Hello Film Crew – I hope that you all are doing well. I wanted to provide a few updates and reminders for each of you heading into the week ahead.
Reminder: As you write your film evaluations/reviews, I encourage you to check out the guidelines and expectations each time; they will vary.
I have graded your first reviews and provided detailed feedback to everyone via the grade center or by email. If you need more clarification, please reach out. I am also offering options for improving those earned grades if you’re interested. Just reach out if you are. There were several of you who did not complete this assignment; that is reflecting on your grades. You are also missing out on my feedback, which will ultimately help you in your semester project and future evaluations.
One thing most of you need to work on is providing a cleaner/tighter film summary. Please refer to the Chapter 1 lesson on “Writing a more concise story summary.” This should really be helpful for this component of writing assignment. You should also work in each review to defend your thoughts with film examples. If you do not provide a defense of your general thoughts, your grade will be impacted.
The Week Ahead: Music & Sound in Cinema
Your dialogue/response post for this week will be due March 8. Included in those lessons is Blind Film Critic Jay Forry, The use of sound, music and silence, as well as interviews with multiple film composers (including Oscar winners) at the bottom of the response page, and an exploration of “The Musical.” I believe that you may discover some surprises about what may be designated as “a musical.”
Your next film review is due on Monday, March 11. There is a different option for submitting this review to me this week & there is a large list of films to explore. The expectations and guidelines are located in Ch. 4 – “Writing Assignment: The Sights and Sounds of Cinema.” PLEASE check these out. For this review, you should truly dive into the elements of cinematography, color theory, sound design & score. Chapters 3 & 4 provides details to guide you through this. This will be a major part of the grade for this assignment.
Semester Project update: If you look at our schedule, by March 7, you should have viewed your semester project film, and started making research and critique notes. Many of you have provided your research sources, and I’ve provided feedback (and additional options as well). If you have not sent me your sources to evaluate, you are behind. Your sources should be approved by me before you use them for your semester project.
As always, please let me know if you have questions, comments or ideas.
Until next time, that’s a wrap.
Noel T. Manning II
The Film Critic 