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]