According to freelance film critic Adam Cook, “being a “critic” is a natural extension of being a viewer. There’s a fine line between watching movies and thinking about them— and writing criticism”. I was confronted with this quote at the beginning of the semester because as a 2nd year media student plunging into Cinema Study essays and creating short films, I feel as if I haven’t delved into this idea of criticism enough. As Roger Ebert mentions “everyone’s a critic” in today’s digitalised and ever-evolving society that questions the legitimacy of a critic and blurs the definition of curating. Below I reflect on this studio as a means of defining what it takes to be both a critic and writer in today’s society.
Criticism is defined to be channelling your argument through providing evidence that includes the “how” explanation. Interestingly, there’s a hierarchy in film criticism where high-arts culture reviews are “snobby” and are stuck in the past that it doesn’t even appreciate the art of film. On the opposite spectrum are aggregated scored sites that lack the analytical aspect of criticism. Furthermore, issues like commercial liabilities that are often associated with media conglomerates limit a critic’s creative freedom and further jeopardises the role of a critic. On the other hand, the use of social media and the rise of bloggers further blurs this line of who or what is considered a legitimate critic.
On the other hand, curating used to only be exclusive to curators of Museum’s or art galleries for its audience. Nowadays, there are curators for mood board’s and flat lays on blogs that it becomes a personalised curating for themselves and has evolved to become driven by consumerism and is self-representing. The more I think about curating, the more I realise how much of my Facebook newsfeed and Instagram is all curated content based on the likes I give (mostly Broadsheet articles and upcoming events) or the people I follow and who they follow. To avoid this filtered and potentially biased content we’re consuming, it’s important to realise that we have to try and source information and content outside our echo chamber. As Jonathan Gold is shown in his documentary, he’s constantly surrounded by books, interactions with other writers and creatives, visits a restaurant at least 2-5 times before writing a review, and most importantly, never judges a book by its cover.
Film critic Alex Heller-Nicholas reassured us that “if you have time to think about art, then you are privileged”, a privilege that shouldn’t be taken for granted. In order to become a “great writer”, we need to be our own worst critic and the importance of surrounding ourselves with people “who will take the time to give a shit about your writing because there was one time that someone gave a shit about them” (thank you Yossi Klein). Additionally, we must always remember to always add in that story or quirk you have as a writer because that’s what makes your piece come to life and that’s what allows you to continue writing.
As someone who continually suffers from writers block, it was a sigh of relief to hear from both internationally acclaimed free-lance writers’ Philippa Hawker and Simran Hans as they openly discussed their way of dealing with such an affliction. Essentially, the way to overcome it is by distracting your brain and taking a break from staring at a blank page. More specifically, they advised us to:
- Try switching to pen and paper. Writing things down tend to stick or flow more
- Take a short break, get some fresh air like walking around the block
- Strict deadlines help in the process
- Remember that sometimes, in reality, done is better than good
- Just write the first thing that comes to your mind. Doesn’t matter if it is gibberish, it’s a start and anything is better than a blank page
They emphasised the need to “think internationally” in terms of what we write about as we may never know who it’ll attract at any given moment. As a freelancer writer, it’s about targeting the large media companies to earn what you deserve in that piece you write about, and it’s as simple as contacting them with a short email of your pitch once you’ve obtained their contact details (of course it’s not that simple at first, but it’s all in the language and your approach). In terms of finding a persona, it’s all about writing heaps and trusting in our own taste. Simran mentioned that even though you do write about a diverse range of content for different audiences, your actual persona is rarely affected.
Award-winning film critic Alex Heller-Nicholas also echoes this sentiment on taste by putting criticism into perspective as a means of taste, privilege and bias, audience, scale and detail, history, and context vs. opinion. The human trait of “taste classifies the classifier” and can become the trap for most critics as a review becomes an opinionated rant about a film without any analytical basis, but merely a reflection of that critic’s taste. Alex reminds us to constantly ask ourselves: why do people care about what I’m saying? It’s important for a critic to keep an open mind, speak confidently with self-awareness, and to trust your instinct to guide you but not govern you.
The most fearful part about being a critic is that you don’t want to be in that position where you can’t say anything about something. It’s a scary thought, especially in a world where political correctness is prevalent and where an open mind on both ends of an issue is essential to having an open discussion and to help understand one another. A fear I still need to fully conquer, but I’ve definitely noticed my gain in confidence as a writer in general beyond essay writing and more correlated with creative freedom.
(Remember to reach beyond (and more than) the stars!)