Magazine Film Review Purposes

Magazine film reviews are curtail to the film industry when it comes to trying to attract audiences to come and choose to view the film, especially for short film as audiences must go out of their way to view them usually through various internet sites or film festivals etc. Therefore, production companies rely hugely on film reviews in special film magazines such as "Total Film" magazine or " Sight and Sound" magazine. Film reviews are relied on majorly by production companies, if not more than film posters themselves for various reasons.

Film reviews in magazines are used for many purposes one of those being to target film audiences. Audiences use film reviews to find out more detailed (if written correctly and depending on the film magazine) information about the film they wish to see as it focuses more on narrative and the synopsis. However, different audiences choose film magazines which suit their needs and desires therefore a review's style is varied between the magazines such as "Sight and Sound" magazine gives an extremely detailed synopsis; where as not all audiences wish to know every single detail about a film but want a more condensed synopsis so that it was worth for them to go and view the film.

Also, magazine film reviews are used by audiences to view a 3rd person opinion or recommendation: due to the fact that the reporter or journalist who reviews the films is not usually linked into the specific film's production company means that the review should be unbiased and will give a professional and academic opinion. However, this can depend on the type of film magazine as seen with the "PreVue" magazine the review had no critical information what-so-ever meaning it was overly positive for a review on a film, yet this can be possible if there is a phenomenal nation wide recognised success.

Audiences understand that film posters are biased due to the fact that they are created by the production company of the specific film meaning it would obviously be completely positive in order to market the film in a way to make it look attractive to the audiences e.g. even if a film company understand the film is not fantastic they would still put forward the biased idea that it should be a success such as for the movie "Cat Woman". Therefore, audiences may look at film posters for basic information on the film: the title, tag line, the actors etc but will use magazine film reviews to make a final decision normally as they want editorial opinions and see what the professionals thought of the film. It helps them see a well rounded opinion on the film both with honest positive points as well as criticisms though what must be kept in mind is that not all film magazines do this: there are magazines who either do not want to add criticisms as they want to promote the film itself, or due to the fact that most film magazines rely on advertising from production companies for their profit therefore if they continuously write negative reviews about a certain production company they may pull out or try "buy" good reviews in exchange for either profit or interviews with mainstream actors etc.

As audiences rely quite majorly on magazine film reviews to choose whether they want to view a particular film: be it mainstream or short film, film production companies see the reviews as important to the film's marketing campaign as if they only had a film poster audiences may get some kind of interest of the film but there isn't a certainty they will get audiences spending money or sharing their film. However, there is a risk factor in this: a film company does not guarantee a great review from a film magazine therefore there is always an element of risk that a certain film will get a bad review, putting off audiences rather than bringing them in. This is because most (must remember not all) film magazines have honest opinions on films therefore there will be criticisms where found to show a balanced review.