Question 4 of Evalutation - Naomi

Our Final Review

Our First Draft Little White Lies Article

In the mix of the media frenzy surrounding the current refugee crisis in Syria and the unfortunate events in Paris emerges a tragically honest short by up-and-coming directors Naomi Fold and Ella Syrett. The first full short from the pair, Syrett and Fold, ‘Alien’ challenges the medias portrayal of refugees and the impact thats having on the public.

‘Alien’ stars Theo Moore making his acting debut, Moore gives an intelligently typical angsty performance as a teenager in a bad place. Director-turned-actor Jamie Jao also features in the film playing a soldier who appears to suffer at the hands of ignorance. 

The in this low-budget short echoes that of ‘A Favour’ (Virgin Media Shorts 2013) with similar paralleling techniques at the start also following the same purpose of challenging the medias stereotypes. This is the pairs first full short, although they explored a different territory in a thriller opening about two co-workers commenting a crime (2014’s White Collar Complex). This protest short is a seamless and subversive meshing of documentary and fiction, the fast montage of the news reports reminding the audience in an emotional punch that this is a real happening issue.

It is perhaps so powerful because it preserves the crucial truth that its protagonist was blindly following the crowd. A common theme with young influential teenagers desperate to fit in within this self obsessed society.

The story sees us follow Kasimir played by Moore as he protests against refugees coming to England and the soldier played by Jao which culminates with an almost meeting at the protest. It ends with an ironic twist fitting with the social realism style. The film is pitched towards young audiences of the present clearly commenting on the current refugee emergency. The limited use of script engages the audiences to follow the narrative and adamantly refuses to become predictable.

The characters further help to orient the film towards the complex inhumanity of the experience of being a refugee.

The Style Conventions of Little White Lies - (Ella)

Little White Lies has particular language conventions, paragraph content and a standard language form for each of their reviews. The only variation is due to of course the film being reviewed and the authors own interpretation of it.

• The opening paragraph of the article typically would comment on the contexts for the film, directors previous films or perhaps social/historical.
• A brief explanation of the protagonist or other key focuses of the film, possibly commenting on their representation, main aspects and the actors performance.
• The key themes/issues and a basic summary of the plot.
• Use and adaptation of genre conventions (e.g. Steve Neale's theory of repetition and variation)
• The authors opinion on the film.
• Summary sentence which comments on the film as a whole.

Little White Lies is targeted specifically at people who are interested in film and are most likely knowledgeable about it. This is reflected in its language conventions as they consist of complex vocabulary and many restricted film codes. References to directors previous works, or characters also plays to their target audience presuming they would understand such references. For example in a review they wrote about 'The Fighter' (David O Russel) they discuss Christian Bales performance "The Machinist, say, as opposed to The Dark Knight" referencing two previous Bale films. They use common language devices such as nouns, metaphors, adverbs, complex nouns, and adjectives to catch the readers attention. As well as puns to create a slick humour in the article and rhetorical questions to bring the audience in. 

Layout Conventions and House Style of 'Little White Lies' - (Ella)

Little White Lies uses a specific style and certain conventions in their layout to create a well known house style for their audience. The layout does not change however slight variations in their house style occur every few months to keep the magazine fresh and interesting. Characteristics such as only using three house fonts (Century Gothic, Aparajita and Microsoft Yi Baiti) allows the magazine to be recognisable to their audiences despite the slight variations. 

• The size of the page will be: 196mm x 245mm
• Each column of text of text is 52.4mm wide with 3 columns.
• Only three fonts are used, being Century Gothic, Aparajita and Microsoft Yi Baiti
• A 3-digit page number is also shown at the bottom along with the minor design of 'REVIEWS' horizontal to one side of the review, halfway down the centre line of the page.
• The picture advertising the film will be taking up around 40% of the image ratio, and will feature a screenshot of the film, which would feature a main character in the film.
• The image will constantly remain the same size however it could move down the height of the page, varying to the amount of text the author writes, most reviews consist between 5-7 paragraphs and around the word limit of 550 words.
• Summaries are featured for 'Anticipation', 'Enjoyment' and 'Retrospect' of each film. Each summary is separated by lines, which are around 3px deep.
• The authors name is embedded along the last line of the review

What is 'Little White Lies' and Who Reads It? (Ella)

'Little White Lies' is an independently published film review magazine. It is published by 'The Church of London' who also produce 'Huck' magazine. It is a bi-monthly subscription magazine, which includes written articles, illustration and photography all related to film/cinema industry. 

The magazine ran a survey analysing their demographic and psychographic audience traits. 

Their results show that the large majority of their readers are male, with a demographic of 63% male readers and 37% female, aged 25-35. This suggests readers who earn their own leisure pound, and own more of a disposable income to be able to spend on such items as films or magazines. The magazine costs £6 per issue and subscription to the magazine is available, which is how the magazine generates the majority of their revenue. 

The psychographic information then tells us 72% of the readers visit the cinema 0-4 times per month, as cinema costs are becoming more expensive this shows us their interests/hobbies also relate to their disposable income.

The readers for 'Little White Lies' are mainly working in the the creative and visual arts industry. This relates to aesthetics beingkey in the magazine along with the content, relating to the various industries.

Style Conventions of 'Little White Lies' - (Naomi)

The magazine has a very distinctive style as it includes an image from the short film and the layout is in a specific way; The image is at the top of the page which shows the protagonists and it symbolises the film and a crucial scene. In addition, the image is in colour to ensure that is stands out and attracts the reader. The title of the film is directly under the image and is in a bold font which is Century Gothic. In addition, the directors name, actors names and the release date are under the title in a very small font with italics and upper case bold lettering. Each review is made up of 5 or 6 paragraphs which are all similar lengths, lined up and centred and underneath the final paragraph it has the overall ratings on the film out of 5, labelled as ANTICIPATION, ENJOYMENT and IN RETROSPECT.
Along with the number ratings there are also a brief explanation of each of the three ratings and what they thought about the film in these particular sections. The rating then have an effect on the readers as they will judge the film on the rating shown in the review and this will determine whether a reader will go to see the film or not. The language used in the reviews are non-formal as it feel laid back and natural language, however with a twist of them being quiet witting, sarcastic and can use some certificated language. This could link to their target audience, which would suggest that their audience are film buffs of independent films and well educated.