week1

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everyone’s a critic: week 1 update

class brainstorm: “critical reviews should…”

Week one in the studio ‘Everyone’s a Critic’ consisted of an in-depth brainstorm of essentials that critical reviews should include and achieve. Two of the most important aspects we as a class were able to come up with and agree upon were ‘research’ and ‘description’. From the key ideas discussed in the brainstorm, and with each class member thinking of a piece of media they have recently consumed, the planning of our first 300 word reviews were ready to begin. Feedback and ideas were bounced off each other as we heard everyone’s plans and direction for their review’s on their chosen film, TV show or book, which were all so incredibly interesting and different from each other. Through this first exercise we will learn how to create individuality within our views and the way they are expressed, and develop our own persona that can be carried throughout the rest of the semester.

— Isobel Smart & Joss Utting

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welcome + what you need for week 2

Thanks for a great first week, everyone! It was really helpful to establish an idea of what everyone wants to get out of the studio and also to get some ideas going for projects. Today we talked about what a good critical review should do and we workshopped ideas for our first pieces of critical writing. Here’s the brainstorm we did on the board:

So, here’s the plan for Week 2:

Monday 12:30 – 3:30: we will be exploring differences between “criticism” and “reviews”.

To prepare for class, you will need to:

1. Read “Film Criticism: The Next Generation.” Cineaste, Vol. XXXVIII No. 2, 2013.

2. Bring along any questions you have about the first assessment task, which is due on Friday (28/7). Instructions can be found here on the assessments page of this blog.

 

Wednesday 8:30 – 10:30: we will be looking at how to give feedback and we will be having our first peer critique session.

To prepare for class, you will need to:

1. Bring in a printed copy of the 300 word critical review that you pitched this week. As we established in class, the review can be on a text of your choice (film, tv show, album, book, performance, restaurant etc) and it should respond to the ideas of what good critical writing should do. The printed copy will be useful because we will be swapping with classmates and it’s good to have something that can be marked up.

Remember: It’s an experiment in thought. Exploit your unique perspective. It’s a draft. 

See you next week!