Pop Culture: Digging Deeper Into Film Criticism

We'll start class by developing criteria for our teaser trailers and film festival programming.  We'll divide into groups of folks who are most interested in creating each one.   From there, based on the research you've done and experience you've had, you'll determine the criteria by which your product should be assessed.  I will turn this criteria into a rubric for Thursday.  Products will be due at the end of next week.

From there we will examine several clips from critically acclaimed and culturally relevant films.  Our goal is to identify the qualities that make up a quality film and also to get a better sense of the techniques filmmakers and actors use to engage the audience -- as well develop meaning and intention.

Here are the clips we'll be working with though not necessarily in this order.



HOMEWORK.
Blog: 3+ Posts
Req'd Post:  Film Review.

A.  Read through the four reviews of the first Hunger Games films linked here.
Roger Ebert here
Lisa Schwarzbaum here
Peter Travers here
IMDB.com User emptygravity here

B.  Choose a film you feel worthy of your time to write about.  It may be because you want to tear it apart and it may be because you want to sing its praises.  It may be a little bit of both.

C.  Write a 2-3 paragraph film review in which you attempt to copy the style of one the above reviewers by using the same techniques in your own review.

You might consider which of the above reviewers use the following:
References to other films in which the actors have appeared
References to other films the director has made
References to the source material for the film (in this case, a novel)
Summary of the plot
Spoilers and/or spoiler warnings
Spoiler-free discussion
Vivid and descriptive language
Casual and general langugage
Use of 1st Person "I"
Some form of review coding system: numbers, stars, thumbs, etc.

D.  In a final paragraph, explain which reviewer's style you were trying to adopt for your review.  To what extent has this influenced how you watch films?

DUE: Friday, November 7

DESIGN: Film Festival or Teaser Trailer
DUE: Friday, November 14