant "FAT" as well as another young male "POOF" and finally a black youth a "THUG". After labelling the initally non-threathening boy "THUG", the black male pursues to chase the protagonist. Once fled and after all this blunt labelling of members of society, the camera reveals that in turn, the protaonist has been labeled "RACIST" "XENOPHOBE" "ARCHAIC" "SEXIST" "HOMOPHOBE" "BRITISH". The film analyses British society's judging of stereotypes from within and outside of our traditional communities.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
What are the conventions of magazine page layout?
Whilst flipping through a magazine such as Empire, Total Film, and Sight and Sound one can’t help but notice an eye-catching film review. These magazine’ purpose is to attract various audiences, with its glossy pages packed with colorful images which allow the reader; be it a young adolescent or an adult to have a much more visual experience. The written codes in a magazine article are communicated through the language used. The key area one must think about is the publication’s mode of address: the way it ‘speaks’ to its audience. It its most simple form, this could be very formal or very casual. It may be humorous or serious, chatty or professional. The types of words selected and style and complexity of sentences used are how the mode of address is identified. The review keeps a balance between informing the audience of the films, keep a positive outlook on it (no matter how rubbish they think the film is) and focus on not giving too much of the film away.
Different types of fonts and typography are also incorporated in the review. A font is the style of character selected to create the words. The selection of fonts can give a magazine its character and identity. Fonts can also suggest if a publication is serious or fun. Typography refers to the way text is laid out on the page: size (pt. 14, upper/lower case), spacing, line length etc. an article in a publication will normally use more than one font and typography, but these will follow a formula set out by the ‘house style’, e.g. all the headlines will be in the same font and size in articles. The headline style is technically part of typography. However, choices made about headlines can affect the way an article is read. Headlines in block capitals add urgency. One is not advised to use block capitals all throughout the text; it ends up making the text more difficult to read than if it were written in standard title case. However, this urgency can be reduced by writing in lower case, with only the first letter of each word capitalized. Some publications use ‘strap lines’ either above or below the main headline. This is a smaller headline that adds more detail.
A subheading is a means of visually breaking up a longer article to make it more digestible. They can also be used to pick out a particular feature of the story in the main body of the article – i.e. ‘breakout paragraphs’. This is done to draw the audience’s attention to whatever they are interested and its purpose also is for esthetic reasons; to fill up space on the page.
In most of the magazines the pages are spilt into columns. The number of columns on a page will vary according to magazine. The main text will be contained within single columns, where as introduction sentences or ‘extra’ information (often contained in ‘breakout boxes’) may spread across two or more columns. This varies according to whom it is written for, i.e. Sight and Sound has smaller text and more columns, as it focuses more on the written context, rather than to entertain, whereas the ‘Sound’ magazine layout usually only consists of two columns, which makes it easier to read; making it more manageable. The difference in the amount of writing will also affect the type of audience who read the review.
The magazine review should also consist of a photo. It is usually a screenshot of the film or the promotional image. The amount, type and layout of photographs have a significant effect on the way an article is read. In the west, our normal visual reading pattern is to scan the page from top left to bottom right. However, when flicking through a magazine our eye is more readily drawn to the right-hand page – this is why adverts set on the right hand cost more than those set on the left. Therefore an eye catching image placed on the right hand page can catch our initial attention, and start us scanning the text from the left hand page down.
Different types of fonts and typography are also incorporated in the review. A font is the style of character selected to create the words. The selection of fonts can give a magazine its character and identity. Fonts can also suggest if a publication is serious or fun. Typography refers to the way text is laid out on the page: size (pt. 14, upper/lower case), spacing, line length etc. an article in a publication will normally use more than one font and typography, but these will follow a formula set out by the ‘house style’, e.g. all the headlines will be in the same font and size in articles. The headline style is technically part of typography. However, choices made about headlines can affect the way an article is read. Headlines in block capitals add urgency. One is not advised to use block capitals all throughout the text; it ends up making the text more difficult to read than if it were written in standard title case. However, this urgency can be reduced by writing in lower case, with only the first letter of each word capitalized. Some publications use ‘strap lines’ either above or below the main headline. This is a smaller headline that adds more detail.
A subheading is a means of visually breaking up a longer article to make it more digestible. They can also be used to pick out a particular feature of the story in the main body of the article – i.e. ‘breakout paragraphs’. This is done to draw the audience’s attention to whatever they are interested and its purpose also is for esthetic reasons; to fill up space on the page.
In most of the magazines the pages are spilt into columns. The number of columns on a page will vary according to magazine. The main text will be contained within single columns, where as introduction sentences or ‘extra’ information (often contained in ‘breakout boxes’) may spread across two or more columns. This varies according to whom it is written for, i.e. Sight and Sound has smaller text and more columns, as it focuses more on the written context, rather than to entertain, whereas the ‘Sound’ magazine layout usually only consists of two columns, which makes it easier to read; making it more manageable. The difference in the amount of writing will also affect the type of audience who read the review.
The magazine review should also consist of a photo. It is usually a screenshot of the film or the promotional image. The amount, type and layout of photographs have a significant effect on the way an article is read. In the west, our normal visual reading pattern is to scan the page from top left to bottom right. However, when flicking through a magazine our eye is more readily drawn to the right-hand page – this is why adverts set on the right hand cost more than those set on the left. Therefore an eye catching image placed on the right hand page can catch our initial attention, and start us scanning the text from the left hand page down.
Audiences of magazine film reviews
The audience of a magazine film review can be different to the audience of the film it is reviewing. This is because the review is serving the target audience of the magazine, and not the film. For instance, a review for The Princess and the Frog (2008), a Disney animation would appear in Empire magazine however the review is for readers of Empire magazine and obviously not the target audience of the film as it is highly unlikely the young, child audience of the film would not read a review of the film.
Magazine film review audiences also vary due to the different interests in audiences. The magazine Sight & Sound is produced by the British Film Institute and can be seen as The Times of film magazines. The mode of address of the magazine is targeted at those with real knowledge and academic interest in film not only as a pass-time, but a key cultural tool and art form. The audience of Sight & Sound are much more informed and expect a higher standard of sophisticated English. The writing is also very serious and formal with most humour being very dry. Sight & Sound provides a full synopsis of the film with discussion of the narrative structure and style, balanced opinion and contextual information to feed its middle-class, well educated audience. The use of a full synopsis gives the interested, academic audience an in-depth overview of the film as well as discussion and view points of the themes and events.
Whereas a magazine such as Total Film provides a less extensive synopsis of the film to target an audience that are obviously interested in films as they buy the magazine, but use film for more entertainment than cultural research like the readers of Sight & Sound. The reviews in the magazine use a lower standard of English compared to Sight & Sound and also uses more and larger pictures, as well as break out paragraphs and break out boxes such as graphs. A Total Film review also uses word play and more obvious wit than Sight & Sound such as "No Country for a middle-aged man (and his boy)...". The magazine uses wider columns which gives the appearance of a shorter and easier read, this appeals to the target audience of the magazine.
These magazines although having the same subject matter, their mode of addresses are vastly different as they have alternating target audiences. Sight & Sound uses a sophisticated level of English and expects its audience to know what the words mean, in contrast, Total Film uses a lower quality of language as it is not targeted at a sophisticated, highly educated audience that is reading the magazine for a detailed, high quality review. Sight & Sound uses more, slimmer columns with more focus on text than on pictures and other break-out boxes, whereas Total Film is very much focused on images, e.g. The Road in the example.
There are also magazines such as Prevue which is an in-house magazine published by Vue cinemas. Magazines like these are useful for simple synopses of films, but do not give clear positive or negative reviews as they goal is ultimately to get the reader to see any film in the cinema. These types of magazines give very simple outlines of the film without further depth or analysis, the articles are surrounded by breakout boxes which give information of the actor's other work and facts.
Magazine film review audiences also vary due to the different interests in audiences. The magazine Sight & Sound is produced by the British Film Institute and can be seen as The Times of film magazines. The mode of address of the magazine is targeted at those with real knowledge and academic interest in film not only as a pass-time, but a key cultural tool and art form. The audience of Sight & Sound are much more informed and expect a higher standard of sophisticated English. The writing is also very serious and formal with most humour being very dry. Sight & Sound provides a full synopsis of the film with discussion of the narrative structure and style, balanced opinion and contextual information to feed its middle-class, well educated audience. The use of a full synopsis gives the interested, academic audience an in-depth overview of the film as well as discussion and view points of the themes and events.
Whereas a magazine such as Total Film provides a less extensive synopsis of the film to target an audience that are obviously interested in films as they buy the magazine, but use film for more entertainment than cultural research like the readers of Sight & Sound. The reviews in the magazine use a lower standard of English compared to Sight & Sound and also uses more and larger pictures, as well as break out paragraphs and break out boxes such as graphs. A Total Film review also uses word play and more obvious wit than Sight & Sound such as "No Country for a middle-aged man (and his boy)...". The magazine uses wider columns which gives the appearance of a shorter and easier read, this appeals to the target audience of the magazine.
These magazines although having the same subject matter, their mode of addresses are vastly different as they have alternating target audiences. Sight & Sound uses a sophisticated level of English and expects its audience to know what the words mean, in contrast, Total Film uses a lower quality of language as it is not targeted at a sophisticated, highly educated audience that is reading the magazine for a detailed, high quality review. Sight & Sound uses more, slimmer columns with more focus on text than on pictures and other break-out boxes, whereas Total Film is very much focused on images, e.g. The Road in the example.
There are also magazines such as Prevue which is an in-house magazine published by Vue cinemas. Magazines like these are useful for simple synopses of films, but do not give clear positive or negative reviews as they goal is ultimately to get the reader to see any film in the cinema. These types of magazines give very simple outlines of the film without further depth or analysis, the articles are surrounded by breakout boxes which give information of the actor's other work and facts.
The Purpose of a Magazine Film Review
Magazine film reviews are to provide opinions about films and offer guidance to audiences about what films to see. They include objective opinions and third party recommendations. Magazine film reviews provide more information to audeinces than can be obtained via a poster therefore, producers aim to have their film reviewed in magazines in a positive manner in order to help gain viewers and therefore boost sales. For example, 'The Kings Speech' (2010), starring Colin Firth became a huge success due to reviews. In the UK and Ireland, the film became box office number one, and took in £3,510,000 in its opening weekend from 395 cinemas.In the United States 'The King's Speech' opened with $355,450 in four theatres, averaging $88,863 per theatre. It holds the record for the highest per theatre gross of 2010. On the other hand, 'Catwomen' (2004) world wide box office reached $82,102,379.
This is the film trailer for 'Catwomen' (2004)
This is the film trailer for 'The King's Speech' (2010)
'Fim Review' is an example of a film review magazine. 'Film Review' magazine first appeared in 1950, initially for a 3-issue trial run. At the time it had the title "ABC Film Review" due to it working with ABC cinemas. At the time it was just 20 pages ans it was published in association with Pathé and produced by Axtell Publications Ltd. of London. After the trial's success it became a full monthly magazine from January 1951. In 1972, its name changed to just 'Film Review' and the ABC was dropped from then on. It continued to appear as a monthly magazine until 2008. The last edition, a double-issue, number 699/700, for August/ September 2008, edited by Nikki Baughan, had 220 pages and was priced at £4.99.
Having started out as a promotional magazine for the ABC circuit, 'Film Review' became a very good popular film monthly, packed with news and information, literate reviews and an emphasis on the pictures as well as the written text. For nearly sixty years it never lost its initial and essential aim of appealing to film fanatics. Sadly, its position was taken over by other more successful film publications which forced it off the shelves.
This is the film trailer for 'Catwomen' (2004)
This is the film trailer for 'The King's Speech' (2010)
'Fim Review' is an example of a film review magazine. 'Film Review' magazine first appeared in 1950, initially for a 3-issue trial run. At the time it had the title "ABC Film Review" due to it working with ABC cinemas. At the time it was just 20 pages ans it was published in association with Pathé and produced by Axtell Publications Ltd. of London. After the trial's success it became a full monthly magazine from January 1951. In 1972, its name changed to just 'Film Review' and the ABC was dropped from then on. It continued to appear as a monthly magazine until 2008. The last edition, a double-issue, number 699/700, for August/ September 2008, edited by Nikki Baughan, had 220 pages and was priced at £4.99.
Having started out as a promotional magazine for the ABC circuit, 'Film Review' became a very good popular film monthly, packed with news and information, literate reviews and an emphasis on the pictures as well as the written text. For nearly sixty years it never lost its initial and essential aim of appealing to film fanatics. Sadly, its position was taken over by other more successful film publications which forced it off the shelves.
Monday, 24 January 2011
Famous Film Magazines.
There are three main film magazines in the country at this moment in time. The most read is Total Film followed by Empire and then by Sight and Sound a specialist film review magazine for the more sophisticated and cultured reader and a cinema fanatic. They also have to compete with newspapers who do regular film reviews in a special section of their newspaper.
The layout of the film review pages all differ from one magazine article to another. There are only three columns in “Total Film” whereas in “Empire” they have three columns and in “Sight and Sound” they have 6 columns. This has different connotations, for instance someone who is just looking for a short article to read and on a film that he wants to see will read something light hearted and less challenging such as a “Total Film” film reviews. This is also shown in the typography: it has big type and the word spacing is long aswell as the line spacing that is quite large. The third column is finished with page filler. A device used by magazines in order to make the reader comfortable with the article and read it. This is different in “empire” that has three columns with small word spacing and small line spacing. They get even smaller in Sight and Sound due to the seriousness of the magazine. The font is all the same for every single one however they are different for the headline than the article itself. They just differ in size with the more serious film reviews becoming smaller in order to attract a more cultured clientele. The Headlines differ from some magazines Total Film and Empire are similar in the way that the title of the film is the headline whereas in Sight and Sound it goes along the lines of a serious newspaper with a pun for the headline. The strap lines style is also different In “Total Film” they have their pun there unlike “Empire” who pose a question to the audience or even Sight and Sound who give an overview of the filmThe layout of the film review pages all differ from one magazine article to another. There are only three columns in “Total Film” whereas in “Empire” they have three columns and in “Sight and Sound” they have 6 columns. This has different connotations, for instance someone who is just looking for a short article to read and on a film that he wants to see will read something light hearted and less challenging such as a “Total Film” film reviews. This is also shown in the typography: it has big type and the word spacing is long aswell as the line spacing that is quite large. The third column is finished with page filler. A device used by magazines in order to make the reader comfortable with the article and read it. This is different in “empire” that has three columns with small word spacing and small line spacing. They get even smaller in Sight and Sound due to the seriousness of the magazine. The font is all the same for every single one however they are different for the headline than the article itself. They just differ in size with the more serious film reviews becoming smaller in order to attract a more cultured clientele. The Headlines differ from some magazines Total Film and Empire are similar in the way that the title of the film is the headline whereas in Sight and Sound it goes along the lines of a serious newspaper with a pun for the headline. The strap lines style is also different In “Total Film” they have their pun there unlike “Empire” who pose a question to the audience or even Sight and Sound who give an overview of the film.The layout of the film review pages all differ from one magazine article to another. There are only three columns in “Total Film” whereas in “Empire” they have three columns and in “Sight and Sound” they have 6 columns. This has different connotations, for instance someone who is just looking for a short article to read and on a film that he wants to see will read something light hearted and less challenging such as a “Total Film” film reviews. This is also shown in the typography: it has big type and the word spacing is long aswell as the line spacing that is quite large. The third column is finished with page filler. A device used by magazines in order to make the reader comfortable with the article and read it. This is different in “empire” that has three columns with small word spacing and small line spacing. They get even smaller in Sight and Sound due to the seriousness of the magazine. The font is all the same for every single one however they are different for the headline than the article itself. They just differ in size with the more serious film reviews becoming smaller in order to attract a more cultured clientele. The Headlines differ from some magazines Total Film and Empire are similar in the way that the title of the film is the headline whereas in Sight and Sound it goes along the lines of a serious newspaper with a pun for the headline. The strap lines style is also different In “Total Film” they have their pun there unlike “Empire” who pose a question to the audience or even Sight and Sound who give an overview of the film they are reviewing.
In Total Film (the latest issue, issue 176) there are main news articles about the film industry to begin with unlike Empire who are doing an ultimate guide to Tron Legacy one of the latest movies to come out in cinema’s. In a similar fashion Sight and Sound focused there main article on the Black Swan. Empire and Sight and Sound stick strictly to major film issues and unlike Total Film they have long articles on films or film genres that have raised an eyebrow recently. Total film on the other hand will have the readers views section where the readers letters are posted in the magazine so that they can interact with public opinion making the magazine more appealing. Empire and Sight and Sound will then have all the films being released in the country right now or in the next month. This is reciprocated in some sorts in Total Film especially as they have a section for the more sophisticated and cultured film fan talking about some of the films that wont appear in mainstream cinema company’s.
The mode of address of the film magazine depends on the film magazine at hand. Total Film for instance will have language more accommodated for the younger generation. They are aimed at readers that look at films for a good time with their friends rather than for a cultural or educational experience. On the other hand Empire is written for the more experienced film watcher and is aimed at everyone really considering it also attracts some of the more casual cinema goers as well as the educated cinema fanatics. Its style of writing makes it the film reference magazine in Great Britain. The less well known magazine Sight and Sound is really the specialist magazine and is aimed at connoisseurs of cinema and is written with flamboyant language in order to appeal to its specialist audience. It also writes the synopsis of the film mainly because the film fan will want to read the about the films it wont be able to otherwise watch because they are released in independent cinema’s in other parts of the country. They write about every film with in depth reviews that would bore the ordinary cinema fan.
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