Authentic Film Magazines’ Reviews and Analysis of their

Codes and Conventions

By Tabitha Beerling, Jamie Beadle, and Connor Sandum

Setup of Major Film Magazine Reviews (Empire)

‘The Empire Movie Guide’ chose to summarise the plot of the film in a few sentences before plunging into the review. This may have been useful to their readers, some of which might have only wanted to read a review in a film they are interested in knowing more about. Arguably Barthes’ Hermeneutic Code, as it does not reveal the ending to the film, creating mystery.

Certificates, directors, cast and release date are all relevant when writing a review, as the review may have piqued the interests of people who may have otherwise not watched the film. If not, they may have been attracted to the film by the names mentioned (i.e. Natalie Portman.)

The ‘verdict’ is the basic summary of the review, which is a critique of the film as a whole. Good or bad, it supposedly summarises the reviewer’s opinion of the piece, either in style, technique, plot, or a mixture of all three.

Title, as well as a humorous ‘tagline’ that may give insight to the tone of the review, or the parts it criticises.

Screenshot of a point in the film, often during a key scene, or a supposed key scene.

Name of the reviewer at the end of the piece.

Setup of Major Film Magazine Reviews (Total Film)Total Film took the

approach of posting the star rating underneath the title, which is in contrast to Empire Magazine, who put the star rating at the end, with the ‘verdict.’

The picture still features as a central piece of the review.

No humorous ‘tagline.’

The technical aspects of the film – certificate, directors, cast and screenwriter – are left at the end of the review, unlike in Empire, where they are at the forefront.

The summary is at the end, rather like the Empire’s ‘Verdict.’

There is no summary of the plot, which directly contrasts to ‘Empire.’

Name of the reviewer at the end of the piece.

Setup of Major Film Magazine Reviews (Sight and Sound)

Title is again a central piece of the review, but this differs from the other examples in the sense that it is less pronounced; added only because it is necessary to do so, and not being used as a way to capture the spectator’s eye.

Still uses a picture of a supposed key scene in the film – this can then be argued as a common convention of reviews, since all three examples have featured it.

As Sight and Sound is seen as a more academic, comprehensive film magazine, it stands to reason that their reviews are longer, as they focus on a lot of aspects on film. Therefore, the synopsis can be regarded as the overview of the film, rather like the ‘verdict’ or the ‘plot summary’ of the Empire and Total Film examples.

Credits are longer as they encompass the whole crew, not just the main people.

List of ‘main crew,’ as well as certificate, running time, and locations in which it was filmed.

Common convention seems to be to include the reviewer’s name at the end of the piece.

List of Codes and ConventionsCodes

• Barthes’ Hermeneutic Code – Reviews provide insight into a plot and cause potential spectators to become interested in that film, or at least aware of it, due to the unanswered mystery of how that film resolves, as oftentimes reviews do not give away endings or potential plot twists.

• Barthes’ Semantic Code – Reviews can include screenshots that the reviewer feels sets the tone of the film, especially in a cultural sort of sense, as different cultures interpret things differently.

Conventions

• Reviewers’ names are featured at the ends of each piece in all three examples, and therefore can be argued as a convention of film reviews.

• A picture from a particular scene is always featured to give the audience an insight into the film at question.

• The title of the film is always featured, even though some magazines (Empire and Total Film) make them more pronounced than others (Sight and Sound.)

• Oftentimes, there is a ‘tagline’ of sorts in the reviews to give a sense of what it will contain, though this is not strictly followed by all magazines (Sight and Sound chose not to include it, perhaps because it is more technical and all-encompassing.)

• A plot summary is most normally included, though it can be longer, such as the synopsis seen in Sight and Sound.