Thriller Evaluation: Visuals

Media Product Evaluation

Thriller Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before creating my media product, I researched films in the same genre to gain an understanding of the key conventions I should include in mine. Two films which I analysed were Psycho and Sin City. Psycho is completely in black and white which I think is effective as it creates a sense of mystery and darkness, so we used this concept in my flashbacks for the same effect. Psycho also uses non-diegetic music generic to the genre, which we included in our thriller opening as it creates a tense and suspenseful atmosphere. While analysing Sin City I noticed that this thriller film is also in black and white but certain parts are in colour, we believed this was effective in terms of a thriller film so therefore we decided to add this convention in my media product. The inspiration we got from this concept becomes evident in my thriller opening as some scenes are in colour, while the flashbacks are in black and white to add a sense of mystery.

My media product does however challenge certain conventions of this genre. A lot of thriller/horror films begin with setting shots to create an atmosphere, with little action and slow-paced editing. My opening challenges these conventions as it begins with instant action and fast-paced editing, this unsettles the audience as they have not been introduced to a setting or any characters so ultimately left in mystery as to who the characters seen are and why they are introduced instantly with no identity. Another convention which my media product challenges is that in a lot of thriller films the definite protagonist is introduced before the antagonist, while in mine the character who appeals to be the antagonist is the first character to be introduced, but as the audience do not know who this character is then they are left unsure as to his ambitions.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

After watching and analysing a number of thriller/horror films, I noticed that a lot of antagonists in these films are male as males are stereotypically strong and authoritative. Therefore we decided that our antagonist would be male, this makes our media product give a representation that males are strong. However all the victims that are murdered are also male, this gives off an opposite representation that males are infact weak. No females feature in the opening of our media product, this could suggest that they are seen as unimportant in the plotline of our film. On the other hand, it could suggest that as none of the victims are female, then females are strong characters.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

If I was to make my media project into a full length film then I believe the sorts of distributors that would distribute the film would be the likes of Paramount Pictures or Hammer Film Productions. This is due to the similarities between my film and films previously distributed by these production companies.

Firstly Paramount Pictures distributed Psycho which I see as the main inspiration for my media product, mine bares a resemblance to the conventions shown in Psycho so therefore I believe that my film would be suited to this production company. Also audiences to films distributed by Paramount would be the right sort of audience to my film, rather than Hollywood production audiences.

Secondly Hammer Film Productions would be another ideal production company to distribute my film, this is due to the history of films that have been distributed by Hammer Film Productions who have a reputation for gothic horrors. Some films that have been distributed by this company are Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, these films use similar conventions used in my media product. These films are in black and white, use a lot of generic non-diegetic music and feature murders, my thriller is similar so therefore I believe this production company would be ideal to distribute my film.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After researching classifications on the BBFC website, I decided to classify my media product as a 15 due to; Horror and Violence. I think this is a good classification for my media product as it features horrific and violent scenes but there is no particular gore or graphic scenes which would bring the classification to an 18.

If this film were to be distributed, I believe the audience would mostly be males aged between 15-21. This is because of the genre of film which tends to have a male-based audience, also the actors and characters used in my thriller are between these ages so it would be right that this film attracts these sorts of ages.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Initially we attracted and addressed our audience during the planning stages of our production with questionnaires about our storyboard and rough drafts. This stage allowed us to identify our target audience our thriller would be aimed at, here we found that an audience of ages 15-21 would be suitable. We also found that the majority of this audience were male who had a keen interest in thriller/horror films, this was good for us as this is the sort of audience we initially planned on aiming at.

In order to gain further feedback, we posted our thriller intro on Facebook in order to receive opinions to document. This was extremely helpful as we received a lot of feedback, which was mostly positive but there was also some negative opinions so this allowed us to re-edit and re-evaluate our product.

Some of the comments me and my group received after posting our media product onto Facebook were:

“Really good nice work for your first proper film.”

“That’s well good it actually scared me a bit with the music and the black and white display.”

“Also the last shot is the best, good quality camera work throughout.”

“That’s actually pretty good.”

“Good use of different camera angles and shots, nice delivery throughout.”

“I like the tension and suspense which is built up by the music and the variety of different shots however it could be seen more as a short film than a thriller opening.”

“I think the shot of the male character running up the stairs could be shorter, as it is too long, however the use of the low angles are really well thought out.”

This sort of feedback made us feel confident with our thriller opening, and the negative comments we received were constructive and allowed us to go back over our product and edit bits which were negatively commented on.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of my product, I have learnt a lot of skills and a lot about different technologies in putting my product together. I have picked up a number of camera skills involving shot distances and angles, also skills involving the camera equipment. Since our continuity task, I feel me and my group have all largely enhanced our camera skills and these are evident in our final piece. Aswell as camera skills, I have also learnt a lot of in depth editorial skills using Premier Pro. This is the program we used to put our product together, during our continuity task I had a basic understanding of this program but now I feel that I have drastically improved my editing ability and have learnt a lot of new advanced skills. My editing has improved in terms of sequence smoothness, use of cuts, shot transitions, piecing of the non-diegetic sounds and overall editing ability. Another program I have used during the process of my product is After Effects, with this program I learnt a lot of animation skills. I used these new skills to animate the title sequence which I felt improved the overall complexity of our product. I feel that as a group we have raised our standard of work, we often re-shot scenes if we felt we could do better and we went through our sequence many times to edit and cut parts until we were confident with our final piece.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Reflecting on our preliminary task, I feel we have significantly progressed from this task to our final media product. During our preliminary task we spent a lot of time planning and not enough time filming, so by the time we had completed our planning we were left slightly clueless with the camera and the time we had remaining to complete our task. Our limited skills became apparent when we had to re-shoot a large part of it due to unsteady shots, overall our preliminary task went well but we learnt from the mistakes we made and we transferred this new knowledge into the production of our media product.

When we started off with our thriller opening, we were organised with our planning and the process was successful and fluid. Then when it came to the filming we built on the experience we already had and developed our camera and editing skills, which are presented in our final piece as it is a lot smoother and well produced than our preliminary task.

Overall I believe that individually and also as a group, we have all progressed and have learnt a lot during the production. Our final media product has turned out to be a success and we have created this product to a high standard due to the skills we have all learnt along the process.

Finished Product

Rough Cut Feedback

 

After posting my rough cut onto Facebook i recieved very positive feedback, 27 people 'liked' it which proved that a lot of people were impressed by it. I also got a lot of positive feedback, some of the comments recieved were:

 

‘Really good nice work for your first proper film.’

‘That’s well good it actually scared me a bit with the music and the black and white display.’

‘Also the last shot is the best, good quality camera work throughout.’

‘That’s actually pretty good.’

‘Good use of different camera angles and shots, nice delivery throughout.’

‘I like the tension and suspense which is built up by the music and the variety of different shots however it could be seen more as a short film than a thriller opening.’

‘I think the shot of the male character running up the stairs could be shorter, as it is too long, however the use of the low angles are really well thought out.’

‘The ending could be seen as a bit too concussive, apart from this the rest of the film is technically very good, the music fits the pace of the piece and the acting isn’t too bad.’

‘I like the pan of the dead body, it works really well on the circular seat, I also really like the shot of the male character in the distance, the variety of shots are all really well thought out and technically displayed.’

The feedback we recieved was very encouraging, we are proud of our product at this stage. We also recieved some of constuctive criticism which we will use when deciding on parts to add or change.

Rough Cut

This is our rough cut, it is what we have created up until this point. We are confident in our rough cut and are happy with what we have made, but we feel we can make further improvements. Therefore we are going to post this onto Facebook in order to receive feedback, with this feedback we will then re-evaluate our product and see what changes we could make to improve it.

Individual Progress Evaluation

At this stage of our production I feel that individually i have made good progress, mostly in terms of my editorial skills. At the beginning of the project i had little experience with editing, but after alot of use on the Mac I feel that my editing has improved greatly. I have learnt alot of new editing skills by using Premier Pro, and I have become somewhat of a perfectionist in terms of keeping the sequence running smoothly. I am happy with my improvements and I feel i can benefit for the group alot more with my new skills, my group members have each improved aswell so it is very beneficial for our product. I am confident with my ability at this stage and over the course of the production I imagine that my skills will become more enhanced.

Filming Session 01/03

While editing our footage, we noticed that some parts of the recently filmed death scene weren't at the standard quality and didn't run smoothly so therefore we went out and re-shot some parts. The main shot we focused on was the P.O.V shot from the antagonist as he stalks his victim, the previous shot wasn't steady and as this is an important shot we wanted to get it right.

The next shot we wanted to re-shoot was the LA mid-shot of the victim as the antagonist rises from behind him to attack him, we felt that this sort of shot would be effective as it makes the antagonist look menacing and powerful. We had some difficulty getting this shot as we had to make sure that the camera was straight and at the perfect angle, we filmed this shot a number of times until we felt happy that we had got it right.

Filming Session 15/02

In this session we attempted to shoot the first death scene, n this scene the antagonist lurks along a building and spots his victim, he then creeps up from hehind and attacks him. We managed to get some good footage which included a variety of shots such as long shots and mid shots, but we were rather unorganised and we spent alot of time trying to find the right angles to shoot from. This caused us to lose time and we could not finish our filming of this sequence, therefore the next time we film we will be more organised and plan the shots we want before-hand. During this filming session we focused hard on not breaking the 180 degree rule, we also tried to keep the tripod still and at the right level, these are past mistakes we have made and learnt from.

Editing Session 14/02

Our first editing session was somewhat of a success, we managed to edit together the first 40 seconds of 2 minute thriller opening. We believe that we have put it together well and it all runs smoothly, the cut transitions are good and the first bit of editing we have done has good fluidity. We had alot of material to work with which is good as it gave us the chance to choose from a number of shots to decide which ones looked best together, we are confident with what we have done in this session and we can build on this from here onwards. We have also put the title sequence together which was the main aim of this session.

During this session we came to a conclusion that we were going to change a section of our plotline. In the animatic our thriller began with location shots to reveal the setting and then fade to a flashback, however after re-evaluating our footage we have changed the order of our shots and our thriller is now going to begin with a flashback.

Filming Session 07/02

In our second filming session we were alot more wary of time, we were alot quicker getting the setting and props ready so we had a good amount of time to spend on the filming. With the last filming session we spent alot of time trying to decide on the correct sort of lighting, so this time we knew which position and placement to put the lamp to create the lighting which we wanted. We managed to completely re-shoot the scene of which we previously tried, adding new shots such as close-ups and mid-shots which we felt could make the final product more dimensional. We managed to get this sequece filmed in enough time to begin filming another part of the thriller, which was the introduction of our antagonist. We used a number of shots in this next part such as close-ups, mid-shots, long-shots and P.O.V shots, this meant we will have alot of filming to edit when we begin our editing session. Over the course of this filming session we managed to film alot of good material, and we will have alot to work with when we begin editing.

Filming Session 31/01

In our first filming session we attempted to film the opening scene of our thriller, this is the part where the setting is introduced as a corrider and staircase. We used a good location but as the room was very dark it made the camera blurry and unclear, therefore we spent alot of time finding lamps and setting them up correctly for the right amount of light we wanted. Once we eventually found the right lighting, we began filming but were unsure of the shot angles we were using. We couldn't get the right sort of shot we planned in order to reveal the setting, so we tried a number of other shots which we weren't too confident about. We soon ran out of time with this session, so we decided that we will re-shoot this part of the sequence in future filming sessions. Next time we attempt to film this part we will be more wary on the time we spend on lighting.

Evaluation of Animatic

After evaluating my animatic, I came the conclusion that the idea is good but the plotline is too basic. Therefore we are going to continue thinking of ideas to add to our thriller until we are happy with the amount of action we have planned, so by the time we start filming we will have an clear and organised list of shots to film. The drawings we used in our animatic are simple and present the plotline well, and the non-diegetic music is effective and gives us an understanding of how the final piece would appeal with the sound included.

Overall I felt our animatic is fairly good and will be a good platform to build on as we progress to our final ideas for our thriller intro. We will definately make some changes and adds new parts to it, but the we were given the task to make a 2 minute animatic and we have reached that goal. The drawings show clarity and are evident as to the genre of our film, so they worked well. I believe the non-diegetic music is very effective as it doesn't match with the action, which creates a spooky effect, also the daunting laugh heard as the antagonist appears is thrilling. Furthermore I believe that after we elaborate on this plotline, we will have a good plan to work with, I am confident with our production at this stage.

Thriller Opening Animatic

This is our animatic, we have created this based on our initial ideas. It will give us a good understanding of how our filmed thriller opening will appear and if it looks good, also if the non-diagetic music works well with the action.

Target Audience Feedback

1. Is the storyboard typical of the thriller/horror genre?
    Yes = 9          No = 1

Question 1's results are useful to us as it shows that almost all of our audience identify this as a thriller film.

2. Would this film appeal to you?
    Yes = 7          No = 3

Question 2's results are also positive as the majority of the audience would be interested in watching our thriller based on the storyboard, the latter may not be specific fans of the thriller genre so this is not so much of a problem.

3. Do you think a rating of 15+ is suitable?
    Yes = 5          No = 5

Question 3's results is 50/50 which will be important in the next stage of our development as we are presented the obstacle of re-evaluating our storyboard and suggest changing the age rating, or even changing certain aspects to make it more appropriate for a 15+ rating.

4. Do you think the idea of flashbacks would work well with this genre?
    Yes = 7          No = 3

Question 4's results show that 70% of our audience believe that the flashbacks work well in this genre, this is good as it gives us confidence when including them.

5. Do you think the storyboard is long enough?
    Yes = 2         No = 8

Question 5's results is constructive as it shows how the majority of our audience believe that the storyboard is not long enough, therefore we will gather our ideas and add more to our plotline.

Target Audience Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire we have created and will hand it out to people of our target audience to answer after viewing our storyboard:

1. Is the storyboard typical of the thriller/horror genre?
    Yes          No

2. Would this film appeal to you?
    Yes          No

3. Do you think a rating of 15+ is suitable?
    Yes          No

4. What do you think the idea of flashbacks would work well with this genre?
    Yes          No

5. Do you think the storyboard is long enough?
    Yes          No

Actor Photographs

These are the actors we will be using to film our thriller, we have also decided to change using a doll as our antagonist and instead use an actor. This is because we feel it will be much easier to create the right sort of atmosphere for our thriller and will also give us more flexibilty with our shots.

Planning: Preparation and Shooting Schedule

Actor Photographing: 7th November

Audience Feedback: 7th November

Music Researched: 30th November

Fonts Researched: 10th December

Start Animatic: 6th December

Finished Storyboard: 7th December

Start Filming: 13th December

Non-Diagetic music

This is an example of the sort of non-diagetic music we want for our thriller, we believe that this will be effecting in terms of making our thriller seem spooky as it's oxymoronic to the action.

Planning: Location Shots

This is where we initially planned to shoot our thriller intro, we decided it would be a good location as we could use the staircase to our advantage. We were going to shoot the intro in darkness with some low power lamps to create an eery, spooky atmosphere.




















This is a view from the bottom of the staircase, where the doll would be sitting on a chair. On these stairs would be dead bodies.























 Here is another shot of the staircase, this time from the top where the camera would track down. This angle shows how with the right lighting effect, we could of created an effectively eery atmosphere.























Here is a shot of the bottom of the staircase where the doll would be sitting, this area would be completely dark with a light shining up at the doll from the floor to make the doll look scary.























Here is another shot of where the doll in the chair would be situated.

Planning: Initial Storyboard

Before we started filming, my group drew up a storyboard of our rough idea, which would include camera use and transition of shots. This is our initial ideafor our thriller intro, since this we have changed the plot of our intro drastically. After evaluating this plot, I believe that we were right to chop it up and change it alot as we needed to include more shots and editing to add new dimensions to our thriller intro.

Planning: Shot List

Corridor/stairs

LS: Of the corridor, to show opening setting.

Zoom: To the door of the room where the next part of the scene occurs.

LS: Down staircase to establish current setting of scene.
                             
High Angle: looking down the staircase and into the darkness, creates an eery atmosphere.


Tracking: Camera tracks down staircase.


CU: Of dead bodies on staircase.
                                                                
Doll sat on chair at bottom of stairs
 
Tracking: Camera tracks towards foot of doll's chair
                                                 
Tilt: Camera tilts up doll until it reaches face.

CU: Of doll's face which is covered in blood, this creates shock/horror.

Planning: Brainstorm

We brainstormed ideas for our thriller intro.

Genre: Thriller/Horror
Audience: 15

Mis-en-scene: Darkness, dead bodies, staircase, blood, disturbing scenery, doll sitting in chair and bottom of stairs, blood on doll's face.

Camera: LS down corrider, zoom to door, LS from high angle down staircase to reveal setting, trachking down the stairs over dead bodies, tilt at bottom of stairs up to doll sitting on chair, CU of doll's face.

Sound: non-diegetic baby music while the scene begins, as the scene has disturbing features such as dead bodies, the oxymoronic baby music will create an eery setting. Then as the doll raises it's head and looks at the camera, the non-diegetic music will fade out as diegetic laughter will be heard, which will the echo as the screen darkens.

Editing: smooth, consistant editing so the piece runs well. Jump cuts as the scene shows a change of location from the corridor to the staircase. Various editing sequences as the camera pans over the dead bodies.

Continuity Editing Task Evaluation

I believe that our film showed a good range of technical skills and we showed that we understood the task and were highly capable of following the guidelines. We included all the skills asked to present such as steady shots, accurate framing of shots, editing with clarity and continuity. We presented all of the key skills aswell such as a 'shot-reverse-shot', not breaking the '180 degree rule' and including a “two shot”.


We gave our continuity task a 43, which is a high level 3. We decided to give it this grade as we feel it has a well-presented range of skills and we accurately followed the guidelines of the task. If we were to do it again in order to gain a higher grade, we would try and get it all filmed in the one day. This is because we filmed it on two different days and some of the setting isn't the same which effectivaly meant some minor continuity errors.

Continuity Editing Task

Marking Classmate's Work

In groups, we watched other classmate's work and marked them depending on their use of skills and technical ability.

Group 1- Alexandra, Demi, Stephanie and Sareena

We gave this group a high Level 3, Mark 42 as we felt they showed good skills with their work.  They used a variety of shots, their plot was simple but followed the point of the task given and the camera work was good with some steady shots. The sound was suitable and the dialogue was simple and understandable. To improve, we believed that they could have faded the non-diagetic into the diagetic better and clearer. Overall it was a well-filmed piece and was suitable for the task in hand.

Group 2- Heather, Laura, Brogan and Sam

We gave this group a level 3, Mark 38, we felt that the plot was relavant and they used a decent range of shots but the editing wasn't particularly fluid.Their was some steady shots and the variety of shots were good, but the editing wasn't great and the cuts do not run smoothly in some places. Also the non-diagetic music dissapears before the end of the film which also shows the film to have less fluidity. To improve, we believe that this group could have improved the smoothness of the editing.

Group 3- Jessica, Luke, Hannah and Serena

We gave this group a Level 2, Mark 32, we felt that this group showed a basic set of skills but did not show any particular advanced skills at any point in the piece. The dialogue was too quiet and was hard to interpret, also the editing wasn't very good and showed no clarity. To improve their grade, this group could have made the no-diagetic sound more effective and increased the volume of their dialogue.

Continuity Editing Task Storyboard

We were given the challenge to storyboard and film a continuity editing task, it had to last aproximately 60 seconds and we had to use different skills to include certain features.

The basic and key skills we had to include:

Basic skills:
Holding a steady shot.
Framing a shot accurately.
Editing with clarity and continuity.

Key Skills:
Including a “shot-reverse-shot.”
Not breaking the “180 degree rule.”
Including a correctly framed “two shot.”

Before filming, we gathered our ideas and then created a storyboard.
This is our Storyboard of our continuity Task:

The Script for our continuity Task:

Person A- "Hi Mr Thumblequeef, you wanted to see me?"

Person B- “Yes, take a seat Mr. Merryfiddler.

Person A- "Is everything ok?"

Person B- "Another worker told me you have been vandalising the toilets. Is this true?"

Person A- "Errm, Well..."

Person B- "You’re Fired!"

Person A- "You’re an arsehole!"

Person B- "I know Mr Merryfiddler, I know."

Thriller Genre Conventions

What are the conventions of the Thriller Genre?

One convention of the thriller genre is the excitement. Thriller movies entice the audience and aims to keep them excited and 'on the edge of their seats'. Thriller films often feature fast paced scenes where the audience are made to gain a building anxciety and which keeps them thrilled.

Another convention of the thriller genre is a villain or an evil character with bad intentions. Many thriller movies follow this convention because the use of a villian creates excitement for the audience, this is because of the rivalry created between good and bad. This is because the audience grow a sort of 'relationship' with the protagonist and feel anxcious when the villain sets out to attack the their character.

A third convention of the thriller genre is the triumph of the protagonist. Thriller movies follow this convention because a lot of the film's content will feature the villain setting out to attack the protagonist, which makes the audience feel anxcious. So when the protagonist eventually triumphs at the end of the movie, the audience gain a sense of relief.

Analysis of Three Film Trailers

Analysing Three Film Trailers

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Editing: Alot of fading is used in the trailer to introduce the setting. Then slow cuts are used to show the characters, then the pace of the editing is increased to show the growing intensity of the action.

Sound: The trailer begins with slow paced non-diagetic music until Voldemort is seen, then Voldemort is heard saying “Harry Potter, the boy who lives, come to die.” Then after he casts a spell the non-diagetic music suddenly grows in pace and volume. Then for the duration of the trailer, the frantic music continues with some dialogue intervals. At the end of the trailer, the music changes to the trademark Harry Potter theme music as the trailer finishes.

Spiderman 3

Editing: At the beginning of the trailer a sequence of editing is used,  firstly there is use of fading, then there is a series of panning and tracking. Then lots of fast paced cuts are used to show character expression, then the pace of the cuts decreases as dialogue is shown. Then for the duration of the trailer fast and slow paced cuts are used, some fading is also used later on in the trailer.

Sound: While the characters and setting are being introduced, non-diagetic music is played which starts quiet but grows in pace and volume. Then the non-diagetic music stops and diagetic dialogue is heard, then the music plays again. For the rest of the trailer, the music grows in intensity while parts of dialogue are heard in between, then at the end of the trailer the music builds up into a crescendo as the trailer ends.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Editing: The trailer begins with a panning shot of the shire, then a sequence of fading is used to introduce the setting. A zooming shot is then used when the ring is shown, this is to highlight the importance of the ring. A sequence of slow paced cuts are used to introduce characters and setting, the pace of the cuts grow and lots of fading is also used.

Sound: Throughout most of the trailer, the character Gandalf is heard narrating. As the non-diagetic narration stops, diagetic dialogue between the characters is then heard. The dialogue is present throughout the trailer, with non-diagetic music playing which grows in intensity. The music suddenly stops as Gandalf is heard shouting “You Shall Not Pass!” this brings an end to the trailer.

What Is Genre?

A set of conventions thta are recognisable, usually through iconography, familiar narrative, mise-en-scene, actors, and style of representation.

Genres are not static but constantly renegotiated between industry and audience - a combination of familiar reassurance and new twists.

A creative strategy used by film producers to ensure audience identification with a film - a means of trying to predict risk.

Genre is a way of working through important myths and fears of repetition, variation and resolution.

Genre offers comforting reassurance in an uncomfortable world. Threat is quashed, outlaws become civilized, gangsters are punished. Genre is a way of tidying up the mess of life.

Genre functions like a language - a set of rules and vocabulary with which to ornagise meaning.

Wired's iPad Lauch

On the 27^th May 2010, Wired magazine launched their app on the iPad. It was largely consumed and quick to be labelled as the beginning of a new era in publishing. In the first 24 hours it was downloaded an average of 17 times a minute, netting 24,000+ paid subscriptions. Over the next few days it was named “App of the Week”, which made it the first media brand to achieve this nomination. It remained at the top of the paid apps chart for five consecutive days. After three weeks since the release, the app had sold 90,000+ copies – which exceeded the average monthly newsstand sales of the print edition.

Why was it so successful?

·        One reason why the launch was so successful was due to the minimal amount of magazine apps available on the iPad during the time of Wired’s launch. Therefore when the app was launched, many consumers were eager to download it.

·        The digital edition of Wired is cheaper than the print edition.

·        The app uses new and advanced publishing technology, which attracts consumers.

·        Interesting exclusive features.

The Word Magazine

The Word Magazine is a monthly music magazine which is published in The United Kingdom. It has been voted 'Music Magazine of the year' twice, once in 2007 and again in 2008. It was first published in 2003 by Development Hell Ltd, the editor of the magazine is Mark Ellen.

Content

The magazine is divided into two sections. The first features photographs and interviews, while the second section focuses on reviews of CDs, DVDs, books and films.

Exclusive regular features in The Word Magazine are:

• 'Diary' - The editor Mark Ellen talks about current events.
• 'Face Time' - This is an interview section.
• 'Word of Mouth' - People's interests.
• 'Departure Lounge' - Obituaries & stories.
• 'Word of the Wise' - An individual interview.
• 'Inbox' - Letters to the editor.
• 'The Last Word' - Reviews section.

Each issue comes with a free feature CD called 'Now Hear This', which showcases 15 songs from forthcoming music releases.


Information

First Publish: February 2003

Publisher: Development Hell Ltd

Editor: Mark Ellen

Region: United Kingdom

Genre: Music

Target Audience: Male & Female, 30+

Publishing pattern: Weekly

Price: £4:50

 The Word Weekly

The magazine also has a weekly online podcast which has gained a large number of followers and is fronted by editor; Mark Ellen and one of the publishers; David Hepworth. The object of the podcast is to keep the followers informed and entertained, it features contributions from other members of The Word Magazine.