Ancillary Tasks Research: Conventions of a Magazine Layout

When considering my Magazine Article Ancillary Task, I have looked at examples of the British Film Magazine: Empire. It is an immensely popular monthly magazine with an average circulation of 194,016 and includes all the latest news and reviews in the world of film.

Generally the articles are either behind the scenes looks into the film with interviews of the stars and production team involved or a review with a star rating. I could consider doing a mixture of both for my double page spread for my own film.

The tone for both types of article is descriptive and fast paced to entice the reader to watch the film, whilst the review can be more critical and humorous. All the layouts follow the generic pattern of neat collumns with simplistic white backgrounds, bold headings also entice the reader and indicate what the article is about. There is also use of 'tag quotes' throughout the article which point out significant information.

It could be said the main focus of all three articles is the use of images, whether a large central picture of the film or small boxes for screen caps or a mixture of both. An article about a film must appear visually striking to attract the audience to read the feature.