review analysis; ancillary texts

Evaluation Question Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Part One – Review;

This year for A2 Media Studies I was required to make a short film between three and five minutes long to go alongside ancillary texts; a film poster and a magazine review. The travel/wanderlust genre was the genre I chose to cover this year in A2; therefore I had to research codes and conventions of this genre or of similar genres. The research I conducted was essential when producing my ancillary texts especially, I had to ensure that I knew the codes and conventions of texts such as film posters and reviews before even considering starting my own.

After conducting research on film sites such as Sight & Sound and BFI, the pure purpose of a review became evident. The critical response to the film allows the audience/future audience to know what to expect; whether in the reviewers opinion it was good or bad over all, key points and essentially - whether or not people should spend their time and money on said film. Occasionally in reviews, there are comments from directors, actors or other crew members this gives the readers a further in-depth look into the film being reviewed.

When conducting this research I decided to look at the review on ‘Sight&Sound’s website for Boyhood (this can be seen in the image to the left.)

I decided that Sight&Sound would be a good magazine to research and base my own review off of as they are an independent film magazine that promote ‘indie’ and independent films; such as my own.I chose to look at the review of Linklater’s Boyhood as it is entirely based on growth and on home, quite like my own short film.

Comparison of Film Reviews;

Like in the Sight&Sound review for Boyhood I included the title of my short film at the top of the page in order for people to know what was being reviewed; below this I decided to include the poster for Odyssey so that readers could get a slight glimpse into the film too.

I included the title of the film magazine in the same place as it is in the Boyhood review as it reiterates that my film is of the specialised/indie genre.

I decided to include a video player in my review so that if a reader was viewing the webpage they would be able to click play and they would instantly be able to view the film themselves.

Here I placed a comment that I myself had made before constructing my film; by doing so it gives the readers of the review a deeper insight into the film and the meaning behind it.