Movie critic in the making? Top tips to writing your very own show review.
Seen ‘Chef’ the movie? Ever wondered about becoming a food or arts critic? Here’s five top tips to help you take some steps in writing a feedback or critic piece! In fact, many venues around Cardiff have some fantastic opportunities for young people offering free tickets for those that are willing to spend a little time offering their thoughts about the show. You may have seen the movie ‘Chef’ which was released in 2014. It’s about a Chef and his son, who embark on running their own catering van business after many years of having a lack of freedom at a restaurant the father worked in. The father also received some bad reviews following the feedback of a food critic and some rather embarrassing, but admittedly entertaining social media fails, which the son teaches the father never to repeat again! The father and son draw on social media to promote their this new catering career. For those of you that haven’t yet seen it, go for it, it’s a must see. This article is inspired by this film and is designed for those of you who may have been asked to express your views about a particular show you have seen. Here’s five pointers to think about which may help you in becoming a WMC critic.
Believe in yourself
Believe in yourself –many people don’t believe in themselves, especially when writing about their views. When you’re giving YOUR opinion, it’s your views that are most important. Try jotting down your first thoughts about what you’ve been to see. It’s those thoughts which ARE important to the reader because it’s YOU and YOUR impression that counts. Remember that.
Jot Ideas down.
Jot ideas down – On a notepad or blank piece of paper write down your thoughts about what you’ve seen. At this stage the idea of ‘puke on a page!’ could be an effective principle – not literally! But what I mean is don’t hold back, just write anything down. Ideas, thoughts, impressions, feelings. You’ll soon find that your blank page will start filling with ideas and soon those thoughts will trigger other thoughts about the topic. What have you just seen? How did it make you feel? Did it trigger any memories of other shows? What did you learn? What did you like?
Create a structure.
Create a structure – I’ve just come to the end of a seven year process of writing a Phd thesis. In fact it’s so recent, the outcome is still unknown. But one thing I did pick up on was – structure is key. Try grouping the initial thoughts that you’ve written down into some categories. You may want to group them into say three or five themes.
Put the flesh on the bones.
Put the flesh on the bones – From creating an initial structure you can then start to turn your ideas into some brief sentences. Again don’t worry about what you write, every time you do write down a sentence you will find that while some of those sentences may not be useful, others will be handy.
Read and refine.
Read and refine – once you’ve got some basic ideas down, try running through a ‘text to speech’ program so that you can listen to it again. I’ve found that listening to your writing in this way helps you to be a bit more critical as a ‘third-person’ in reflecting on what you’ve put down. You’ll find it’s much easier to follow your text and to pick up on anything that disrupts the flow. Once you’ve done this and you can then just make amendments to get it sounding how you’d like.
So if you’d like to see a show in one of the nation’s premier arts venues, and for no cost at all! Then why not consider these pointers and offer your ‘film critic’ reviews. Like the movie ‘Chef’ such feedback can lead on to promising things! Promo Cymru have opportunities for access to The Wales Millennium Centre, New Theatre, Sherman Theatre, Vue Cinema and many other venues around Cardiff. You can get a free ticket in return to offering your own ‘film critic’ feedback!
So, to sum up – believe in yourself and once you’ve seen one of their shows, get jotting ideas down. Create a structure and put the flesh on the bones of your structure by coming up with some written thoughts of your views. Read and refine this by running through a text to speech programme and you’ll be in a good position to offer your very own show review! Get in touch with @thesprout or @Promocymru to get your tickets.
Here’s a link to Chef The Movie! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/
Good luck!
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