Little White Lies reviews - (Sarah)

Little White Lies  review magazine
http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/

What is Little White Lies (LWL) and who reads it?
What it is  - "A bi-monthly, independent movie magazine that employs cutting-edge writing, illustration and photography to get under the skin of cinema. Tired with the lack of diversity among film magazines, we launched our own publication in 2005. We wanted to introduce a new voice to the movie landscape, and offer readers an alternative to the me-too mediocrity that dominated the industry." The magazine includes information not just on film but also music, travel and pop culture to help appeal to its target audience. Every issue of LWL uses a different film for its aesthetics and layout. The company has released 34 issues, with over 2000 subscribers and sells in WHSmiths, Urban Outfitters, Magma, HMV, ICA, Waterstones and BFI Film store in the Uk and other stores worldwide.  

Who it's for - LWL defines it's audience as simply "people who want to read". The main psychographic element of their audience is people enjoy film.

What are the layout conventions? (The house style)

Little White Lies uses a select layout style through all their reviews in a very precise way. Each review will include the following:

• A main image in colour which will be a still from the film, centred at the top of the page, taking up roughly a third of the page length - this image will have all 90% angles.
• Title -  in a bold large font centred in the middle of the page just under the image. The first letter of each word is in capitals and all line up.
• Directed by, Starring and release date - in italics under the title (again central). The release date uses simply the numbers of the date (for example 23, rather than 23rd) and the month without the year.
• The names of the actors/actresses, date and director are in bold and capitals.
• 'Reviews' - rotated 90 degrees to the left. Centred in line with the director and actors.
• Actors names in the text are mentioned in brackets.
• Who the review is written by in bold and capital letters at the end of the review.
• Ratings justified to the right (out of 5) in bold in the bottom right corner of the page.
• Anticipation, enjoyment and retrospect (rating titles) - In capital letters with the description in italics justified to the left.
• The page number - three digits (e.g. 042)
• Plain easy to read font for the actual review text.
• First letter of the review is three lines big and in bold.

What are the style conventions? (Paragraph content and language conventions)

Firstly examining the paragraph content, I looked at Little White Lies review of 'Zero Dark Thirty'. Here they used the paragraph pattern of; historical and political context, links with the film protagonist, introducing the protagonist and links to the directors style and genre, the repetition and variation in the genre, the directors intentions, themes and aspects of style, The key scenes and unique elements that link to the genre and finally, the summary of the end scenes importance and distinctive features of the film compared to Hollywood styles. They then end this review with a positive last sentence which gives the overall outlook and tone the review takes on this film. The paragraphs evaluate a different subject, issue or theme of the film and tend to criticise or positively portray the same opinion the whole way through.

The language conventions of these reviews include a variety of language choices and points; for example:

• reference to film sources/contexts
• Evaluative comments, suggesting reviewer's opinion of the film
• Use of complex language (e.g. complex sentences, complex nouns etc)
• Academic referencing and restricted code
• Plot description
• Descriptive devices such as metaphors and adjectives to give a more in depth detailed opinion of the film
• The semantic field of film
• They also use the third pronoun 'we' which addresses the audience as a community so they feel welcomed and gives a more friendly tone.