A film review is the opinion of a film analyst stating their opinion on the film and giving an analysis and evaluation of the film.
Dictionary Definition: Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other popular mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and published in academic journals.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/film+review
What does a Film Review aim to do?
A film review aims to set an opinion across to the reader about all aspects of the film, both technical and story line. It also offers the reader the opinion on whether the film is worth watching or not.
Where are you most likely to see a Film Review?
Film reviews can be found anywhere on the internet, most film websites such as IMDb offer links to film reviews and have their own personal film reviews. There are also other websites set up just to offer film reviews, such as Rotten Tomato. You can also purchase magazines that act just as a film based magazine, such as Cineworld. Many newspapers offer the opportunity for film review; however these are mainly available online instead of hard copy.
What should you look for when writing a Film Review?
1. Watch the film
2. Evaluate the movie (your opinion and theoretically)
3. Who is your audience? (What would they want to know?)
4. Give an outline
5. Actors
6. Structure
7. Cinematography and lighting
8. Music
9. Read up on the film in as much detail as you can
Characteristics of a Film Review
· Short to medium length
· Often writing by only one person
· Tagline of the film
· Information on the film
· Rhetorical questions
· Play on words
· Quotes from the film
· Pictures of shots from the film
· Critical opinion
What is the layout of a Film Review?
1. Title of the film, Tagline and Image of shot.
2. Opening sentences, setting the tone for the review (nothing more than two sentences).
3. Opening Paragraphs, this has to be eye catching and attention grabbing. The reader has to be into continuing to read the article. This will usually be controversial and witty, creating an interesting and possibly mocking tone to the article (nothing more than 2 paragraphs).
4. Body of the Review, this will contain a series of paragraphs continuing on from the tone of the first paragraph. The paragraphs will be around 60 words in length, each focusing on a different subject, e.g. editing. The article will end with a summary of the overall opinion and will around 600 words.
Introduction: This is would include an imaginative title which usually includes a play on words. The title will give a brief overview of the direction of the article, for example whether it’s going to be negative or positive.
Opening Paragraph: this is in place to give a brief overview of the film, as reviews are mainly for people who have not seen the film yet. They don’t give too much away, and include the overall opinion of the film. This paragraph is in place to ensure the reader wants to read on.
Paragraph 2: this is entirely based on the writer’s opinion; the questions answered in this paragraph tend to be whether it was thought provoking and whether it left any lasting images and ideas.
Paragraph 3: continues with the writer’s opinion. This paragraph will contain both positive and negative comments on the film and the making of the film and why and how they believe it could be improved. This paragraph will be extremely descriptive and will contain opinions on the story, settings, visual effects, and the music. They will also continue to use direct references to back up their points.
Paragraph 5 and possibly 6: these will include the negatives of the film and anything they thought was a mistake to include or any equipment they believed could have been used instead. This may be up to paragraph 6 depending on how much the reviewer has to write about the negatives of the film. They will also have to back up their points with both an explanation and a reference to the film.
Paragraph 6/7: this will be the conclusion to the article. This will sum what they have said within the extract and will give an overall opinion of the film and depending on the writer a possible rating. They will also have the opportunity in this paragraph to answer whether they thought the film was worth watching.
Film Details
Details of the film will also be included with the review, for example they will have a brief overview of the film at the side of the page. This will include an image of a shot from the film or the DVD cover or poster, the release date, certificate, genre, staring and director.
It is important to remember that there is no definite way of writing short films; however the way is merely guided by what most people whom are interested, are looking for
The most common Magazines that contain film reviews are:
· Empire
· Slant
· Total Film and many more
However it is important to note that we are not looking to write an article for a feature length film, this is due to our target audience being much smaller. Therefore out review won’t cover a two page spread or appear in well-known magazines, so I did some research into a company who have a website mainly focused around independent short films.
Gorilla Film Magazine:
This is a magazine that focuses mainly on the world of independent films or those with low or no budget. This is because those film makers do not get any recognition and having the website allows for them to become recognised amongst the industry. The website does opinion and theoretical reviews and gives a link to the actual video. If our video was to be put in a magazine or website, we believe that our video would be put on this website: this is because we did our short film on no budget at all. In fact we hope to send our short film to them and ask them to write and review and out it on their website for others to view.
This is an article from the website about a short film that is very similar in genre, therefore the layout and things that the website comment in will be very similar to what we will put about our film, e.g. the editing, special effects.
Throughout feature length film reviews and short film reviews, the same things are still commented on. The layout of the actual review and the length of review, this is because we are on a smaller budget and we do not have as much length to focus and comment on. Feature length films of our genre have a bigger budget and therefore can use better and bigger special effects that will ultimately make their film look and perform a lot better than out short film; this is because we have no budget and are only able to use the equipment and areas that are available to us and sometimes those facilities aren't the best.