Storytelling

This blog post will discuss one of the processes that I have undertaken for my film review, in this case it is "Storytelling". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the noun "storytelling" is defined as "The action or activity of telling stories, or a particular story; an instance of this." (2015). 

There is much more to storytelling than this simple definition as there are many processes that precede telling the story. One such process is the creation of a story, which can be either fictional or a recount of real-life events. Both need creativity when creating them as, for fictional stories, you need to base your story from various things the creator has seen, and for real-life events the storyteller needs to find the right words to tell the story. Then there is the method of telling the story, which can range from direct accounts from other people from simply talking with a storyteller or listening from electronic sources such as radios, television, and films, or even written works such as novels, comics, and magazines.

Present in most stories are three main features; a setting, characters, and a plot (McADAMS, 1993, cited by CHAITIN, 2003). A setting is the location of where the story takes place, and without the setting the reader will be unable to visualise what the story should look like and may need locational context for what happens in the story. The second thing a story needs are is a character or more, which helps the audience to focus on someone and to act as a focus point for the storyteller. Thirdly and most importantly a story needs a plot, which is a reason for the existence of a story that can be told in many different ways.

Storytelling is important in my project because I am telling part of the film's own story to the reader to help them understand the context of what I am discussing in the film. A film have these three basic features present in it, and to a degree, my own review. My review partly recounts the plot of the movie as it discusses the characters in the setting of both a real-life and rom-com New York. Storytelling is a widespread art, an art that can be found everywhere, some people may gloss over them, and some take the time to listen and appreciate what is being told to them.

References

CHAITIN, J. (2003) Narratives and Story-telling. [Online] Beyond Intractability. Available from: https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/narratives [Accessed 26/05/20]

OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (2015) Storytelling, n. [Online] Oxford English Dictionary. Available from: http://www.oed.com [Accessed 26/05/20].

Draft Feedback

Recently I have sent a draft of my film review of "Isn't it Romantic?" to my teacher Miss Zoe for feedback. Instead of a written feedback she chose to speak to me via Blackboard Collaborate. She had some problems with my review that I sent in that she wanted to discuss with me about personally.

Miss Zoe did not find a clear argument in the review; the thing I'm talking about to get the reader interested into the movie.

In my original draft, the structure was comparing the set design and characters as I summarized the first act of the film, but after a second viewing it did not look very good when there are an assortment of analysis scattered across the paragraphs. I tried to cram talking about the world design and characters together, but it ended up as a mess. This was the result of trying to imitate Owen Gleiberman's work, but I then realized after getting feedback that I had to make this work an original piece, a piece that is written with my own words.

I deleted the entire main body paragraphs and conclusions to start over, but kept and modified most of the introduction as it has a synopsis that explains the film in short. I decided that I should cover the characters in the film, both their "real-life" versions and the rom-com versions that are seen mainly on screen. For this, I consulted a book about writing titled "A Short Guide to Writing About Film" written by Timothy Corrigan (2014). I looked up how to write about the characters in the film, which I discussed in a  previous post about my further research. Instead of trying to cover multiple elements to the movie, I am focusing solely on the characters, how they are different to their respective counterparts, and what role they play in the film.

The book discusses the process of analyzing a character, notably deducing whether or not a character is supposed to be seen as realistic or not. This was noted as the characters are both realistic and non-realistic, so I can look at their characters from both angles in my review. The way that a character can be analysed is through their appearance, their behavior, how they speak, and how they fit among their setting. This way of thinking will help me to break down the characters of the film and write about them in my review.

One of the pieces of feedback that I received is that I did not add a reference list to the end of the review. Despite film reviews being informal pieces, I was advised to create a reference list at the end to support whatever points or quotations that were presented in the review. To start off, I began by putting references to IMDb for the film itself as well as the actors' pages when I cite their previous well-known roles. I will also use in-text citations in the document, but I feel like the references should be removed when I transfer them to a flipbook to present on my Wix website.

My first draft can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1heb-tKrcswnOk62ffAfLBzEACQVN23ic/view?usp=sharing

References

CORRIGAN, T. (2014) A Short Guide to Writing About Film. 9^th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Further Project Research

(1) Isn't it Romantic Poster

This blog post will outline the further research I have undertaken for my Major Project. I have looked at more film reviews of the film in question, "Isn't it Romantic?", research into the writer of a one of the film reviews that was initially research, and a guide into how to write a film.

The film review of "Isn't it Romantic" that I have looked into is written by Benjamin Lee and published by The Guardian, as with the film review of "First Man" that I initially researched (2019). The film review has a similar structure of writing to the "First Man" review as it outlines the likeable elements of the film rather than going through the plot like Owen Gleiberman's review of "Seven". I looked at this review to get a better understanding at how I should write my review by looking at how others have written theirs. It covers good and basic points such as the set design of both scenes in "real life" and in the rom-com world, the role of Natalie in this film being a normal person thrust into a rom-com setting, and Rebel Wilson's acting as her character. The film review also provides a glance into the film that is spoiler-free as it avoids going through the plot and instead has a short synopsis in the beginning.

This piece of research is to help to gain more insight into writing about the film, and how others have written it. It also gave me insight of how a film review should be formatted in terms of its design, with pictures to help support and decorate the article.

(2) Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman is the writer of the "Seven" film review and an inspiration for my first draft of my own film review. I looked at an article from 2014 written by Matt Seitz about Gleiberman's departure from Entertainment Weekly in the same year. Owen Gleiberman had been one of the first writers for Entertainment Weekly and was one of the more liked writers as well. Seitz described him writing as a "weekly critic rather than a daily critic: which is to say, he wrote like somebody had been told he didn't have to appeal to every person who ever walked, only people who really cared about his subject", which means that he writes as someone who likes the thing he's writing about. His structure was also discussed in the article, stating that he writes about the "style, the mood, the worldview" on top of characters and the plot of a film, which means he writes about the film's, as Seitz puts it; "essence" and writes in a way that makes the reader excited for the film.

His style of writing is seen to be very simple to understand, and he knows how to write so that his readers can be engaged into what he watched. His structure was the basis of my first draft, but I seemed to have tried to copy the structure too heavily that I failed to capture his style. I will take notes of how he broke down the individual elements, but I will try to use it in a style that is my own.

(3) A short guide to writing about film

I then looked for several e-books in the DMU library website about writing about film and criticism, one being "A Short Guide to Writing About Film" written by Timothy Corrigan, focusing on Chapter 3: Terms and Topics for Analyzing and Writing About Films because I wanted to focus on what things should be covered in a film review. I will discuss the "Character" section of the chapter as it describes how to analyse the character and their role in a film. One part that I looked at is that one should see if a character in a film is supposed to be "realistic" or a not, and how are they defined in the way they are presented by looking at their appearance, behavior, and their role in the film or media they appear in. Because my review will cover the comparisons of characters and their rom-com counterparts in my film review of "Isn't it Romantic?" this section is a useful tool to see the different features of characters and how they fit into the story.

This further research is much more insightful than my initial research and helped me to properly, especially the guide written by Corrigan.

References

CORRIGAN, T. (2014) A short guide to writing about film. 9th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education.

LEE, B. (2019) Isn't It Romantic review – romcom parody mostly hits its target. [Online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/12/isnt-it-romantic-review-romcom-parody-mostly-hits-its-target [Accessed 07/05/20].

SEITZ, M. (2014) For The Love Of It: Notes On The Decline Of Entertainment Weekly, The Firing Of Owen Gleiberman, And The Ongoing End Of An Era | MZS | Roger Ebert. [Online] Roger Ebert. Available from: https://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/for-the-love-of-it-notes-on-the-decline-of-entertainment-weekly-the-firing-of-owen-gleiberman-and-the-ongoing-end-of-an-era [Accessed 14/05/20].

Image References

(1) IMDb (2019) Isn’t It Romantic?. [Online] Internet Movie Database. Available from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452244/ [Accessed 22/05/20].

(2) Owen Gleiberman (n.d) Owen Gleiberman. [Online] Twitter. Available from: https://twitter.com/owengleiberman [Accessed 22/05/20].

(3) Pearson (n.d) A Short Guide to Writing About Film. [Online] Pearson Education. Available from: https://www.pearson-studium.de/short-guide-to-writing-about-film-global-edition.html [Accessed 22/05/20]

Online Tool Testing

This blog post will detail the online tool testing that I did as part of my Major Project.

One of the tools that I will be using is Lucidpress, which is an online program that can create all sorts of prints such as magazines, brochures, flyers, etc., and can even make them in a digital format. I used Lucidpress to create an online magazine article for my film review of "Isn't it Romantic?"

The above image is a test sample of an online magazine format that I used labelled "Afficionado" using a draft of my film review. When I started I had a hard time choosing what to use as many of the templates are available to premium users. I picked "Afficionado" because it looked more convenient that the other two available online magazine choices. The layout of the editing tools in Lucidpress was very extensive and reminded me of the advanced tools of Photoshop, but with text. Because of its extensiveness, I had a hard time understanding the basics and their placement on the drop-down menus.

Another snag that I caught while making this was that when I copied and pasted my review onto the text boxes, some words would stick together and I had to separate them. This can be resolved by simply searching for the stuck words. The experience creating this was alright and not as frustrating as using Photoshop for the first time.

The second tool I tested out is Yumpu, which is used to make PDFs into a flipbook format. I have tested this before two terms ago when I initially looked for flipbook apps, and I enjoyed how quick the process is.

I converted the test PDF of my review pages and successfully turned it into a flipbook.

Above is the review's 2nd and 3rd pages in the Yumpu flipbook. The format of Yumpu is much better then other free flipbook tools as it can display two pages at one time and there are no ads between pages. The tricky thing was that I did not know how to embed a Yumpu flipbook into my website, but I will try to do so for my review and my previous projects if successful.

How Do I Stay Creative?

How did I generate my idea/s for this project? Tell the story…
This project idea was chosen later than expected due to a misunderstanding, but I quickly decided from the few choices that I had, a film review in this case. I was told previously to exit my comfort zone of action, fantasy and sci-fi, and to focus on a different genre that I am not usually familiar with. I also tend to focus on writing fiction such as prose or scripts, so writing something non-fiction and analytical such as a review is alien to me. I had thought of horror and romance at first, so I decided romance because I cannot handle horrors due to their complexity. As for my choice in the film, I chose "Isn't it Romantic" because I had previously heard of it and briefly glanced its first act on the television, so I decided this to continue watching the film.

I also chose this among other romance films because of its comedy aspect, which I find more familiar but I am still weak at in therms of writing.

How did I begin to develop this idea? Did you draw sketches, take pictures, film clips, what experiments did you do?
I developed this idea by actually watching the film on Netflix, as it is readily available there. I also looked at film reviews to understand more on how to write one, as well as reviews of the film in question, even if they were very short and brief.

What research have you carried out and how has this assisted you with your ideas and helped you develop them?
As mentioned before, I have read long film reviews from newspaper and magazine articles I found online, and analysed how it was structured with what points are covered. Although I am doing this on a writing medium, I looked at video film reviews on YouTube by Danny Gonzales and Drew Gooden, who covered similar romance comedy films, but found the structure to be more comedic than as serious criticism. I also researched on the cast and crew of the film to understand their work and typecast.

What is your method of working? Explain how you create focus and space for your creative work?
To be honest, I do not have a schedule for what work I have to do on certain times. I just try to sit down and focus on what I have to do, but after doing other important work that needs to be done, depending on the urgency. As a matter of focus, I initially thought that putting music on would help, but it actually distracts me from doing the work because my focus would be on the song itself, so I avoid listening to music.

What does it matter? Who cares?  What universal meaning is there in your work?
This work matters to me so I can understand another genre that I am not typically exposed to, so I can expand any future work to relate to romance with further understanding of the genre. For my work as a whole, I hope to be recognized by someone who is willing to bring my ideas to life on television, or even on the big screen.

Project Plan

This post will be a timeline of my Project plan

• Week 3
• Decide what to do for project in terms of medium and subject.
• Week 4
• Start writing Short Essay for planning.
• Gather research by looking at reviews, both written and video form.
• Watch "Isn't it Romantic" to understand the movie.
• Research on the film's cast and their previous roles.
• Week 5
• Hand in Short Research Essay.
• Start writing film review.
• Week 6
• Research further on film reviews.
• Continue writing film review.
• Week 7
• Continue writing film review.
• Week 8
• Re-draft film review, check over points covered.
• Finalize film review for submission.

Project Sign Off: Isn't it Romantic Film Review

After gathering my research and understanding what I have to do, I have filled in my Project Sign-Off and Ethics Form, which can be found here.

For context, I am doing a film review of the 2019 romance comedy film "Isn't it Romantic". Below is a detail of what I will do for my project, extracted from my Sign-Off Sheet:

Project Aims and Objectives:

• To create a review of 1000 words on the film “Isn’t it Romantic?”
• To create a showcase on my website
• Draft my review and sent to tutor for feedback

Research to be carried out:

• Structure of film reviews
• People who have made film reviews

Software/Digital Tools to be used:

• Microsoft Word

As something that I am not familiar with, I am going to be doing this slower than writing a fiction piece, but I am confident that I will pass this successfully.

Initial Project Research

(1) Isn't it Romantic Poster

My initial research that I carried out for my Major Project; a review of the 2019 romance comedy film "Isn't it Romantic?", involves looking at how other film reviews are structured when being written, and what points are to be covered and analysed. I have looked at film reviews of other films from various sources such as a review of the 1995 film Seven by Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman (1995). When I chose to look at spoken film reviews through videos, I looked at lesser-known film reviewers on YouTube, namely Drew Gooden and Danny Gonzales (YouTube, n.d.), but I thought that they were too casual with their assessment of the films they reviewed and they present their opinions too dramatically in the form of exaggerated re-enactions of criticised scenes, and tend to cherry-pick bad movies to review to present more negative opinions. For the written reviews I have read, the writers have not just described the actions on screen, but what elements in the film from sound and music to the set designs of the film and how it ties into and affects the mood and plot.  When they describe the mood set by the films’ elements, they speak from their own opinion of how they felt when they watched the film, and further expanding on this by using exciting and uncommon words to describe the film by using words that describes the feeling as accurately as possible.

The reviews that I have read also compare the film they are reviewing to other works of the same genre to the film to get the reader to understand the film more if they have watched a film similar to that. The reviewer also refers to other films that the reviewed film’s cast and crew have worked on to a similar effect, sometimes by comparing their character to another they have played, sometimes by poking at similarities or by showing appreciation for their range by recalling a character with a completely different personality, as when Observer’s Mark Kermode cited (2018) “La La Land” when he wrote about Ryan Gosling’s role in his review of First Man.

I will continue to update this blog on my further research on writing a film review.

References

GLEIBERMAN, O. (1995) Seven. [Online] Entertainment Weekly. Available at: https://ew.com/article/1995/09/29/seven-3/ [Accessed 05/05/20].

GONZALES, D. (n.d.) Danny Gonzales. [Online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSUf5_EPEfl4zlBKZHkZdmw [Accessed 05/05/20].

GOODEN, D. (n.d.) Drew Gooden. [Online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTSRIY3GLFYIpkR2QwyeklA [Accessed 05/05/20].

KERMODE, M. (2018) First Man review – an inner space odyssey. [Online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/oct/14/first-man-review-damien-chazelle-ryan-gosling-claire-foy-apollo-11-neil-armstrong [Accessed 05/05/20].

Image References

(1) IMDb (2019) Isn’t It Romantic?. [Online] Internet Movie Database. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452244/ [Accessed 05/05/20].