Magazine Article Planning

For my A2 coursework I have to make a magazine article on my short film so I recently decided to start looking at film articles. I have been subscribed to EMPIRE magazine for just over a year now and decided to leaf through my massive stack of magazines last night. I looked at articles that are linked to the fantasy genre but I also looked at some of the articles written for a few of my favourite films.

Firstly I looked at the article EMPIRE wrote on the film 'Pride + Prejudice + Zombies'. Although this film is classified as a thriller I liked the aesthetic of the article. After reading the book two years ago the film soon became one of my favourites with a impressive cast including Lily James, Sam Riley, Lena Headey, Charles Dance, Bella Heathcote and Douglas Booth. The article is ultimately six pages long (including a two page poster) and is sectioned into five. The poster of Mr Bingley fighting off a hoard of zombies is the first part of the article titled 'Dead Posh' and then goes onto the sections of 'The Scrappy Couple' introducing the main characters portrayed by Sam Riley (Darcy) and Lily James (Elizabeth Bennet), 'Lena and Meaner' giving the reader a brief bit of context before introducing Lena Headey's adaptation of Mr Darcy's aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The articles continue with 'Further Afield In England' which talks about the filming locations, 'Steers At The Helm' where the director is mentioned and briefly interviewed, and the final article is called 'Fun With Bingley and Jane' which talks about the other romance aside from Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. I like how the article is structured with some of the text being written over the images - both from photoshoots and the film itself - whilst one article is written on a plain background with a picture next to it.

I then flicked through the article of fantasy-horror film 'Crimson Peak'. Although I'm not a fan of horror films 'Crimson Peak' is still one of my favourite films, exploring the life of a young woman named Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) in 1887 who believes she can see ghosts before being whisked away after her father's sudden death to marry English baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). I decided to look at the article in EMPIRE because it is closer to my chosen genre of fantasy than 'Pride + Prejudice + Zombies' is, although both share certain horror elements. Similar to the previous article I studied, EMPIRE's article starts with a two page poster of the film with a simple shot of Sir Thomas Sharpe and his sister Lucille Sharpe in the gothic mansion where the film is set. The article then goes on to review the film with a collage of four pictures in the centre of the four page article with quotes from the director on the images. For example, actress Mia Wasikowska who plays Edith quotes that "For Edith, it's [the film] about learning to fear the living, not the dead".

I then went on to look a fantasy article on the hit television show 'Game of Thrones'. Having watched all of the current seasons of the show, 'Game of Thrones' was probably a inspiration for my short film due to the medieval themes throughout the show. The article to 'Game of Thrones' was similar to the one for 'Crimson Peak' however the quotes were not just from actors but some were also used from the characters themselves. The article seems to focus a lot on the main characters as well as new ones as well as the locations that the show is set in e.g. the introduction of Dorne or the progress of the Daenerys and her dragons. The article also talks about casting and who may have played the character and who actually did play the character. Alternatively I could do something like this but perhaps find a character that I took inspiration from.

Alternatively, I found at least three articles on 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit'! I have been a fan of J.R.R.Tolkien's books since I was eleven. In one of 'The Hobbit' articles I noticed it seemed to focus a lot on the introduction of the company of dwarves (shocker) and the elves which I think would be useful for my article to focus on the notion of the dryads in the forest. By the third selection of articles I noticed that EMPIRE tend to use the same format over and over again and either use quotes from the film, director or actors.

Another one of my favourite articles was for Marvel's film 'Dr Strange'. As a fantasy film, I enjoyed the whole aspect of fantasy in the modern day. The aesthetic of the article merges with the fantastical and magical themes throughout the film which I like and would like to use in my own article.