Ancillary Task Deconstructions 2

TV listngs magazines double page spreads

 

 

1. The Road to Rio

 

This double page spread featured in a TV listings magazine is promoting “Road to Rio”, a documentary focusing on TV personalities Mark Watson and Henning when taking a trip across South America and investigating the continent’s footballing heritage. The layout of this double page spread consists heavily of images with a main body of text on the left hand side of the page and text boxes describing the images. The article uses emboldened font to put emphasis on the word Brazil and the names of both the presenters. It is clear that this has been done to catch the attention of the reader allowing them to read the most important information before reading the entire article. The images as well as the yellow font and image of South America in the background makes this article radiant with colour; this may be in reference to the “colourful” continent of South America. The article also uses red boxes and titles as this is the house style of the TV listings magazine.

Each image is also in reference to a country visited in the documentary, giving the audience a greater insight into what in included and why they should watch it. The rather understated white and black text included in the main article and supporting image paragraphs makes the images and colours stand out even more within the article, ensuring readers stop to read the article. The main strapline “Footie-mad comedians Mark Watson and Henning Wehn take a road trip across South America" hints as to the football theme within the documentary but doesn’t give much away in terms of the content of the documentary. This football theme is continued with an image of the world cup accompanying the strapline with other small images of footballers accompanying the main images of each country based paragraph.

2. The Vampire Diaries

 

This double page spread from a TV listings magazine focuses on the release of a new fantasy drama “The Vampire Diaries” on ITV2. The background and colour scheme of the double page spread, although being dark shades of colour, is extremely eye catching much like the previous deconstructed spread. This use of colour is due to the highly image focused spread with a background image including the three main characters, a small image of a scene from the show and a separate image of five of the main characters. The additional red, yellow and white colour scheme used for text and text boxes is the house style of the magazine but it also contrasts well with the dull tones of the background Image.

The main strap line “blood brothers” is in large font with “blood” being emboldened. This strapline directly links with the featured image and alludes to the plot of the show whilst being clearly the most visible from the rest of the text due to its size. The text below this in the house style white font “Two vampire siblings compete for a beautiful young woman in a new supernatural romance” sums up the plot perfectly in one line giving the reader all the information needed to accompany the main centre image. “New supernatural romance” is also in emboldened font as it clearly outlines the genre of the show to the reader.

This double page spread although not for documentary still follows many of the conventions of a documentary double page spread in a TV listings magazine. In comparison with the “Road to Rio” double page spread both articles are heavily imaged based, this is because they both intend to convey the plot or themes of these new TV shows. Both articles also focus on the fact that the shows are new with the inclusion of “This week on TV” in the top left corner of both. The imaged based articles also both use stand out colours and emboldened font to spark the interest of the reader.

3. One Born Every Minute

 

This final double page spread is for the documentary series “One Born Every Minute” on Channel 4. The layout of this double page spread is clearly a more conventional magazine layout with one main image filling the left hand side of the spread and a main body of text on the right hand side. The colour scheme of the text is less stand out in comparison to the previous double page spreads with it being black and white. The only colour comes from the single main image. This double page spread also makes use of the conventional drop caps unlike the previous two deconstructions as well as the inclusion of a quotation from a subject of the documentary. The title and essential information such as the channel and time the documentary will be aired is featured in the same size and font as the main body of text, meaning that it doesn’t stand out against the rest of the text as the essential information in the previous two deconstructions did.

 The main image is accompanied by the main strapline in emboldened font “special delivery”. This strapline again like the previous double page spreads serves to convey the themes of the show and add depth to the purpose of the chosen main image. Another similarity to the previous deconstructed spreads is the use of the text below the main strapline, “Meet Kim and Maria, the professional, caring and opinionated midwives at Southampton’s Princess Anne Maternity Hospital.” A sentence such as this has been used in all three double page spreads to give additional information to the reader and set the scene for the show. The use of the phrase “opinionated midwives” also gives the impression that there may be added drama provided by the midwives who are the main focus of the documentary series.   

In conclusion after deconstructing three double page spreads from TV listings magazines I have understood the conventions and techniques used and needed to create a successful TV listings magazine double page spread. All three of the deconstructed spreads feature a strong main image that is relevant to the documentary providing a visual aid to accompany the main bodies of text. Both “Road to Rio” and “The Vampire Diaries” also featured smaller images that gave additional information about the themes of the TV show or the characters and subjects involved. I will feature both of these image styles in my double page spread. Having an eye-catching colour scheme with text also stands out as important as the “One Born Every Minute” double page spread with black and white colour scheme stands out less and it is more difficult to identify the essential information. Finally including a bold strapline that is relevant to the themes of the show brings the double page spread together giving the audience an insight into the article before they read the main body of text.