Article

Development
Natalie Blight
 The editing process began with the
use of the magnetic lasso tool on
Photoshop. I decided to use this to
outline the wooden floor and
highlight any shadows as this
would make the image appear more
dynamic on the page.
I then increased then general
brightness and contrast of the
image in order to enhance the
image once again. I felt that the
original image appeared to be quite
dark initially, therefore it was
necessary for me to adjust the
brightness, contrast (and
consequently the photo filter to
avoid discolouration on the image
overall) to keep the image bright
and visually appealing to the
audience. I then copied the image
on to InDesign to create the layout
for my article.
 After copying my image in to Adobe
InDesign, I arranged it so that it would cross
the gutter of both sides of the double page.
Because I would be printing my article on to
an A3 page, this would allow the image to be
large enough to attract the audiences
attention, whilst not dominating too much of
each page in the process. I organised the
masthead of my article first, as this would be
the second most noticeable section on my
page, I hope. I downloaded the font
‘Coolative’ from www.dafont.com and
separately arranged the words ‘Looking’ and
‘Love’. This separation of the two words has
allowed me to adjust the font sizes and
colours in order to make the masthead more
visually dynamic and interesting. As you can
see from the print screen, it stands out on the
page excellently whilst still connoting the
romantic mise-en-scene through the use of a
red/pink colour. To incorporate the article
itself, I created a short introduction,
highlighted by the larger red font, and then
included the remainder of the writing, smaller
black writing. The font I adopted was Minion
Pro as this was a very simple, classic and
clear font to read. The callout was positioned
in the centre of the article to draw in the
viewers gaze and given the red/pink colour
once again to connote the romantic mise-en-
scene of the page and the film genre.
The generic page number and description
was positioned as a red banner at the top of
the page. It was vital that I included this
convention as it makes the page appear to be
more like an actual article.
 To conclude the article itself, I created a short
fact file about my film. This small section of
text included the title, producers, cast, age
certificate and a rating out of ten. I am really
pleased that I chose to include this as this is a
very popular feature among certain film
magazine articles these days, such as those
created by Empire Magazine. The rating I
included at the end of the article denotes that
this is in fact a really interesting film to watch,
overall increasing the chance of more people
wanting to view the film itself. Along with this,
I included an additional text box over-lapping
with the principle image. This text box was
created to include reader reviews. This brings
in an outside opinion of the film allowing the
reader to see some other opinions rather than
just that of the reviewer. A drop shadow was
used to lift the text box off of the page whilst
the rounded corners are a very cohesive feature
with what is already a very simple and flowing
article page.
I also chose to included some smaller, still shot
images to compliment the film and to break up
the page slightly. To make these appear more
three dimensional on the page I embossed the
frames and created an ‘outer glow’ in grey. This
would not only make the images appear more
noticeable on the page, but also give the viewer
a small insight in to some of the characters and
the layout of certain sections of the film,
possibly encouraging them to watch it
themselves..
To complete the page, I added in smaller
callouts to highlight what is going on in
each of the images, another common
feature of many film articles today. The
colours of these small descriptions vary
depending on their position on the page
and create an even more informal
atmosphere to the page by including a
lot of general conversation-style
language. I like to believe that this type
of language is present throughout the
article, as it is crucial for the audience to
feel as though this is a very down to
earth person talking to them about a
short film and not some posh reviewer
from a very high end newspaper is
extremely cynical and demeaning to
90% of films that they will watch purely
because it is of a genre that they do not
personally enjoy.
The text within the ‘Readers Reviews’
box was added, again in the ‘Coolative’
font that I used for the masthead of the
page. Consequently, the writing takes on
a very interesting and crooked effect,
drawing in the viewers attention almost
immediately. An inner drop shadow was
incorporated to create the red glow
effect. This continued the red and
‘romantic’ mise-en-scene, essentially
creating cohesion on the page.
This is a copy of my final double page article. I am extremely pleased with the turnout and
feel that there are many conventions and features that make the image appear successful
whilst also connoting the general theme of my short film. I chose to separate the large
paragraph sections surrounding the main callout on the page as the text did not work
cohesively on the page. This small, but significant, edit effectively enhances the mise-en-
scene of the page and helps to create a more aesthetically pleasing double page review article.