Make a Pitch!

A pitch is a short description to sell an idea. Film producers look at thousands of pitches. They say you can decide if a story is good with a pitch of less than 50 words.

Read the pitches below. Do you recognize any of the films?

1. A rich girl meets a poor boy. They fall in love. The girl decides to leave her rich boyfriend. She and the boy are happy. But wait. This story happens on the world’s most famous ship in history.

2. A woman steals money from her office and runs away. She stops for the night at a hotel. The hotel manager is a strange man. The hotel is empty, and the woman is alone.

3. On the coast of California there is a very big shark. It kills people. Three men go out in a boat together. They want to kill the shark.

4. A spaceship answers an SOS call from another spaceship. The other spaceship is empty. They continue their journey. But now there is a new passenger on the ship. It is an alien. And it is hungry.

Work in pairs and choose one of the tasks below.

A. Think of a famous film. Write a pitch in no more than 50 words but don’t write the name of the film. Let your fellow students identify the film.

B. Look at the pictures. Choose one picture and think of an idea for a film. Write the pitch for your film in no more than 50 words. Present your pitch to your fellow students.

Guide Steps for Writing a Film Review

Writing a film review can seem easy at first, but is really quite a challenge. Instead of watching the movie as you would normally watch a movie, you now have to watch the movie with a critical eye while paying attention to various details.

You can look at it as if you are writing a book report. You have to inform the reader what the film is about, who directed the piece and which actors star in the movie. Giving details about the historical period, characters and settings is also required. Aside from this, you also have to comment on various technical aspects such as the editing of the movie and the filming style that is used. Finally you will have to tell the reader whether or not the movie is worth seeing.

Writing a movie review is easier if you go at it step by step. This way you can prevent leaving anything out. Hopefully the instructions mentioned below will set you on the right path.

Step 1: Overall Impression and Plot Summary.

The first thing to do when planning on writing a movie review is to pick the movie. It may be that you have already been assigned a movie to write a review about. Once you have a film to review, you can start watching it. Some people prefer to take notes while watching the film so they don’t forget about things that they noticed while watching the movie. It’s always a good thing to watch a movie twice. You may notice things the second time around, that you didn’t during the first time that you watched the movie.

Overall Impression. The first thing to write when doing a film review is your overall impression of the film. Make sure you know what your target audience is and use the notes that you took while watching the movie. You need to mention the film’s title, genre, time period and the names of the leading actors in the film. Don’t give away too much at this point; since this is the start of your review, you want to make it exiting and interesting for the reader to read. You want them to want to read the whole article.

Plot Summary. Next you want to give a summary of the plot of the film. The plot is a pattern of events in the main story of the film. A film reviewer should summarize the key events but leave some mystery so that the reader is interested in seeing the film. Think about the beginning, middle and end of the film and select the key events that shape the story. Summarize these but don’t include the surprises that might ruin the enjoyment of the film for the viewer. Keep in mind that what you write might make the reader decide to go see the movie or not. For example, you could summarize a film based on the Cinderella fairy tale as the story of a young girl who struggles in a difficult relationship with her stepmother and stepsisters and her search for love with the magical support of a fairy godmother.

Step 2: Acting, Technical Aspects and the Theme.

This part of your film review should talk about the actors and technical aspects of the film making process. You want to include detailed information as to why you felt a certain way. For instance, if you thought the music during the movie wasn’t appropriate, describe why you felt that way. Maybe the music wasn’t appropriate for a particular scene. Keep in mind that when writing a review, you have to have an open mind. You have to report both the positive and the negative. This should be the most opinionated part of your review.

Characters. Your review should evaluate the most interesting characters in the film. Certainly you will include the major roles but may also select some of the minor characters that are especially interesting. You can discuss how the characters are developed or revealed through what they do and say. You can also consider how they interact with other characters. In a film that has popular actors you may choose to discuss their acting ability and compare or discuss their roles in other films. If you think the acting is very good, or very bad, make sure to explain why you feel this way. If an actor is an Oscar winning performer, don’t forget to mention this fact. Also discuss the appropriateness of the casting (selection of actors) to play certain roles. Using the example of the Cinderella story, you could discuss how appropriately certain actors were cast to play the roles of the wicked stepmother or stepsisters (have they played similarly wicked roles in previous films?).

Technical Elements. Technical elements are used by the film director to enhance communication and make the film experience more entertaining. Each effect in the film represents a choice that the director made. As a film reviewer you could comment on how these effects contribute to the improvement of the film. Are they entertaining? Do they improve the film?

There are several types of technical elements that you can consider: direction, the use of camera, editing, lighting, special effects, background music, costumes, set design, etc.

Editing represents the choices that the director makes in arranging the order of the scenes in order to tell the story. Just as each sentence and paragraph adds together to tell a story, each scene builds to form the story or narrative in the film.

Lighting is important to every scene but not every scene requires lighting that will be obvious to the viewer. The film reviewer could comment on lighting that they feel especially contributes to the overall effect of the film. For example, in a deserted cabin in the woods or in a haunted castle the lighting may be dark and shadowy to create the effect of mystery.

Special effects are used to improve the film experience. The use of these effects varies from film to film. In some films this can have a major or critical influence on the film as a whole. Films involving magic, fantasy, science fiction and animation are some obvious examples of where special effects deserve some comments by the film reviewer. Some of these effects will involve very detailed technical knowledge. It is not necessary that you explain or understand how they were done. Instead, you could comment on the success or failure of the effects to improve the film experience. Try to be specific and use examples.

Sound will be most noticeable to a young film reviewer in the form of specialized effects and music. You may choose to comment on the success of sound effects by indicating how they add to particular scenes or stimulate or reinforce an emotional response. In films that use music it will be important to comment on how this affected your response to the film as a whole. Be guided by your emotional reaction and be confident to express these feelings when evaluating the contribution of sound to the film experience.

Theme. The theme is the message or recurring idea in the film. In addition to a major theme, there may be minor themes that you may also choose to discuss. You can evaluate how effectively the director communicates the theme by commenting on specific scenes and characters. As always, the more specifically you support your ideas with examples, the clearer your argument will be to the reader. In addition to commenting on the film’s effectiveness in communicating a theme or message, you may also choose to comment on the message itself. You may support the position expressed in the film or take a contrary (opposite) point of view. Again be sure to support your opinion with examples.

In the classic fairy tale Cinderella, you might discuss the main theme of good triumphing over wickedness since the desirable handsome prince recognizes Cinderella’s goodness over the evilness of her two stepsisters. You could indicate how the film communicates that Cinderella is good and how the wickedness of her sisters is illustrated. In addition, you could also comment on other themes or messages in the film such as the challenges of living with stepsisters and the film’s realistic or unrealistic portrayal of this relationship.