Guest Speaker Debi Enker

The art of Reviewing

Debi Enker started working after graduating from RMIT Media in a factory, a rugged one.

There she learned how to watch. (watch from beginning to end with full attention silently, and all of the credits).

she explained to us the rudimentary rule of viewing “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. She told us the first time she heard that Fargo is going to be returned as a mini-series, she felt cynical at first, she loved how it turned out. She said that the series still has that atmosphere, the characters, that feeling “it’s the same but different”

Nothing in a screen is put without consideration. It has all been prepared over years, so you have to respect the thing that you are watching about.

Everything in a video has a meaning, there might be something that completely changes your perspective/view.

• length matters, (some are 100, some are 400, some are thousands of words)
• a review is not a plot description you give a sense of what the story is about, and whether or not you like it, and why, in the space that you are limited to
• always be punctual, grammar right, always remember to write correctly.
• you want the words to flow smoothly,
• try to find what your response is, and why do you respond in that particular way.
• trying not to make the article just a plot description is not an easy thing to do
• you need to pick a particular threat of the narrative and develop from there
• don’t forget to recheck for the small details (date, name, number), because you can’t retrieve it once you hand your article in.
• tips:  don’t do the group mentality (watching other reviews before writing your own) because it might influence what you write.

what are you looking forward in a text?

• what’s the history, what are other works that they have done in the past?
• you have to argue and make reason why do you stand on your point
• to dismissed a media text with one line, it’s disrespectful. You have to understand that it’s someone’s work, someone’s life, it cannot be simple and easy piesy.
• there is no right or wrong, there is just your opinion and how you look at it.