NEA Task 12 : Research Into Film Magazine Contents Pages

 

What comments can you make about these contents pages? Think about things such as:

• are they single or double pages?
• the layout of the different elements on the page
• the different sections of the magazine that are shown in the contents pages
• the actual content - what can be found inside the magazine?
• the use of typography - font, size, use capitalisation/lower case, text direction, etc
• the use of images
• the use of page numbers

Analysis of contents pages:

In terms of contents pages, I have learnt that all of these magazines besides Film Stories have single pages in their magazines; Film Stories have a double page spreads. All the magazines have differing compositions that displays the contents of their magazine, but follow the same concepts with their design. Each of the magazine contents pages have sectioned different areas of the topics in that issue to make it easier for the consumer to find the information they want to read. For example, in Sight and Sound it has a heading and the information on what will be covered in that section of the magazine underneath. Page numbers can be found within all of the magazines contents pages which guides the audience to the information allocated to that page. Inside these magazines there are varied topics such as reviews on films, books and many other types of media texts, they also show thoughts about endings and opening scenes of films, as well as film news and interaction with the audience.Besides some of the topics that are featured in the magazines and the page numbers, all elements seem to be independent to each magazine, for example Little White Lies does not include images, in comparison to Sight and Sound and film stories who do. The typography seen on Film Stories differs to the others, it is solely sans serif however the other two where there is large bold font it is sans serif but the smaller text is in primarily a serif font. Focusing on the colour palettes of the magazines it is, again, Sight and Sound which differs from the rest. It only features black and white, however the other two have incorporated colour into their contents pages.